Taking Note

Does Affirmative Action Matter?

In a recent post, Matthew Yglesias of the Center for American Progress Action Fund argues that the battles over affirmative action in higher education don’t matter much in the fight for a fairer society.  But is the issue of who gets in to elite colleges a mere sideshow, or are there important ramifications for individuals and communities?

Yglesias argues that candidates who don’t get into Harvard are likely to end up at Columbia or Penn, a marginal difference.  Every time he hears the debate over whether affirmative action, should be based on race or class, he writes, “I have to wonder why we’re having it.  The presumption that you can solve any significant problem of social justice in America by fiddling with Ivy League admissions policies is dead wrong, as is the idea that the main challenge poor people of any race face education-wise is that they might not get into an elite college.”

If it were true that affirmative action in college admissions were just a distraction, then liberals have wasted an enormous amount of political capital over the fights from Bakke (1978) to Grutter (2003). But evidence suggests that where a student goes to college does in fact matter, particularly for low-income pupils. 

At The Century Foundation, we’ve engaged in three major projects on the issue.  In 2004, we published America’s Untapped Resource: Low-Income Students in Higher Education, which found, among other things, that at the most selective 146 institutions – the very institutions where affirmative action matters –  74 percent of students come from the richest quarter of the population and just 3 percent from the poorest.  Earlier this summer, we published Rewarding Strivers: Helping-Low Income Students Succeed in College, which, among a number of other things, detailed how a class-based affirmative action program might work in practice.  And this fall, we will be releasing Affirmative Action for the Rich: Legacy Preferences in College Admissions, which challenges policies that favor the children of alumni.  Was this all a waste of time?

The evidence suggests it was not.  To begin with, while for upper-middle class students, the difference between attending Harvard or Penn is of course basically immaterial, for low-income students, research finds considerable “under-matching,” whereby students attend far less selective institutions than ones they're capable of succeeding in.  Because elite schools don’t put much value on socioeconomic diversity, a fair number of highly qualified low-income students don’t attend selective institutions of any kind.  Socioeconomic affirmative action – which involves both preferences in admissions and aggressive outreach and recruitment – can open up an entirely new world for working-class students.

Moreover, research confirms that going to a selective college or university does in fact provide considerable advantages. For one thing, wealthy selective colleges tend to spend a great deal more on students’ educations. Research finds that the least selective colleges spend about $12,000 per student, compared with $92,000 per student at the most selective schools.  In addition, wealthy selective institutions provide much greater subsidies for families. At the wealthiest 10 percent of institutions, students pay, on average, just 20 cents in fees for every dollar the school spends on them, while at the poorest 10 percent of institutions, students pay 78 cents for every dollar spent on them 

Furthermore, selective colleges are quite a bit better at retention. If a more-selective school and a less-selective school enroll two equally qualified students, the more-selective institution is much more likely to graduate its student. 

Moreover, future earnings are, on average, 45 percent higher for students who graduated from more-selective institutions than for those from less-selective ones.  Even studies that question the “value added” by selective institutions concede that for low-income students, who would otherwise lack access to professional networks, the benefits of attending selective colleges and universities are substantial.

Finally, as the U.S. Supreme Court has observed, America’s leadership class continues to come disproportionately from graduates of selective universities.  According to research by political scientist Thomas Dye, 54 percent of America’s top corporate leaders and 42 percent of governmental leaders are graduates of just 12 institutions.

Does the debate over affirmative action address “the main challenge” poor people face in education?  Of course not.  The divide between rich and poor in our K-12 schools affects far more people.  But the stakes in the affirmative action debate are real, not just because the policy makes us think hard about what we mean by meritocracy (which it does), but also because having access to great colleges and universities can transform the lives of  poor and working-class individuals in meaningful ways.

Diagnosis Without Treatment: The Perils of New Tests for Early Alzheimer’s Disease

 In April, an independent panel established by the National Institutes of Health came to the disheartening conclusion that currently, there is nothing to prevent or delay the progress of Alzheimer’s disease in those of us who are destined to join the 5 million Americans currently suffering from this dreaded ailment.

The panel  found that: “Although numerous interventions have been suggested to delay Alzheimer’s disease, the evidence is inadequate to conclude that any are effective.” Members rejected scientific evidence supporting the influence of nutritional supplements, herbal products, dietary factors, pharmaceuticals, medical conditions or even environmental exposures on the risk of contracting Alzheimer’s.

Now, just three months later, it turns out that there are big developments in the Alzheimer’s field—just not in new treatments. At a conference in Honolulu sponsored earlier this month by the National Institute on Aging and the Alzheimer’s Disease Association, researchers from three working groups announced that by using new imaging technologies, genetic testing, and tests of blood and cerebrospinal fluid, it will soon be far easier to diagnose Alzheimer’s— in some cases decades before symptoms have even appeared. These new tests are able to identify so-called biomarkers—amyloid plaques in the brain, genetic variants, proteins and other substances in body fluids—that signal a newly defined "pre-clinical" stage of Alzheimer's, when an individual has no symptoms but has positive biomarkers for the disease.  

A Cautionary Retirement Tale

When President George W. Bush introduced his proposed overhaul of the U.S. Social Security system, the cornerstone of which would have shifted a portion of workers’ payroll taxes into personal retirement accounts, he all but guaranteed that the available investment vehicles would be safe and provide a reliable source of income over the long-term . Based on the historic returns of U.S. stock indices for much of the latter half of the twentieth century, many conservatives argued that such a move would provide a safe source of growth. In light of the recession that began in 2007, resulting in a precipitous loss in value for most investments, Social Security privatization turned out to be a bullet that was fortuitously avoided.

5 Myths and Facts about Medicare — In Pictures

Summary: Not long ago the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPac) came out with a data book on Medicare spending. The information is condensed into tables and charts.  As I looked at the charts, I found some surprises. Below, myths and facts about:

• how hard it is for Medicare patients to find a doctor
• where most of our Medicare dollars go
• increases in Medicare payments to physicians-- and whether doctors automatically hike the volume of services they provide when Medicare cuts reimbursements for services.
• hospitals losing money on Medicare patients
• which hospitals make a profit on Medicare, and which hospitals cannot break even on Medicare reimbursements

Summary: Not long ago the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPac) came out with a data book on Medicare spending. The information is condensed into tables and charts.  As I looked at the charts, I found some surprises. Below, myths and facts about:

• how hard it is for Medicare patients to find a doctor
• where most of our Medicare dollars go
• increases in Medicare payments to physicians-- and whether doctors automatically hike the volume of services they provide when Medicare cuts reimbursements for services.
• hospitals losing money on Medicare patients
• which hospitals make a profit on Medicare, and which hospitals cannot break even on Medicare reimbursements

Ross Douthat and Affirmative Action

The issue of affirmative action in higher education is about to explode on the scene once again – as an article in this morning’s Texas Tribune notes.  A challenge to the use of race at the University of Texas at Austin will be argued before the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals on August 3, and the case could end up before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Ross Douthat’s column in Monday’s New York Times previews the debate to come as pitting elite universities concerned about racial diversity vs. white working-class Christians from conservative states who should be admitted in greater numbers to promote intellectual diversity.  But as I note in a post in the Chronicle of Higher Education, we should focus less on diversity of voices and more on an admissions process that is fair – and would consider merit in the context of obstacles overcome.

And who said the culture wars were over?

What Is Google Editions?

Someday soon—later this summer perhaps—there will be a major new development in the evolution of e-books: the launch of Google Editions. The initial success of Amazon’s Kindle, Apple’s iPad, and the e-book runners-up like Barnes & Noble’s Nook and the Sony Reader has established that consumers are reading books on screens in ever-greater numbers and with considerable satisfaction. While the revenues are still a relatively small part of the overall book market—somewhat less than 10 percent—the figure is growing very fast. The prediction that e-books will be 20–25 percent of the total in the next ten years now seems reasonable.

So what does Google Editions add to the mix? The answer, based on conversations with Google representatives and booksellers, particularly among the independent stores, is that Google will be adding millions of digital titles for sale on any device with Internet access—smart phones, tablets, netbooks, desktops, and every digital reading device except Kindle, which for now at least continues to operate on a closed proprietary system. But Google and Amazon are continuing discussions, so that may yet change.

A Reply to the Cato Institute’s Report on Healthcare Reform

This week, the Cato Institute released a 52-page report on health care reform titled: Bad Medicine: A Guide to the Real Costs and Consequences of the New Health Care Law. The tract was written by Michael Tanner, a senior fellow at the Institute, and it rests on the thesis that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) is both unaffordable and unfair. Inevitably, Tanner’s claims about affordability are shaky; in truth no one can project how much reform will cost over ten years—and how much it will save. There are too many variables involved.

Nevertheless, Tanner seems sure: the legislation will add to the deficit, he asserts, and force insurance premiums higher. Moreover, he stamps the legislation “unjust:" it would turn private insurance companies into regulated “public utilities,” forcing them to insure sick people, while “redistributing income” from families earning “over $348,000” to families earning “$18,000 to $55,000.”  Ultimately, he argues, reform represents yet another step toward transforming the U.S. into a “Nanny State.”

Why a 52-page report on health care reform now? Tanner makes his purpose clear in the introduction, where he suggests that conservatives will make the new health care legislation the “centerpiece of Republican campaigns this fall,” as they push for repealing the Affordable Care Act, or at the very least, replacing it. Bad Medicine is meant to serve as a playbook for those who hope to kill reform.   

With that in mind, The Century Foundation decided that the document deserves scrutiny.  In the weeks ahead, I will be analyzing and rebutting the report’s many arguments against individual and employer mandates, insurance regulation, subsidies, reductions in Medicare spending, and the CLASS Act -- a much-needed national long-term care program.

This installment focus on CATO's analysis of polling data related to public attitudes toward the health care bill.

A TCF Podcast with Gordon Macinnes: From Safe Harbors to Student Loans

From Safe Harbors to Student Loans

Recently, Gordon wrote in Taking Note about the Feds move to protect students against the forprofit educational industry.  In this podcast episode, TCF's Catherine Vieth interviewed Gordon Macinnes about the Obama administration’s proposed regulations on the education industry.  From safe harbors to student loans, Macinnes describes how the proposed regulations would put students’ interests before those of the for-profit industry.  An issue brief on the topic is available at www.tcf.org.

A Turn in the Road? Rerouting Federal School Reform

Since July 1, three developments suggest that the first-year victories of the Obama-Duncan “transformational reform” effort may be in jeopardy. First, the House of Representatives adopted a supplemental appropriations bill that includes an emergency infusion of $10 billion for saving teachers’ jobs, $800 million of which is financed by modest reductions in Race to the Top, the Teacher Incentive Fund, and one other embryonic administration program. The White House threatens a veto.

The second and third developments were non-events: the annual conventions of both the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers excluded any speaker from the administration. Given the longstanding and symbiotic relationship of teacher unions and the Democratic Party, the double cold shoulder is an unmistakable warning about the health of the alliance.

The administration bet heavily on a clever tactic to leverage scarce dollars to entice states to change their rules about charter schools, teacher evaluation, and data-gathering. Many states enacted laws to qualify for Race to the Top grants in the competition for $4.3 billion, the largest discretionary fund ever administered by an education secretary. The administration hopes to extend its vision for reform by using competitive grants—as opposed to funds distributed by congressionally approved formulae—to encourage further policy compliance.

Obama's National AIDS Plan Is Short on Funding For Most Vulnerable

This week the White House unveiled its new national plan to cut HIV infections and curb the AIDS epidemic. The plan, the first ever since AIDS emerged on the scene some 30 years ago, has the goal of  "intensifying HIV prevention efforts in communities where HIV is most concentrated;” specifically in the gay and African-American communities who are disproportionately affected by the disease. It also aims to increase access to treatment and mount "a more coordinated national response to the HIV epidemic."

Some specific goals from the National AIDS Plan include:

• Reduce new infection rates by 25 percent by 2015.
• Devote $30 million from the health care reform law to reducing infection rates.
• Link 85 percent of those who are HIV-positive to care within three months of being diagnosed.
• Provide $25 million in funding to help states pay for drugs to treat HIV

This plan, which took 15 months to draw up and included input from 14 community forums around the country, is a good start and helps put the fight against AIDS back on the national radar. Some 1.1 million Americans are currently infected with HIV and infection rates haven’t budged since the mid-1990s. After hitting a peak of 130,000 new infections a year in the 1980’s, the rate dropped to 49,000 a year in the early 1990’s, according to the Centers for Disease Control. But in the past decade this number has increased and remains at 56,000 new infections each year. Meanwhile, in 1995, 44% of Americans indicated that HIV/AIDS was the most urgent health problem facing the country; in March 2009 that number had plummeted to only 6%.