New York‘s STEM Program: A Step Forward,But Racial Preferences Must Go
New York State has taken a tentative step towards fairness by temporarily suspending its race-based admissions requirement for advanced STEM programs. This decision, prompted by a lawsuit filed by Asian parents and the Chinese american Citizens Alliance of Greater NY, allows schools to consider economic need instead of racial background for enrollment.
However, this move is far from a complete victory. The New York State Education Department (SED) continues to defend these racial preferences in court and still permits schools to utilize them in the interim.This stance is a important disappointment, especially in an era where public opinion, as evidenced by a December Pew poll showing 50%-33% opposition to affirmative action in colleges, favors a level playing field.
The unfairness of racial preferences is stark. As Yiatin Chu, a parent who led the lawsuit, powerfully stated, “It was unfair and racist for my daughter to be subjected to a low-income requirement just because she is Asian when her black and Hispanic classmates weren’t.” There is no justifiable moral or ethical reason to grant preferential treatment to a wealthy student of one race over a struggling student of another race with comparable abilities.
The Science and Technology Entry Program (STEP), established in 1985 to encourage low-income and underrepresented minority students in STEM and healthcare, and its college counterpart, C-STEP, have, from their inception, openly discriminated against Asian and white students.
The Supreme Court’s landmark 2023 ruling on affirmative action made it unequivocally clear: college admissions must be race-neutral.federal education law explicitly prohibits racial discrimination,and as Chief Justice John Roberts eloquently stated,”Eliminating racial discrimination means eliminating all of it.”
The question remains: when will New York state officials finally embrace this principle of equality and permanently dismantle race-based admissions for its STEM programs?