A Class-based Approach to College Admissions

The National Affairs Podcast

If the Supreme Court curtails racial preferences in college admissions, Americans should celebrate the triumph of the truth that people should be treated as individuals rather than as members of racial groups. But we should also recognize that good-faith efforts to uplift economically disadvantaged students of all races help fulfill another cherished American goal: facilitating social mobility.

Guest Richard Kahlenberg joins us to make the case for focusing on class diversity, rather than racial groups, in college admissions.

Richard Kahlenberg is an education and housing researcher and policy consultant as well as a non-resident scholar at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy. He served as an expert witness for Students for Fair Admissions in its lawsuits against Harvard University and the University of North Carolina regarding those schools’ affirmative-action policies.

This podcast discusses themes from Richard’s essay in the Spring 2023 issue of National Affairs, “A Middle Ground on Race and College.”