What to do?

Do race preferences help students?

There's evidence that many students don't thrive in colleges for which they're far less prepared than their fellow students.

October 07, 2012|By Richard Sander and Stuart Taylor Jr

As the Supreme Court revisits the use of race in college admissions, critics… (Paul Sakuma / Associated…)

Affirmative action, long one of America's most divisive social issues, is about to grab headlines again. On Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in a challenge to a state university's use of race in selecting students.

In many ways, the legal issues in Fisher vs. University of Texas are the same as those that came before the court in 1978 and 2003. But the broader affirmative action debate has changed since those cases were heard, and in ways that could point toward compromises that might win broad public support.