In the wake of Supreme Court rulings that limit race-conscious admissions in higher education, it is more crucial than ever for state and federal policymakers to work together to promote racial equity through college affordability.
February 27, 2024 by Kelly Rosinger 
Concerns over college affordability have mounted in recent decades with generally declining levels of state support for public colleges, rising tuition levels (partly in response to declining state support), and federal and state financial aid investments that are insufficient to offset rising tuition. These trends are particularly concerning as our society grows more diverse and multicultural. While greater shares of Black and Latino students are going to college — 36% of Black and 39% of Latino young adults were enrolled in college in 2016 prior to the pandemic, when enrollment rates fell — the U.S. is still grappling with racism and its fallout for students of color. Black students are less able to afford college and more likely to be burdened by student debt than their White peers, thanks to racial housing discrimination and the racial wealth gap in the U.S.; Black borrowers, who earn less after college because of racial discrimination in the labor market, also have a harder time repaying student loans and are more likely to default than their White peers.
Other students of color have similar concerns about college affordability. It’s no surprise then that, even as college attendance and graduation rates rise across student groups, higher education is becoming increasingly stratified along racial lines.
Last summer, the U.S. Supreme Court issued two rulings that effectively banned race-conscious admissions at selective colleges. Decisions in the Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA) v. Harvard University and SFFA v. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill cases overturned multiple prior Supreme Court rulings that had upheld the consideration of race as one factor in college admissions. In doing so, the Supreme Court dismantled a key tool to promote racial equity in access to selective colleges and universities. Banning race-conscious admissions has material consequences for Black students — not least of which is less access to selective colleges and graduate and professional programs. Prior research shows that state bans on affirmative action in college admissions led to decreases in enrollment among students of color at selective undergraduate colleges and in graduate and professional education.
The end of race-conscious admissions means that colleges may turn to race-neutral alternatives, which, at best, do little to promote racial equity, and, at worst, can perpetuate racial discrimination and White privilege. For instance, test-optional policies, which make submitting SAT and ACT scores optional for college applicants, have been adopted by many colleges looking to expand diversity, but these policies have thus far had little or no impact on enrollment among racially minoritized students. Studies about the feasibility of admissions lotteries, another approach that has been heralded as a way to promote equity, suggest that they are unlikely to increase racial diversity in college admissions. Meanwhile, holistic admissions considerations — such as the consideration of extracurricular involvement, essays, interviews, recommendations, and academic rigor alongside academic factors — occur in ways that tend to favor White and wealthier students, absent appropriate contextualization of applicants’ accomplishments.
Absent race-conscious admissions, we can expect an already racially stratified higher education system to become even more stratified, with racially minoritized students having less access to the most selective colleges and graduate and professional education. Couple this with college affordability concerns, and the future looks bleak for racial equity in higher education: Students of color face an admissions process and tuition prices that are designed to exclude them and favor well-off White students. In addition, colleges and state higher education systems may interpret the rulings more broadly and create a chilling effect that exacerbates the college affordability and access challenges facing racially minoritized students. We have already seen this happen in Missouri — where the University of Missouri System caved to the state attorney general’s request to discontinue the consideration of race in scholarship awards.
Given the racial disparities in college access and affordability and likely chilling effect on college diversity efforts as colleges and states overreact to the recent Supreme Court rulings, it is more crucial than ever to make college more affordable. Federal policymakers and advocacy groups in recent years have reconsidered the role of the government in public higher education, which has largely been left to the states. The Institute for College Access and Success, for example, suggests that federal-state partnerships might be established to support students and colleges. Such partnerships could offer structural changes to higher education to promote racial equity by (1) addressing college affordability concerns, and (2) being accessible to students.
Promising Features of Federal-State Partnerships
Here are some potential benefits of federal-state partnerships that are designed to promote racial equity through college affordability.
Conclusion
In the wake of Supreme Court rulings that limit race-conscious admissions in higher education, it is more crucial than ever for state and federal policymakers to work together to promote racial equity through college affordability. This entails providing adequate and equitable levels of funding for public colleges — especially community colleges and minority-serving institutions that disproportionately enroll racially minoritized students — and designing financial aid programs that cover actual college costs and are accessible for eligible students, so these students can access and obtain a higher education, which is necessary to succeed in today’s job market and economy.
