Trump’s college information demand threatens equality
President Donald Trump not too long ago signed an order forcing schools at hand over their admissions information. On paper, it’s about “equity.” In actuality, this might significantly threaten variety in greater schooling.
Affirmative motion was created to assist stage the enjoying discipline for college kids who’ve confronted generations of discrimination, particularly Black, Latino and Indigenous college students. With out it, the admissions sport usually favors wealthier white candidates via legacy standing, when a pupil’s household ties to a college enhance their possibilities, or costly check prep programs.
Trump’s plan doesn’t clearly say how the federal government will resolve if a college is breaking the principles, which leaves loads of room for politics to play a task. Supporters declare that is about transparency. However actually, whenever you solely shine the highlight on packages meant to assist underrepresented college students, whereas ignoring those that give benefits to the privileged, you’re not leveling the sector. You’re tilting it.
If this order stands, we might see fewer college students of shade on school campuses, and that’s not “honest” for anybody who believes in equal alternative.
Midland college Accomplice title debate divides city
5 years in the past, the Midland Unbiased College Board in West Texas voted to drop the title “Robert E. Lee Excessive College” as a result of it honored a Accomplice common who fought to maintain slavery alive. The college turned Legacy Excessive and plenty of in the neighborhood, particularly Black households, felt pleased with the change.
Now, a brand new college board needs to convey the Lee title again. They are saying it’s about college satisfaction and custom, not the Confederacy. With President Trump in workplace, you may inform how individuals are emboldened to make such selections. You’ll be able to’t separate Robert E. Lee from what he stood for throughout the Civil Struggle. Bringing again that title alerts, whether or not supposed or not, that the ache tied to our historical past issues lower than nostalgia.
Faculties are greater than buildings. Their names inform younger folks what a neighborhood values. For Black college students, seeing the title of a Accomplice chief over the entrance door might really feel like being advised their historical past and their value don’t matter as a lot.
Supreme Courtroom faces same-sex marriage crossroads
Ten years after Obergefell v. Hodges assured marriage rights to same-sex {couples}, the Supreme Courtroom might now take into account dismantling it. The case stems from Kim Davis, the previous Kentucky clerk who refused to subject marriage licenses to homosexual {couples} on non secular grounds. She now argues that her First Modification rights ought to protect her from legal responsibility and that Obergefell was “egregiously mistaken.”
Davis’s petition arrives amid a wave of anti-LBGTQ measures throughout a minimum of 9 states, many explicitly urging the Courtroom to reverse Obergefell.
Overturning marriage equality wouldn’t simply strip authorized recognition from tens of millions of {couples}; it might sign that rights as soon as granted could be revoked when political winds shift. This is able to undermine the very precept of equal safety beneath the regulation.
And as soon as the nation extends rights equally, the simply measure of justice is to maintain them.