In our country, the term “affirmative action” was first heard in 1961 under President Kennedy as a way to rectify the racial discrimination occurring at the time. The purpose of the affirmative action policies was to insure blacks, and other minority groups had the same chances for promotion, jobs, school admissions, scholarships, etc. that were previously only available to whites. Affirmative action was meant to be a temporary remedy to “level the playing field.” This policy has been debated many times over the year but was upheld in the U.S. Supreme Court in Fisher v. Texas. Affirmative action is necessary because it diversifies the population of colleges, gives an opportunity for those in difficult situations a step out, and our colleges …show more content…
many students that live in lower income areas are not given the same prospects that is available to others in wealthier areas. About 42% of all children in the U.S. are living in low-income families. Since public schools are funded from property taxes and limited government spending the education received is unfairly handicapped. Like the articles we read in class, it is clear how poor the education system in some places and how detrimental that is too many of the students. In 2012 1.1 million high schoolers dropped out, and there is a distinct correlation between poverty and dropouts. With lower income area there is also known to be more gang violence, drug abuse, and alcoholism, which put teenagers in many difficult situations that they must forced to deal with everyday. Why wouldn’t it make sense to help those students who want to continue their education? In the U.S. odds are if your parents are middle class chances are you’ll end up making about the same money in the future, and the same goes to children in poverty. The way our economy works, it is more difficult to move up class especially when trying to get out of poverty. The preferential treatment given is an opening for that student to become more educated and attempt to escape the poverty