This is a highly impactful decision, and I have mixed feelings about it.
In a just world, we wouldn’t need affirmative action. It was always a stopgap measure intended to correct for huge racial inequalities earlier in the pipeline – in academic opportunity, wealth, and housing.
To me, affirmative action always sent the message that we were OK with these inequalities. After all, adding a few points during the admissions process is much easier than making sure every student is equally prepared to succeed in college.
Now, affirmative action is gone – but structural inequalities in the K-12 system remain. Hopefully, we can refocus our efforts from the symptom to the cause.
Every student deserves equal access to a free, effective, and powerful education that prepares them for college or whatever else they wish to accomplish. That goal is far more important than any admissions policy.
(P.S. There is also a campus diversity argument to consider. However, California’s ban on affirmative action seems not to have impacted the racial makeup of its public colleges much, even after 27 years.)