Posted on 07/02/2023 12:46:28 PM PDT by Jacquerie
The United States Supreme Court’s affirmative action ruling sparked a raft of shrieking rhetoric from the usual Florida suspects last week, but those voices are 24 years too late, and as it turns out, they don’t have much to shriek about. In 1999, during then-Governor Jeb Bush’s first months in office, Florida embarked on the same journey away from race-based admissions quotas upon which the entire nation is now about to embark.
A quick survey of Florida’s most respected colleges and universities, seeking answers on how the court ruling might impact their admissions practices, yielded an almost universally identical answer: it won’t.
That’s because, as State University System Chancellor Raymond Rodrigues pointed out immediately after the ruling, Florida “has not utilized affirmative action in our higher education system since the One Florida Initiative in 1999. The State University System of Florida provides students equality of opportunity through color-blind admissions. In addition to being the number one state in the nation for higher education, as ranked by U.S. News and World Report since 2017, Florida also has one of the most diverse Systems in the country. Florida is proof that diversity can be achieved without affirmative action.”
And data collected over the past 20 years backs that up.
Jeb Bush’s One Florida Initiative aimed to maintain diversity by guaranteeing admission to at least one state public university for the top 20 percent of high school graduates, irrespective of their race. The admissions statistics collected over the first decade reveals there was no significant change in overall diversity, but there has been a change in Florida’s college and university standings, as U.S. News and World Report has concluded for the last six years running – a change for the better.
(Excerpt) Read more at thecapitolist.com ...
From what I heard Jeb did a good job in Florida. But for national politics, well, he was still Jeb...
I agree, Jeb MOSTLY did a good job as governor of Florida - but depriving a “brain-dead” girl of even ice-cubes on her lips did it for me. Of course, this was not his decision, but his in-action as a governor - with the power to pardon death sentences - was the last straw for me.
well said ...
Not a Jeb fan but I was told by a relative who is a lawyer in Fla that the governor didn’t have the power to intervene.
We can’t have governors be kings and break the law anymore then we should allow presidents no matter how good the reason. You allow it once “ creative lawyering” will turn it into a habit!
“Florida also has one of the most diverse Systems in the country.”
The ultimate self-own.
We know from he test scores by race, that if college was actually based on individual merit, the racial minorities would be very underrepresented.
This is affirmative action by stealth, while claiming to be opposed.
Par for the course for fake-ass UniPArty Republicans.
“Florida is proof that diversity can be achieved without affirmative action”
Common sense should tell us that the smartest kiddos, no matter what color, can succeed only if the school administrators keep their noses out of student selection. All college applications should not have a box marked “Race”.
Jeb did a fairly decent job as governor, especially in the wake of lawless Lawton Chiles, but he had at least one major weakness—illegal immigration—on that issue he was in lock step with Biden.
I seriously doubt Jeb Bush supports the recent SC ruling on affirmative action.
Sununu in NH is the same. Generally a good governor. He would be terrible as a US Senator or President.
He was a great governor. Not sure what happened to him, but DC has a tendency to corrupt good people. Even Joe Scarborough was a good Congressman and then he turned a sharp left somewhere around his divorce, it seems.
> ...guaranteeing admission to at least one state public university for the top 20 percent of high school graduates.
Pretty sure it’s if you graduated in the top 20% of YOUR high school. So transfer to a “dumb” school in your senior year to get a guaranteed admission.
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