Posted on 08/12/2003 12:35:46 AM PDT by bets
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Dave Crater, 719-532-0546,
crater@daveschultheis.com
August 11, 2003
Rep. Dave Schultheis Applauds Owens, Jones on Affirmative Action
Colorado State Rep. Dave Schultheis (R-Colorado Springs) today applauded Gov. Bill Owens and state Sen. Ed Jones in their opposition to race-based admissions criteria in Colorado colleges and universities.
“I am optimistic that we will be able to address this issue in the 2004 legislative session,” Schultheis said. “Gov. Owens hit the nail on the head. It’s racial discrimination to say a child should get a head start because of his or her race.”
The Colorado Commission on Higher Education (CCHE) currently allows Colorado public universities to consider race in admissions. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled by a 5-4 vote on June 23 that the University of Michigan has the right to consider race in admissions to its law school, but not to use a point system for race in undergraduate admissions.
“We should be working toward a color-blind society,” Schultheis said. “Race should be a non-issue. My friend Sen. Ed Jones, who is black, has been very eloquent on this point in several recent editorials. He is offended, and should be, at the idea that people need help because of their race.”
Schultheis went on to say that affirmative action actually works against those it was designed to help by creating the suspicion that a minority student succeeded by means other than his or her own achievement. This, he said, degrades racial relations rather than improving them. He is considering proposing a referendum during the 2004 legislative session to eliminate the collection of racial data by state agencies.
“The way to peaceful, equitable race relations in Colorado,” Schultheis observed, “is, as is engraved on the front of the U.S. Supreme Court building, ‘Equal Justice Under Law.”
Dave Schultheis is a second-term legislator from northern Colorado Springs.
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