June 30, 2023 - The Metropolitan Area Planning Council issued the following statement today regarding the recent Supreme Court decisions on college admissions:

“The Supreme Court’s decisions on university admissions are a profound setback in efforts to create an America where opportunity is equally available to all. The decision of the Court’s majority is based on a peculiarly white and privileged vision of our society, which sees a level of colorblindness that contradicts the real lived experience of Black and brown people throughout our nation. As Justice Sotomayor wrote in her brilliant dissent, ‘In so holding, the Court cements a superficial rule of colorblindness as a constitutional principle in an endemically segregated society where race has always mattered and continues to matter.’

“We at MAPC see the reality and impacts of endemic segregation daily in our work. We see intentionally segregated communities, where segregation is enforced, maintained, and renewed by zoning and land use decisions. We see BIPOC students attending inferior schools in a region where children are far more likely to lead segregated lives than adults. We see persistently worse health outcomes for people of color, where life expectancies and childhood mortality differ widely in neighborhoods just a few hundred yards apart. And we see environmental justice communities subjected to air pollution and other hazards at a far greater rate than their white counterparts.

“Education remains a powerful pathway to a better life in America, but unlike most other industrially developed countries, post-secondary education is not widely available at a reasonable cost. Instead, it is available only to a minority of students, and even then, at great expense. All of the pre-existing conditions described above establish roadblocks for students of color seeking to enter post-secondary education, roadblocks that colleges and universities can best overcome by considering race as one factor (and it is never the only factor!) in college admissions. One wonders how Justices that understand the systemic disparities existing in America by race could reach any other conclusion. We can only surmise they are blissfully unaware of conditions that exist in an America the rest of us see every day.

“These decisions – and other decisions emanating from this Court – will make our job of achieving the visions of the MetroCommon2050 regional plan more difficult to achieve, but they do not diminish our determination.  MAPC will join with state and local leaders to ensure that more students of color are supported to and through their higher education journeys, finishing their studies with a degree, certificate, or other professional credential.

"We will continue to work on eliminating the barriers to fair inclusion that exist in urban and suburban communities throughout our region. We will continue to work on narrowing or eliminating the digital divide, the wealth divide, and the health divide that make it harder for BIPOC students to enter and succeed in post-secondary education. This work is essential not only for the future of our workforce and our economy, but also for the preparation of thousands of young people who are eager to become the leaders our world desperately needs.”