Status quo is bliss

Richard Sander, a highly regarded UCLA law professor and statistician, is conducting research with important implications for higher education.  To complete the research, which has been the subject of many scholarly articles and intense academic interest, he needs access to a California government database.

So why has the State Bar, which controls the database, denied Sander and his research team access to the records? Because Sander’s subject is affirmative action, the mere mention of which raises blood pressure levels among bureaucrats of all political persuasions. And because Sander’s research breaches a taboo of political correctness: he hypothesizes that affirmative action, at least in top law schools, actually hurts the minority students it is designed to help.

It does this, Sander suggests, by landing minority students--and other students who receive a major preference--in academic settings for which they haven’t been adequately prepared. The resulting “mismatch” between their preparation and the preparation needed to succeed in such schools disadvantages students admitted under affirmative action policies. Sander theorizes these students might have had a better chance of passing the Bar exam--and becoming practicing lawyers--if they had, instead, attended a less selective law school.

Whatever one’s views on the politically divisive issue of affirmative action, there’s no disputing that Sander’s research raises questions of public importance. If the State Bar’s records prove Sander’s suppositions wrong, affirmative action policies can be pursued with greater confidence in their legitimacy. If Sander turns out to be right, no academic institution in the country will be able to avoid a serious reexamination of its use of affirmative action.

You would think that the California State Bar, which promotes diversity in the legal profession and claims to be concerned about low bar pass rates for minority students, would welcome and encourage Sander’s research. After all, his research could provide answers to questions about disparities in bar admissions that have vexed the Bar for years.