ArcaMax

And, even if the high court were to sweep away all racial considerations, as California's Proposition 209 did in 1996, it actually could be good news for diversity and for minority students, according to a new book by UCLA law Prof. Richard Sander and Stuart Taylor, Jr., a lawyer and fellow at the Brookings Institution.

The title summarizes their argument: "Mismatch: How Affirmative Action Hurts Students It's Intended to Help, and Why Universities Won't Admit It."

The term "mismatch" describes racial preferences that with the best of intentions unfortunately put minority students into competition with far better prepared classmates. This too often has caused some minority students to fail who could have done very well at a less competitive, less-elite college or university.

Yet despite initial post-Prop 209 gloom over a drop in minority enrollment at California's most prestigious state universities, Berkeley and UCLA, the schools soon saw a surprising surge in top-performing minority applicants, many of whom applied without identifying their race or ethnicity as anything but "none of the above."

Many top-performing minority students were actually attracted by the fact that the state's schools were no longer taking race into account. Overall the University of California system saw gains in black and Hispanic enrollment and graduation that outpaced other groups.

As a long-time defender of affirmative action, I used to think the so-called "mismatch" problem was an over-hyped myth. But Sander and Taylor make a convincing case and, more important, good recommendations to keep affirmative action alive -- without preferences.

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E-mail Clarence Page at cpage(at)tribune.com.

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