10,000 Degrees Response to Recent Supreme Court Decisions
The back-to-back decisions by the Supreme Court, first to abolish the consideration of race as an independent factor in college admissions and the second, striking down President Biden’s executive authority to implement his loan forgiveness program, are an egregious attack on our freedoms, our civil rights, and justice. This has left us all disheartened, but not deterred.
We will stand now even more fervently beside our students in the fight for equality and justice and diversity in education. Make no mistake—these decisions will have far-reaching, negative effects on our communities of color and low-income families, effects that will not be easily or soon remedied. Abolishing affirmative action in college admissions, especially, will hit our students hardest. After they’ve already borne the brunt of the pandemic-induced drops in enrollment and college persistence, our students will now find college acceptance letters even more elusive.
As Vice President Harris said, the affirmative action ruling was about “being blind to history, being blind to data, being blind to empirical evidence about disparities, being blind to the strength that diversity brings to classrooms to boardrooms.”
We could not agree more. But we will not let these decisions hold back our students or us from our mission.
As the paths to a college degree may get even murkier and more inequitable, 10,000 Degrees will be here, as we have been for 42 years, to help our students navigate their way to greener shores. We will look for new strategies for success in college admissions. We will counsel our students on ways to lessen their college loan debt. We will strongly advocate for anti-racist educational practices, policies, and legislation. We will do everything in our power to fulfill our promise of a college degree for all of our students.
But we can’t do this alone and hope you will continue to stand behind us and support our mission in striving for educational equity and justice for all.
Read the statement by the National College Attainment Network (NCAN).