Phi Beta Cons regulars George Leef and Roger Clegg were invited by the Chronicle of Higher Education to respond (along with others) to the question, “Has the time come for an affirmative-action policy based on socioeconomic status?” You’ll be pleased to know that their answer in both cases was no.
Other commentators were: Lee Bollinger, president of Columbia; Julian Bond, chairman of the NAACP; Richard Kahlenberg, senior fellow at the Century Foundation; Jamie P. Merisotis, president of the Lumina Foundation; and Walter Benn Michaels, English professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. I’m still puzzling over whether Lee Bollinger said yes or no.