Liberty and Equality in Society
... Affirmative Action is more for diversity than education and under it; qualified people might not get accepted to the college or job they want. Jennifer Gratz applied to go to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. She graduated high school with a 3.79 grade point average on a 4.0 point scale. Her ACT score was 25 out of 36. But even with these good scores she was not accepted. She believes this was racial discrimination. In my mind, Affirmative Action should not exist. Some people believe laws such as Affirmative Action are the only ways for someone to get ahead. But this is completely wrong. Most colleges offer scholarships and financial help. A great way to get ahead would be to study really hard and try to come out with great scores. When this happens they’ll get accepted or even receive a scholarship to the college. If they don’t get a scholarship they can get financial aid. The financial aid can be paid off when they get a good job after finishing the education. It’s pretty simple and very effective. Things like Affirmative Action hand some people opportunities on a silver platter when they might not deserve it. But there are other ways to get ahead. Another thing I disagree with is Abbott school districts. This is a program of funding poor school districts with tax money from rich school districts. This is ridiculous. These Abbott schools are receiving a disproportional amount of funding. According to the discussion in class, some of these districts now have air conditioning and even swimming pools. So, poor districts get better schools. But what about the districts in the middle? What about our district? While some of these Abbott schools are getting swimming pools our roof is leaking. While some of the Abbott districts get air conditioning, we don’t even have good working fans in the classrooms. Forget about being cool in the summer, some of the rooms in our school don’t even have good working heat in the winter. I feel that caring too much about the poor districts lead the middle class schools to almost go corrupt. But, some of these laws are good. One is Title IX. Title IX is a 1972 law that bans federally funded schools from discriminating against women. (Including sports proportionality.) I feel this is a good law because it creates many more sports for females to play in. In 1972 less than 30,000 women participated in intercollegiate athletic programs. But by 1976, under the influence of Title IX, the number changed to nearly 63,000 and by 19990 the numbers were approximately 93,000. Title IX also helps many women receive education. "(Title IX) gave me a scholarship...the scholarship paid for my college education. [The chain reaction... [Was that] the college athletic scholarship... allowed me to get the education that allowed me to become a sports broadcaster. It all fell in place. I don't know where I would be or in all sincerity where this country would be if it were not for Title IX.", says ESPN’s Robin Roberts. It also helps many women in their career. “Without a doubt, athletics has prepared me for my career as an orthopedic surgeon. Obv...