Last week, the attorney general’s office in Virginia sent a letter to a middle school in Fairfax County demanding that it stop enrolling students in a controversial college prep program. The move followed a previous letter from the school to parents of 8th graders whose children might be considering college. That note said the program would only be available to black, Hispanic or multi-racial students, as well as English language learners, students with disabilities, or those who were the first in their family to apply to college.
The attorney general’s letter said “it appears that Cooper Middle School is soliciting and selecting applicants to the College Partnership Program based on race, color, and national origin.” If so, that would be violation of the Virginia Human Rights Act and the Constitution’s Equal Protection clause. The news triggered a round social media outrage and media coverage as it appeared to be yet another example of wokeness run riot in Fairfax County, a suburban Washington, DC, school district that has made itself a lightning rod in recent years with a series of controversial “equity” initiatives. In January, for example, the AG announced he would investigate high schools in Fairfax County and other nearby districts that failed to notify students, mostly Asian, that they’d earned National Merit Scholarship recognition. The Daily Mail’s headline captured the mood of many observers: “Will they EVER learn? School that’s part of notoriously woke Virginia district bans white and Asian students from college prep program.”
Given the district’s recent history, it’s unsurprising that critics assumed the college prep program was the latest product of equity-obsessed Fairfax school administrators. But even if this is a case of a stopped clock being right twice a day, in this instance the outrage is misguided. The college prep program is not another example of an exclusionary racial affinity group, or a wrong-headed “diversity, equity, and inclusion” initiative. It appears to be an effort aimed at improving the chances that minority, “first generation” students will gain admittance to college and are prepared to persist there. Such programs are common and have been around for years, long before the word “woke” entered the American vernacular. Moreover, the claim that white and Asian students are banned from the school’s college prep program is incorrect. Data from Fairfax County shows that than more than one-quarter of students enrolled in the program are white and Asian.
We’ve known for decades that students who don’t come from a college-going tradition often struggle in the absence of friends and family members who can help them navigate the complex process of college applications, financial aid, and course selection (neither is it a surprise that such students are disproportionately minority). Without the kind of support that tends to be baked into the lives of more fortunate peers, “first-gen” college students are often unprepared for the expectations of college and feel overwhelmed by the academic and social demands of campus life. They may also experience imposter syndrome, feeling like they don’t belong in college or that they’re not as smart or prepared as their peers. Moreover, debt-laden students from low-income backgrounds are often one family emergency or economic setback from dropping out. The goal of programs like the one in the crosshairs in Fairfax County is to send students better insulated against the vicissitudes of college life. Big name urban college prep charter school networks like KIPP launched similar programs a decade ago once internal data showed their graduates struggling to graduate at the same rate as middle class white and Asian students.
For conservatives, knee-jerk opposition to such programs is short-sighted. If you believe in the meritocracy, then it’s not a problem but a proof point when minority students and first-generation college-goers earn a degree and are poised for upward mobility. Neither is it a good look to oppose college debt forgiveness, but also oppose programs aimed at improving college persistence, particularly when many of the pitfalls that derail students are simply not their fault, including financial constraints, poor academic advising, or under-preparation in high school.
When DEI initiatives lower academic standards or engage inappropriate and unconstitutional race-sorting, conservatives are right to oppose them. But not every program that disproportionately benefits racial minorities is a manifestation of woke ideology. If you believe in merit, then you want meritorious students to succeed—particularly when their struggles are no fault of their own. The bottom line is that there are lots of problems in education worthy of our outrage. Based on the available evidence, Fairfax County’s college partnership program doesn’t appear to be one of them.
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