One such debater believes this would be a tragic mistake that would understandably, " violate principles of equality,"" by excluding participants based solely on their race (Thernstrom). Curtis Crawford shares her fear stating this proposal is, "racially discriminatory on a massive scale,"" and is perplexed by the proposal of race-based programs to resolve the main issue of students doing poorly in school. The report itself states that there is little proof of the effectiveness of these programs but believes the opportunity it gives students can been correlated to their academic success (Reaching the Top 25). This seems ironic since they recommend the education system to dive head first into this massive and extremely controversial program using millions of taxpayer dollars hoping minority scores will increase.
Crawford also speaks largely on how this report is too concerned with racial groups, not the individual, and their focus on the need for an, "end to racial disparities in academic achievement."" He goes on to question the nature of our societies recent focus on the success or failure of a group, not the individual. His points are well felt and of merit since we, as a society, have embraced the obsession of political correctness. For whatever reasons we feel that these minorities groups are owed something in retribution from years of oppression in American history. Crawford is correct in bringing this point to light but offers little help in dealing with the present issue of bringing up minority scores.
Another view on academic success is that we are trying too hard to reach an overall parity among racial groups. Richard Thompson explains the idea of any type of human performance based solely on race in not only preposterous but a, "nave utopian."" His view is based on the principle that we are all products of our environment. That academic performance is based largely upon the students' culture and the environment of their home and community, not necessarily their race.
