JARED KUSHNER, AND THE OTHER (more socially acceptable) FORMS OF AFFIRMATIVE ACTION

So the Trump administration wants to use the Justice Department to investigate civil rights abuses of white kids who don't get into college. Donald Trump effectively wants to flip affirmative action on its head, because Anglo-Americans are getting a raw deal (I'm guessing) in America when it comes to access to higher education.

Well, OK.

Look, if we're going to take a look at preferential treatment then let's be be fair, and consider all forms of preferential treatment.

This article from Vox, "As Trump takes aim at affirmative action, let's remember how Jared Kushner got into Harvard," starts us down that path.

This clip from the article pretty much sums up the primary point of the Vox article ...

______________________

Jared’s father handed Harvard (a school he did not attend) a big pile of money just as Jared was starting to apply to colleges. Around the same time, Jared’s dad got his US senator to contact another US senator to arrange a chat with Harvard’s dean of admissions.

Happily for the Kushner family, Jared was then admitted. But several officials at Jared’s high school outright told Golden that they found the choice puzzling, since his grades and academic record really didn’t seem to merit it:

In 1998, according to sources familiar with the gift, the New York University alumnus [Charles Kushner] pledged $2.5 million to Harvard, to be paid in annual installments of $250,000. ... At the time of the pledge, Kushner’s older son, Jared, was starting the college admissions process at the Frisch School, a Jewish high school in Paramus, New Jersey. A senior in 1998-99, Jared was not in the school’s highest academic track in all courses, and his test scores were below Ivy League standards. Frisch officials were surprised when he applied to Harvard — and dismayed when he was admitted.

“There was no way anybody in the administrative office of the school thought he would on the merits get into Harvard,” a former school official told me. “His GPA did not warrant it, his SAT scores did not warrant it. We thought for sure, there was no way this was going to happen. Then, lo and behold, Jared was accepted. It was a little bit disappointing because there were at the time other kids we thought should really get in on the merits, and they did not” ...

... Margot Krebs, who was director of Frisch’s college preparatory program at the time, said, “Jared was certainly not anywhere near the top of his class ... 

______________________

There's more, much more, from the Vox article, which you can access by clicking here.

Finally, if you're interested in reading more about preferential treatment, "legacy admissions" and access to institutions of higher education, click here ("Jared Kushner Isn't Alone: How Wealthy Families Manipulate Admissions at Elite Universities"), here ("At Elite Colleges, Legacy Status May Count for More Than Was Previously Thought"), and  here ("Legacy Admissions Policies Were Originally Created to Keep Jewish Students Out of Elite Colleges"). You can also find some good data, and discussions, on college admissions by clicking here (Quora).

- Mark