Most Agree With Trump Rescinding Obama-Era Affirmative Action for College Admissions

The Trump Administration rescinded 24 Obama-era guidance documents on affirmative action for college admissions, calling them “unnecessary, outdated, inconsistent with existing law, or otherwise improper.”

The decision impacted 7 letters from the Department of Education (DOE) and Justice Department (DOJ) that allowed school districts and universities to consider race in admissions. Democrats flipped their lids, again.

Catherine Lhamon, who served as assistant secretary for civil rights at the Education Department under Barack Obama, blasted President Donald Trump for the move, calling it a “strong signaling of a lack of support for diversity and inclusion in schools.”

But most Americans disagree with Ms. Lhamon, who now serves as the chair of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, and other critics.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 53% of American adults believe higher education should consider only the most qualified students for admission, not race. Only 37% believe “making sure there is enough racial diversity in the students they accept” is better.

While Americans are more evenly divided when asked about affirmative action programs in general, the trend in public opinion is moving against them. Now, only 37% favor them, while just as many (37%) are opposed. That compares to 40% who favored and 30% who opposed these programs a year ago.

Another 27% are undecided.

Further, only 16% think affirmative action programs have been a success, while 22% see them as a failure and 52% say they fall somewhere in between. Public opinion on the effectiveness of these programs has changed little over the past 10 years.

The survey of 1,000 American Adults was conducted on July 5 and 8, 2018 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. See methodology.