Cromer says Affirmative Action is too little too late

Dr. James Cromer, Maurice Falk Professor of Child Psychiatry at the Yale University School of Medicine’s Child Study Center and the founder of the Comer School Development Program, is a respected writer about education and child development. In an interview with Carolyn Nguyen he was asked if affirmative action has failed its stated purpose. He replied...

"Affirmative action is too little, too late. It has been carried out in a way that missed its very purpose. What we are trying to create is equal opportunity that takes into account many factors, not just numbers. We were not searching for a way to have certain percentages of marginalized individuals in certain careers or schools. Yet affirmative action did not create that focus. What we should have done was create programs that enable marginalized families and schools to help prepare children to participate in mainstream society. There needs to be a systematic effort to connect marginalized students into the mainstream, an effort that today is almost nonexistent. The natural connections that mainstream students have do not exist for their less fortunate counterparts, who often struggle to make ends meet. Through the manner affirmative action was implemented, there have been incredibly negative responses on both sides."

"A systematic effort to connect marginalized students into the mainstream", oooo, that sounds like Breakthrough's network model of ministry. We are trying to surround the students and the homeless guests who come into our centers with a network of support that connects them with people who care.