Education, business, and government entities in the Bay State expressed outrage and despair at the US Supreme Court decision striking down the use of race in college admissions, which sets up an uncertain path to boosting diversity across schools and workforces.

The court considered two cases challenging affirmative action – at Harvard and the University of North Carolina – and concluded along ideological lines that such policies violate the Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection. 

Responses varied. Congressional leaders like Sen. Ed Markey and Rep. Ayanna Pressley called for expanding the Supreme Court. Educators and business leaders are grasping for ways to encourage marginalized groups to enter higher educational institutions and the workforce through targeted recruitment and addressing other systemic barriers to attainment like financial instability.

“We want to make sure that students of color, LGBTQ+ students, first-generation students, and all students historically underrepresented in higher education feel welcomed and valued at our colleges and universities,” the Healey-Driscoll administration and over 100 educators, advocates, and elected officials wrote in a joint statement. The decision “will not change our commitment to these students. We have an imperative to make sure our schools reflect our communities. Our academic competitiveness, the future of our workforce, and our commitment to equity demand we take action.” 

Anticipating the court’s decision, the Healey administration and education leaders earlier this month announced an Advisory Council for the Advancement of Representation in Education. The group, composed of educators, civil rights advocates, and students, will spend the next year coordinating with educational institutions on possible responses to the decision and reviewing other ways to boost representation in schools.

But the shark fin of lower court decisions is circling. As CommonWealth reported, the affirmative action ruling could implicate even policies that use other admission factors as proxies for race if the underlying intent of the policies is to diversify the student body.

US Supreme Court justices could take up a case challenging a selective admissions policy in Virginia, which awarded high school admission to top students from each middle school in the area. Boston, too, is being sued for 2020 changes to policies that admitted students to its exam schools by grade ranking and zip code.

For now, Lawyers for Civil Rights argues that the Supreme Court ruling allows space for race-neutral alternatives to achieve diversity on campuses, including recruiting based on income and socioeconomic background, using criteria like home and school zip codes in admissions decisions, and implementing GPA-based admission guarantees for top students from each high school in the state.

There are still some options for universities using “holistic” admissions standards. Writing for the six-member majority, Justice John Roberts said “nothing prohibits universities from considering an applicant’s discussion of how race affected the applicant’s life, so long as that discussion is concretely tied to a quality of character or unique ability that the particular applicant can contribute to the university.”

The court’s decision will be felt far outside educational institutions. Business leaders condemned the ruling, which “not only threatens the future of higher education, but also the future of our workplaces and business community,” said Jim Rooney, president and CEO of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce. “By limiting the efforts to diversify campuses across the country, employers will have a less diverse pipeline for the recruitment and hiring of employees.” 

It is not just a moral stance, Associated Industries of Massachusetts CEO John Regan and President Brooke Thomson said. “We know that diverse voices lead to better business outcomes and plan to continue to emphasize equity in the private sector,” they said in a joint statement.

The business community may be able to fill in some of the diversity gaps by prioritizing equity in apprenticeship programs and diversity in suppliers, as well as more abstract actions like actively championing “the next generation of leaders,” Rooney said.

Lawmakers are also sharpening their knives to go after other preferential admissions systems. State Sen. Lydia Edwards testified this week on her bill to ban legacy preferences in higher education, arguing that these policies disproportionately advantage certain groups of people regardless of personal or academic merit. According to data released through the Harvard lawsuit, legacy students are more likely to be White and affluent and much more likely to be accepted than non-legacies.

“In many cases affirmative action became the scapegoat for aggrieved, usually White, students who felt they were not allowed to get into a school, and they blamed students of color and affirmative action,” Edwards told the joint higher education committee, even though White students are more likely to be the ones boosted in the admissions process “if they were qualified by legacy preference.”

JENNIFER SMITH

FROM COMMONWEALTH

Race barred as factor in college admissions: The US Supreme Court rules that race cannot be used as a factor in the college student admission process, a 6-3 decision that will have a huge impact in college-heavy Massachusetts.

– “Many universities have for too long wrongly concluded that the touchstone of an individual’s identity is not challenges bested, skills built, or lessons learned, but the color of their skin,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in an opinion for the majority. “This Nation’s constitutional history does not tolerate that choice.”

– “Today, the Court concludes that indifference to race is the only constitutionally permissible means to achieve racial equality in college admissions. That interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment is not only contrary to precedent and the entire teachings of our history … but is also grounded in the illusion that racial inequality was a problem of a different generation. Entrenched racial inequality remains a reality today,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in the dissent. 

– In Massachusetts, there was a huge outpouring of concern about the ruling and what it will mean. A statement released by Gov. Maura Healey’s office was signed by more than 100 individuals and organizations. Read more.

OPINION

Lessons to share: Marinell Rousmaniere, the president and CEO of EdVestors, says her nonprofit has some lessons to share that could be useful to Boston schools as the district consolidates buildings and programs. Read more.

FROM AROUND THE WEB

BEACON HILL

Gov. Maura Healey names seven new members to the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority board, including several who are strong supporters of keeping the Hynes convention center open. (Boston Globe) 

MUNICIPAL MATTERS  

Great Barrington revokes the nonprofit status of the owners of a fairgrounds property and is threatening a tax lien if local property taxes are not paid. (Berkshire Eagle)

HEALTH/HEALTH CARE

Boston Children’s Hospital acquires Franciscan Children’s Hospital. (WBUR)

Berkshire Health Systems says it plans to reopen North Adams Regional Hospital this coming winter with 25 inpatient beds. The hospital closed in 2014 when its corporate parent at the time  filed for bankruptcy. (Berkshire Eagle)

WASHINGTON/NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL

Author Jacques Steinberg says personal essays in college applications have played a role in boosting campus diversity and will be even more important to that goal following yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling. (Boston Globe) Tyler Austin Harper, a Black assistant professor at Bates College, has a much less uplifting take on the complicated race issues surrounding affirmative action in college admissions. He says race-based “gamification” plagued the admissions process before yesterday’s ruling, and thinks it will only accelerate in its wake. (New York Times) 

President Biden, who has long straddled the divide on the issue, reiterated at a fundraiser this week that he is “not big on abortion,” while voicing support for abortion rights as set forth in the Roe decision that was overturned a year ago. (Boston Globe) 

BUSINESS/ECONOMY

Encore casino reached a tentative agreement with its unions, which had threatened to go on strike starting tomorrow. (Boston Globe)

A cannabis juice business, just launched in Massachusetts, started as a way to help the founder’s mother weather her Alzheimer’s disease by returning her appetite and regular sleep. (MassLive)

TRANSPORTATION

Six months after its celebrated opening, the MBTA announced that the Green Line branch to Union Square in Somerville will close for six weeks this summer to allow for repair work on a bridge. Transit advocate Jarred Johnson blasted the move and called for an explanation of whether the bridge work could have been done during the Green Line construction. (Boston Herald) The T is also shutting down a portion of the B branch on the Green Line for 12 days in July to replace 2,800 feet of track. (WBUR)

Laser strikes of airplanes are traced to locations in Great Barrington. (Berkshire Eagle)

Boylston Street bike lane battle brewing in Boston. (Boston Globe) 

ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT

Congressional members are calling for more funds for sea turtle rescue and rehabilitation, after rare turtles were found cold-stunned on Cape Cod beaches in December. (Cape Cod Times)