Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) rebuffed criticisms of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision striking down race-based affirmative action admissions policies at U.S. colleges, arguing that students ought to embrace more merit-based measures for systems and educators should raise their K-12 education standards, especially in inner-cities.
In an interview with “The Hill” on NewsNation on Thursday, Buck said future generations of college students could look to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) as “role models who didn’t need affirmative action.”
The Supreme Court’s decision in Students for Fair Admissions Inc. (SFFA) v. President and Fellows of Harvard College elicited criticisms from proponents of affirmative action policies, who argued that rolling back those policies would hinder the progress in race relations since the Civil Rights era. Former President Barack Obama was one such critic who said, “Affirmative action was never a complete answer in the drive towards a more just society. But for generations of students who had been systematically excluded from most of America’s key institutions—it gave us the chance to show we more than deserved a seat at the table.”…