美国国家公共电台 NPR--'The Indicator' from Planet Money: How ending affirmative action changed California

'The Indicator¹' from Planet Money: How ending affirmative action changed California

Transcript²

California's 1996 ban on affirmative action at public universities offers clues about how students and the economy may be affected³ if the U.S. Supreme⁴ Court strikes down the policy nationwide.

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule soon on affirmative action in college admissions. If the policy is struck down nationwide, California offers some clues about how that might affect students and their future earnings⁵. California banned affirmative action in public universities back in 1996. Adrian Ma from our daily economics podcast, The Indicator, explains.

ADRIAN MA, BYLINE⁶: Zach Bleemer is an economist⁷ at Yale who studies college admissions. And for him, California's ban on affirmative action in public universities offered up a gold mine for research. So he looked at a whole bunch of anonymized data about two groups of students - those who applied⁸ to college before the ban and those who applied after. And it came away with three main findings. First, he found the immediate⁹ effect of ending affirmative action was a huge drop in the number of underrepresented minority students attending the most selective public universities.

ZACH BLEEMER: Affirmative action ends, and Black, Hispanic and Native American students, on average, go to slightly less-selective schools. White and Asian students, meanwhile, on average, get to go to slightly more-selective schools, taking the slots of these Black and Hispanic students who had lost access to those places.

MA: His second finding looked at the long-run implications of all this shifting around.

BLEEMER: If you follow these students forward into the labor¹⁰ market, the typical student who, because of the end of affirmative action, had a little bit less access to more selective universities, ended up earning about 5% less than they would have earned if they'd had access to more selective universities through race-based affirmative action.

MA: This did not happen to the white and Asian students that he was following who got rejected from that top, super-selective tier of colleges. In most cases, he says, the white and Asian students experienced no decline or maybe just a very slight decline in their future earnings. And Zach thinks this may be because those white and Asian students generally came from backgrounds where they could get into and afford a private university education. And it may also be that the Black and Hispanic students, on average, came from less-privileged backgrounds, and they just had more to gain from the education and the networks that were available to them at these schools.

BLEEMER: This clearly isn't true for every single student. There are many Black and Hispanic students who come from high-income backgrounds that are very networked. There are many low-income white and Asian students who don't have that network. What I'm saying is just, on average, Black and Hispanic students who gained access through affirmative action were driving substantially above-average gains compared to the students who replaced them.

MA: They got more bang for their buck¹¹.

BLEEMER: Exactly. I think the best that I can say is, forgetting questions of equity¹², if your goal is just to maximize economic efficiency, just to identify an admissions policy that will spur economic growth, identify students who will be able to best take advantage of university resources, earn the highest wages, pay back the most in tax dollars and otherwise succeed using a university's resources - that's what affirmative action did.

MA: At least, before the state banned it. Now, if affirmative action gets banned nationally, Zach predicts the country is going to see a version of what happened in California - an immediate drop in enrollment¹³ for underrepresented minority students at highly selective schools. And in the longer run, he predicts that the sizable income gap that currently exists between white and Asian college graduates and Black, Hispanic and Native American grads will grow.

Adrian Ma, NPR News.

1 indicator   

n.指标；指示物，指示者；指示器

参考例句：

• Gold prices are often seen as an indicator of inflation.黃金价格常常被看作是通货膨胀的指标。
• His left-hand indicator is flashing.他左手边的转向灯正在闪亮。

2 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

3 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

4 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。

5 earnings   

n.工资收人；利润，利益，所得

参考例句：

• That old man lives on the earnings of his daughter.那个老人靠他女儿的收入维持生活。
• Last year there was a 20% decrease in his earnings.去年他的收入减少了20%。

6 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

7 economist   

n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人

参考例句：

• He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
• He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家，自以为什么都懂。

8 applied   

adj.应用的；v.应用，适用

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• This cream is best applied to the face at night.这种乳霜最好晚上擦脸用。

9 immediate   

adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的

参考例句：

• His immediate neighbours felt it their duty to call.他的近邻认为他们有责任去拜访。
• We declared ourselves for the immediate convocation of the meeting.我们主张立即召开这个会议。

10 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

11 buck   

n.雄鹿，雄兔；v.马离地跳跃

参考例句：

• The boy bent curiously to the skeleton of the buck.这个男孩好奇地弯下身去看鹿的骸骨。
• The female deer attracts the buck with high-pitched sounds.雌鹿以尖声吸引雄鹿。

12 equity   

n.公正，公平，（无固定利息的）股票

参考例句：

• They shared the work of the house with equity.他们公平地分担家务。
• To capture his equity,Murphy must either sell or refinance.要获得资产净值，墨菲必须出售或者重新融资。

13 enrollment   

n.注册或登记的人数；登记

参考例句：

• You will be given a reading list at enrollment.注册时你会收到一份阅读书目。
• I just got the enrollment notice from Fudan University.我刚刚接到复旦大学的入学通知书。