Students based their remarks and conclusions about affirmative action on 19^th century pre-Darwin beliefs that biology decides human race. One side claims discrimination based on race and the other claims preferential treatment based on race. First, we need to show what neither side recognizes. Modern science studies dispute claims of biological race. This means that race is a social construction with goals of the builders to set favorable social status based on skin color. Humans as one race changes the discussion about equality and social status. Absent race, only socioeconomic causes remain and many of them result from social constructions of race. American history confirms lessened economic opportunity for families and inadequate educational opportunity for children labeled black, Mexican, Latino and Indigenous North Americans.

Many families will remain at the lower end of the income scale from racial discrimination even if we assume ideal social conditions ended racial and gender discrimination by January 1980. Many of their children have no parent with high school diploma or college degree to help with homework. Those conditions are likely, because the first generation to live without discrimination-opportunity for schooling, but without fully educated parents-will have turned thirty last year. Scientific studies are indisputable that students living in those conditions experience disadvantage in school.

Social conditions have not been ideal since 1980 and racial discrimination continued and continues to affect families. Anybody that disputes this claim should read the Eliezer Williams, et al., vs. State of California case filed as a class action in 2000 that California violated students right to equal education. The state settled the case in 2004 with this introductory statement. "California guarantees an equal education to every student - including the predominantly low-income students and students of color who attend schools that must be improved. This case has been about California's duty to provide these students with instructional materials, safe and decent school facilities, and quality teachers." The settlement applied to hundreds of schools in the state.

California voters passed Proposition 209 in 1996 barring consideration of race for admission to public colleges. They passed this law for equal opportunity four years before the Williams suit revealed the unequal education the state provided children of color. Proposition 209 penalized students attending inadequate schools that applied for entry into college with qualifying scores lower than the scores of students attending quality schools. California should not favor students for college education that attended quality k-12 schools over those that attended inadequate schools. Using the Berkeley College Republican bake-sale analogy, the students of color from inadequate schools pay more than the full $2 price for pastry they mostly prepared and cooked themselves.

This inequality will continue. Only seven years passed since the Williams settlement. Therefore, there are five grade-levels of students still in the system that suffered damaged educational opportunity from inadequate schools even if we assume all schools corrected their inadequacies in 2005. The record shows they did not do this.

California's public education extends from kindergarten to a college degree. Therefore, the state should not wait until after the twelfth grade to apply tests for fairness and equal opportunity. It should test for fairness and equal opportunity yearly at each school at every grade level if it intends to enforce strict college entry requirements based on scores from academic achievement.

California should have amended college admissions policy during the William's Act Settlement to reflect the unequal opportunity allowed students of color. Affirmative action admissions based on race would lessen the inherent inequality of college admissions from those conditions. However, racial admissions would continue support for America's ugly culture of racial bigotry. Racism never produces positive results. Inequality would continue given the increasing percentage of middle-income and wealthy families of color and that some "white" students attend inadequate schools. A better system for equal opportunity for college is to add points to students' qualifying scores that attended inadequate schools and for socioeconomic disadvantage. Students that qualify for college while attending inadequate schools demonstrate outstanding learning ability and drive.