President Donald Trump’s current attacks on higher education mirrors decades of conservative attempts to differentiate “equality” from “quality” in higher education, according to two recent studies co-authored by SESP Prof. Quinn Mulroy and Heather McCambly (SESP Doctorate ’21).
The pair coined the term “(e)quality politics” to describe how politicians have viewed the intersection between the quality of education and equality of representation in higher education over time. The parentheses are used to highlight the relationship between the two ideas in their research.
“The racialized political origins of that distinction and its subsequent policy implementation are part of an anti-equity policy paradigm,” Mulroy said in a Friday news release. “Once an (e)quality politics paradigm is established, racialized policy can persist.”
Mulroy and McCambly analyzed congressional speeches, other government records and news articles about higher education policy between 1968 and 1994 to explain how the “quality” paradigm began and evolved to inform anti-equity policy.
In response to the Civil Rights Movement, conservatives used the “quality” metric to justify resegregation attempts following the Brown v. Board of Education decision, according to the team’s first study.
“By the time we get to the 1980s, we see this coalescing around the idea that equity is somehow intrinsically separate from quality, or even a threat to quality,” Mulroy said in the release.
Though Mulroy attributed the early backlash to conservatives, she said Democrats eventually conceded and embraced the specious use of “quality” to undermine diversity initiatives.
The Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education, established in 1972 to improve postsecondary educational opportunities, drew condemnation from Nixon-era conservatives.
Mulroy said opponents use the quality argument today to criticize universities’ DEI statements, the Movement for Black Lives and the increased media attention on higher education policies.
“Both then and now, this discourse has served as a powerful tool of racial backlash to civil rights transformations,” Mulroy said.
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