Students Sue U. of California System Claiming SAT Exam Requirement Is ‘Discriminatory’

Two pending lawsuits against the University of California claim that the system’s SAT admission requirement is “discriminatory.”

According to a report by Campus Reform, students in California are suing the University of California system over its decision to uphold the SAT as an admission requirement. The students, some of which are suing the UC system, claim that the test is “discriminatory” because wealthy white students can afford to prepare for it by hiring expensive private tutors.

In one of the two pending lawsuits against the University of California, the students argue that the SAT and ACT exams are discriminatory against underprivileged students.

But the UC has failed to carry out its promise: rather than fulfilling its vision as “[a]n engine of opportunity for all Californians”2 and creating a level playing field in which all students are evaluated based on individual merit, the UC requires all applicants to subject themselves to SAT and ACT tests that are demonstrably discriminatory against the State’s least privileged students, the very students who would most benefit from higher education.

The lawsuit highlights the comments of several California leaders, such as Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), who embraced the notion that the SAT exam favors white students.

The discriminatory effect of the use of these tests is well known to both the State and the UC. Governor and ex officio Regent Gavin Newsom recently recognized that “use [of the SAT and ACT] exacerbates the inequities for underrepresented students, given that performance on these tests is highly correlated with race and parental income, and is not the best predictor for college success.” UC Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ similarly called for the UC to drop its test score requirement because SAT and ACT scores “really contribute to the inequities of our system.

Breitbart News reported in November that lawyers from several law firms around the state of California had threatened to sue the University of California over their decision to retain the SAT as an admission requirement.

Stay tuned to Breitbart News for more updates on this story.