Prime Time 7, Coursebook plus Semester Self-checks

80 85 90 95 100 105 110 115 Change the system. Affirmative action was always racial justice on the cheap. The only real long-term answer to inequality is to provide a better educational system for the poor, and I mean really better: new facilities, longer school days and school years, the best college-prep classes (to lure scholars from the whiter parts of town) and significant salary bonuses for teachers who choose the toughest neighbourhoods, for starters. This would require nothing less than a revolution in public education. We would have to stop funding public schools with local property taxes. The states should finance the system, spending equal amounts on all students. Better schools are the most important thing we can do to remove racial and economic injustice. Fudge it. Congressman John Lewis of Georgia, a hero of the civil rights movement, is heartsick over the prospect that the Supreme Court might end the forcible imposition of integration in society. But Lewis is a sunny soul, and he told me, “Society has come so far, and we’re certainly not going backward.” Even if racial preferences are ruled unconstitutional, “people are going to find a way to do it anyway.” The Congressman is quite right. Diversity has been written into the DNA of American life; any institution that lacks a rainbow array has come to seem diminished, if not diseased. In fact, there is a general acknowledgement, in all but the most ignorant districts, that our racial diversity is a major American competitive advantage in the global economy. And so, if universities can give special preferences to students from remote and exotic places they will find a way to make some exceptions for students from Harlem. In the end, the conservatives may be right: racial distinctions should not be written into law. But the embrace of our fabulous polychromatic range of backgrounds has become an essential part of American society. We cherish it too much to let it slip away. (Joe Klein, Time , 10 December 2006) Discussing the issue a) What are the arguments for and against affirmative action in schools? b) Explain the possible solutions that are presented in this article. Analysing the text Create a table showing how the article is structured. Note down: • the different parts • the function of each part • the main points Writing: An e-mail to the editor You have read the article above and decide to write to the editor of the newspaper to express your own views about whether or not the law should allow racial preferences. In your e-mail to the editor you should: • describe the key issue • evaluate existing strategies like affirmative action • express your personal view as a foreigner Write around 250 words . 2  3  4  125 Nur zu Prüfzwecken – Eigentum des Verlags öbv