Princeton University

Ask any political leader or education policy expert, and they’ll likely agree: A bachelor’s degree from a quality school increases the odds that a student from an impoverished family will reach the middle class. But a new report finds that the admissions process at the nation’s top colleges and universities is “rigged,” keeping poor kids out.

The report from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation also showed that, although higher-ed progressives are fighting to preserve race-based admissions for the sake of campus diversity, they continue to quietly usher affluent kids, star athletes, and children of alumni to the front of the admissions line.

The best way to ensure a diverse mix of students, according to the report: Design admissions programs so they give preferential treatment to high-achieving students who have the academic potential, but not the money, to be accepted at a top school.

“We were concerned that high-performing, low-income kids were getting lost in the shuffle,” Harold Levy, executive director of the foundation, a scholarship organization that supports high-achieving low-income students,  told TakePart. […]