When The Field Is Level

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Then what is the solution? Surprisingly, there is one point of agreement for both sides in the debate over cascading. The low number of minorities at top-tier campuses should be a wake-up call about the need to improve K-12 education for all children (see the accompanying story). The racial gap in academic achievement starts in the earliest grades and grows worse. Among California 10th-graders, 88% of Asians and 76% of whites go on to graduate, but only 61% of blacks and 58% of Hispanics do. Thernstrom and civil rights groups both say the early grades are where the most work needs to be done.

One other sign that California is entering a new era on race is the attitude many young people seem to have about affirmative action. A lot of black and Hispanic students strongly opposed Prop. 209, and many still insist affirmative action is needed as much as ever. But the black science students gathered around the U.C. Irvine dining-hall table were confident that whatever the rules are, they can succeed under them. So is Elizabeth Lomeli. A Hispanic graduate of Santa Ana High School, she will attend Irvine in the fall after being rejected by UCLA. There's no way she'll ever know if she'd have got into UCLA under affirmative action, but she isn't upset about how things have worked out. "I just cared about the U.C. part--I didn't care about the Los Angeles or the Irvine," she says. "I think it's going to help me do what I want to do." Lomeli will be the first person in her family to enter college.