Affirmative action in college admissions has been struck down by the Supreme Court, leaving many questions about the future of college admissions and racial equity.

Some keep advocating for a return of affirmative action, and while affirmative action had notable benefits, it is not the best option in the long run.

What we should focus on is the clear gap in public education funding that creates the voids necessary for patch job programs, programs that only fix the effect of other problems and don’t address the root of the problem, like affirmative action.

In a world of underfunded schools, affirmative action is a good temporary solution. However, we should strive to make an admissions process that is solely based on merit, and to do that, we first need to adequately fund public schools. 

The U.S. Supreme Court was correct in its decision to remove affirmative action. College admissions should be based on merit and no other aspect. However, it was removed far too soon, as there are plenty of problems that need to be fixed before we are at a point where admissions can be based fully on merit.

We still need to remove those unfair obstacles and barriers that limit anyone from utilizing their skills and dedication to the fullest. While underfunded school districts is the best place to start, there are many other problems that need to be looked into to ensure everyone can attain the same level of merit as they wanted to.

A first step could be funding the underfunded public schools, to ensure that all public schools receive the necessary funding, not only high-income districts. We need to ensure that there is nothing stopping kids from getting a quality education in public schools to ensure a bright future and stable career, whether they choose to go to college or not.

According to The Century Foundation, the U.S. is about $150 billion short on giving proper funding to its school districts. 

Additionally, districts with higher rates of poverty have been 2.6 times more likely to be underfunded, and are more than $6,700 short per student.

One of the reasons we had affirmative action in college admissions is because we also see a major link between low-income school districts and majority Black and majority Latino school districts.

It was also found that districts with more than 50 percent Black or Latino students were twice as likely to be underfunded. 86 percent of students in majority Black districts were in districts with funding gaps. 

Using the interactive map that The Century Foundation created to show each district’s funding gap, there is a clear reflection of what districts were getting hit the hardest by this divide, the most visible on the map being major cities.

Iowa is no stranger to this problem: A key district in Iowa, the Des Moines Independent Community School District, lacks almost $165 million in funding. That breaks down to about $4,500 per student.

Across the nation, we need to finally fund public schools properly in the name of equity for students. We should not limit or let others be limited in their education or educational aspirations.

Columns reflect the opinions of the authors and are not necessarily those of the Editorial Board, The Daily Iowan, or other organizations in which the author may be involved.