There are two central premises of Mike Hahn's article today — one factually inaccurate and the other disingenuous — that warrant what I hope will be a terse response.

1) UW is rejecting qualified white students for unqualified minorities.

The holistic policy does no such a thing. This type of preference is not only illegal under federal law, but has been deemed undesirable by university admissions from across the country. The type of affirmative action practiced by UW is only relevant for candidates of comparable credentials.

Mr. Hahn asserts — without a crumb of evidence, I might add — that UW is so desperate for minority students that they lower their standards for the predominantly unqualified minorities of the Milwaukee Public School System. Not true. Like all elite colleges, the number of qualified students that apply — i.e. those that are expected to meet the demands of the university — is much higher than the number admitted. Every year, UW turns down thousands of students whose credentials were lower than those admitted but who are nonetheless qualified. This gives the admissions a lot of breathing space for those they admit, and allows them to implement a holistic approach, of which race is just one element among many considered. The surplus of rejected qualified students undoubtedly includes minorities, the likes of which I can personally count as acquaintances and friends.

But perhaps the most damning piece of evidence against his argument is that minority drop-out rates are comparable to those of their white counterparts. According to BH statistics, the retention rate over three years is 76 percent for minorities and 83 percent for whites. Considering the manner in which the cost of college disproportionately affects those with smaller incomes and the feelings of isolation and alienation that many minorities likely feel at UW, I would have expected this slight difference to be larger than it is. Regardless, the statistic demonstrates that the credentials of minorities and whites at UW are almost the same. In this context, Mr. Hahn's notion that UW is recruiting illiterate youth from the inner-city becomes all the more absurd.

2) MPS fails minorities. It is the real culprit.

As a graduate of an MPS school, I can personally attest to the fact that it is not the school system, but the legislature which refuses to fund it properly, that is the problem. Simply put, smaller classrooms are the answer. Perhaps Mr. Hahn can enlighten us on how teachers can educate properly in a class of 40 students who mostly come from impoverished, broken homes, but I doubt it. Kids from these types of backgrounds need small classes and good teachers.

I said above that Mr. Hahn is disingenuous in his analysis of the problem with education, because I sincerely doubt that he would support what's necessary to fix it: more money. As "Michael Johnson" wrote in the comment section, it would hardly be a surprise to see a column next Tuesday about the need to cut education funding.

A final thought: Where are the vitriolic columns about the legacy bonus?