Schools in low income, low tax base areas receive less funding and therefore have lower quality facilities and fewer resources such as teacher's energy, computers, current or functional libraries and so on. Studies have also indicated that the SAT could be considered culturally biased. Merit is just a word for whatever qualifications are deemed desirable for the performance of a particular task and there is nothing fixed about those qualifications. For example, many committees that determine tenure, which tend to be comprised of tenured white men, discredit where faculty of color publish their material. Faculty of color commonly have work published in community journals, the audience they intend to reach, yet these publications are not deemed scholarly enough.
Affirmative action equals quotas.
Quotas, on one hand, are dismissable because they are illegal. What is permitted under current affirmative action instead are benchmarks, targets and goals. Goals and timetables are set by employers for the employment of people of color and women, along with time frames for achieving these goals. Employers are encouraged to make good faith efforts but there are no legal penalties if they make good faith efforts and are unable to meet the goals. Those who oppose affirmative action claim that this type of perspective still leads to quantification of proportions, making one's ethnicity equal a number.