Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/22pdf/20-1199_l6gn.pdf
Page Number: 158.0

Cite as:  600 U. S. ____ (2023) 

19 

SOTOMAYOR, J., dissenting 

turn, underrepresented minorities are more likely to attend 
schools with less qualified teachers, less challenging curric-
ula, lower standardized test scores, and fewer extracurric-
ular activities and advanced placement courses.9  It is thus 
unsurprising that there are achievement gaps along racial 
lines, even after controlling for income differences.10 

Systemic  inequities  disadvantaging  underrepresented 
racial minorities exist beyond school resources.  Students of 
color,  particularly  Black  students,  are  disproportionately
disciplined or suspended, interrupting their academic pro-
gress  and  increasing  their  risk  of  involvement  with  the 
criminal justice system.11  Underrepresented minorities are 
less likely to have parents with a postsecondary education 
who may be familiar with the college application process.12 
Further, low-income children of color are less likely to at-
tend  preschool  and  other  early  childhood  education  pro-
grams that increase educational attainment.13  All of these 

—————— 
School Funding: How Housing Discrimination Reproduces Unequal Op-
portunity 17–19 (Apr. 2022). 

9 See Brief for 25 Harvard Student and Alumni Organizations as Amici 

Curiae 6–15 (collecting sources). 

10 GAO Report 7; see also Brief for Council of the Great City Schools as 

Amicus Curiae 11–14 (collecting sources). 

11 See J. Okonofua & J. Eberhardt, Two Strikes: Race and the Disci-
plining of Young Students, 26 Psychol. Sci. 617 (2015) (a national survey
showed that “Black students are more than three times as likely to be
suspended or expelled as their White peers”); Brief for Youth Advocates 
and  Experts  on  Educational  Access  as  Amici  Curiae  14–15  (describing
investigation in North Carolina of a public school district, which found 
that  Black  students  were  6.1  times  more  likely  to  be  suspended  than 
white students). 

12 See, e.g., Dept. of Education, National Center for Education Statis-
tics, Digest of Education Statistics (2021) (Table 104.70) (showing that
59% of white students and 78% of Asian students have a parent with a
bachelor’s degree or higher, while the same is true for only 25% of Latino
students and 33% of Black students). 

13 R. Crosnoe, K. Purtell, P. Davis-Kean, A. Ansari, & A. Benner, The 
Selection  of  Children  From  Low-Income  Families  into  Preschool,  52  J.