You have /5 articles left.
Sign up for a free account or log in.
The Maryland state Capitol in Annapolis, where the House of Delegates passed a bill to ban legacy admissions last week.
Alex Wong/Getty Images
The Maryland House of Delegates passed a bill Thursday that would ban the consideration of legacy status in admissions for all colleges that receive state funding, both public and private. It will move on to the state Senate next.
“With this legislation, we end an unfair practice that benefits a select number of students over those less privileged and connected,” Delegate Jazz Lewis, the bill’s sponsor, tweeted after the vote.
It’s one of a smattering of similar bills moving through state legislatures this year. Both bodies of Virginia’s state Legislature unanimously passed legislation last month banning legacy admissions at public colleges, including the University of Virginia and the College of William & Mary; Governor Glenn Youngkin is likely to sign it into law. Other states, including Connecticut, Massachusetts and New York, are considering legislation that applies to private colleges as well, and federal legislation to ban the practice at a national level has been introduced in both the House and Senate.
Legacy consideration in elite college admissions has come under heightened public scrutiny since last summer’s Supreme Court ruling striking down race-based affirmative action, breathing new life into a decades-old public policy battle over the practice.
