I got an email from the UNC Kasa listserve promoting the support of HR133.

What is it?

What the bill does:

The legislation provides the U.S. Department of
Education with the authority to provide grants of
assistance to higher education institutions that have
at least 10% Asian American and Pacific Islander
undergraduate enrollment to enable such institutions
to improve and expand their capacity to serve Asian
Americans and Pacific Islanders. Qualifying
institutions would have to meet certain criteria and
priority consideration will be given to institutions
that serve a significant percentage of low-income
students.

Whoa, what a dangerous game we're playing. As much as I'd love to see more money allotted to Asian-American studies in colleges, this is an incredibly dangerous road.

The keywords that you see there are at least 10% ... this indirectly supports the fulfillment of quotas by colleges. Imagine if you're the Chancellor of an unnamed college with an APA population of 9%. What are you going to do next year to get some extra money?

Of course, you'll admit enough students to fulfill that magical 10% quota so you can get some more money for the cash-strapped coffers.

This also goes back to a key argument that I really dislike: The ability of small interest groups to push their own agendas, slowly leaking money away from Congress. You can blame whatever political party you want, but it all boils own to special interest groups pushing their own agendas that create our incredibly large deficit. Although I'm not implying that the APA is some push-off minority, but where do you draw the line where special interest groups do not get money?

True, the establishment of APA studies would be beneficial, but not at the cost of other programs which might be more meaningful. Of course, it's hard to figure out where this money is coming from:

From where will the funding come?

This legislation establishes a new program to be
funded under the Higher Education Act. It will not
affect other minority serving institutions and would
require a separate appropriation.

Translation: We'll just magically find the money somewhere, but don't worry, we won't steal from other minorities!

The bill is based on a very dangerous ground; everything I feel about affirmative action and special interest groups have led me to strongly discourage the support for this bill based on those principles. The establishment of APA groups should be funded through the private sector ...

Do not turn to the government to be your father. That is not the role of the government.

I know you're reading this and you either strongly agree or disagree. I'm open to debate. If something is unclear about my stance, let me know.