This is necessary for practical reasons. If were completely color blind or gender neutral, then this would create a different problem.

Your daughter, assuming she was qaulified, may have had scores equal or comparable to the few minority students who have also achieved qualifying scores. If we ignore race, we’d overlook this small group of kids. The public school would then be completely white and no minorities would benefit.

There is usually anywhere from 10 to 20 qualified white kids per black child with qualifying scores. The problem with ignoring race and only considering other factors such as poverty, single parent home, etc., is that there are several qualified students from the majority that meet this criteria as well. They would likely acquire those slots as well, because many would have higher scores then the minority kids. I am not saying that these students don’t deserve to get in, but they should be admitted by using some of the slots reserved for white students.

And to be quite honest with you, there is no reason to assume that your child would have been admitted if that one slot was not reserved for a minority. Another white child with higher scores may have beaten her out. There usually are more qualified candidates than there are available slots in those TAG programs.