Enrollment of Black and Hispanic students in medical schools dropped precipitously last year after the Supreme Court banned the consideration of race in admissions, according to data released Thursday by the Association of American Medical Colleges.
The number of Black enrollees fell by 11.6% compared to last year, while the number of Hispanic enrollees decreased 10.8%. The numbers were even starker for Indigenous students; the number of American Indian or Alaska Natives dropped by 22.1%, while students who were Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islanders dropped by 4.3%.
The new numbers reflect the first medical school class that was selected since the court’s decision and seem to validate the concerns of those who feared the June 2023 decision would lead to less diverse medical school classes and ultimately a less diverse medical workforce, harming efforts to end the country’s deeply rooted racial health disparities.
“This ruling will make it even more difficult for the nation’s colleges and universities to help create future health experts and workers that reflect the diversity of our great nation,” Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said at the time. “This represents a potentially critical blow to our efforts to make sure the medical workforce is diverse,” James Hildreth, the president of Meharry Medical College, a historically Black institution, told STAT after the ruling was announced.
The number of white students remained about the same. Increases were seen in the number of Asian students, which rose by 8.4%, and in the number of students reporting their race as “other” or unknown.
The numbers erode steady gains made in recent years in enrollment of groups underrepresented in medicine and brings enrollment of Black and Hispanic students back to pre-pandemic levels, according to AAMC officials, who previously said they were “deeply disappointed” by the Supreme Court decision. In a statement Thursday, David Skorton, the organization’s president and CEO, said its member medical schools remain committed to diversifying the health care workforce. “Evidence shows that a more varied workforce can improve access to health care and the health of our communities,” he said.
In California, where affirmative action in admissions was banned by a ballot measure in 1996, enrollment of Black and Hispanic medical schools similarly dropped steeply at the time, but it has risen since then at one school, the University of California, Davis, after two decades of work by medical school leaders.