Bush kills afrmative action in Fla.

The use of affirmative action was dealt another blow Tuesday after Florida Gov. Jeb Bush signed an executive order abolishing the use of race and ethnicity in contracting decisions and in college admissions processes across the state.

Affirmative action supporters were quick to criticize Bush's action, while the governor maintained that the order would unite Floridians.

The plan is part of the One Florida Initiative - Bush's plan structured to improve primary and secondary education in Florida, which Bush says will increase the number of minorities in Florida state universities.

''We can increase opportunity and diversity in the state's universities and in state contracting without using policies that discriminate or that pit one racial group against another,'' Bush said at a news conference in Tallahassee, Fla.

The executive order from Bush, a Republican, comes as former University of California Regent Ward Connerly pushes a statewide petition drive in Florida to end its affirmative action programs.

Bush said the One Florida Initiative guarantees the top 20 percent of Florida high school seniors admission to state schools.

Standing with Bush as he announced his plan, Adam Herbert, Florida's State University System chancellor said he would ask the system's Board of Regents to support Bush's plan.

"The role of the State University System is to accommodate the needs of all Floridians," Herbert said in a written statement published in The Oracle, the student newspaper at the University of South Florida.

"The governor's ... program does exactly that in a fair and forthright manner," he said.

Michigan state Sen. David Jaye (R-Washington Twp.) said he praises Bush's action and called on Michigan Gov. John Engler to follow suit.

"Jeb Bush has driven a stake through the heart of the evil vampire of affirmative action and minority preferencing," Jaye said. "Now, will Gov. Engler have the courage to do the same?"

Although Michigan state schools are constitutionally separate from state control, John Truscott, Engler's spokesperson, said that although Engler legally has the same power as Bush when enacting executive orders.

Engler would not target the admissions of University of Michigan or any other state school, Truscott said, explaining that aid such decisions should be left up to a school's elected governing body, like the University of Michigan Board of Regents.

"We have always treated our universities as autonomous," he said.

In 1997, the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Individual Rights filed two lawsuits targeting the admissions practices of the University's Law School and College of Literature, Science and the Arts, contending that three applicants were unfairly evaluated because race was used as an admissions factor.

Speaking at a public forum on affirmative action and diversity at the University last month, University Provost Nancy Cantor criticized alternatives to affirmative action, such as percentage-based admissions, like the one included in Bush's plans for state university admissions.

Cantor said she does not have confidence in percentage admissions because of segregation present in the nation's secondary schools.

University spokesperson Julie Peterson reaffirmed the University's defense of its admissions practices.

"We believe the admissions policy in place are fair and are working well in bringing in a student body that is diverse and intellectually stimulating," she said.

Jaye said Bush's action in Florida is another sign of what he believes is the eventual end of the use of affirmative action across the nation.

"We've rounded the clubhouse turn, and we're making the way into the home stretch," he said.

Although University President Lee Bollinger could not be reached for comment regarding Bush's executive decision, he said in a written statement that the University is watching closely how affirmative action is being attacked in other states.

"We are very concerned about the possibility of a resegregation of higher education, and we have watched with dismay the developments at flagship universities in California and Texas, where minority enrollments have plummeted in the wake of anti-affirmative action decisions there," Bollinger said.

- The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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