Why elite-college admissions affect everyone

Good morning! It's Wednesday, July 26th. I'm Shumita Basu. This is "Apple News Today." On today's show, what new research tells us about the lasting effects of elite school admissions policies, how people in Ohio are bypassing legislators to protect abortion rights, and why tonight's U.S. women's World Cup match is one to watch.

But first, let's take a look at some major stories in the news.

30 billion dollars of new money throughout the length of the contract, existing full and part time workers get two dollars and 75 cents more per hour this year. And then, this was a really big sticking point, pay for part time workers, they'll now be bumped up to 21 dollars per hour. Teamsters also saying delivery drivers who are UPS Teamsters will get 49 dollars per hour, industry-leading pay when it comes to that area. So some big developments.

In immigration policy news, a federal judge has struck down the Biden administration's new restrictions on migrants seeking asylum. The system penalizes migrants who cross the border illegally and favors those who schedule appointments to seek asylum. The judge is delaying the ruling to give the government time to appeal.

In that Harvard admissions investigation, and in the recent Supreme Court ruling striking down affirmative action, there was a big focus on a small number of highly selective schools. The Ivies and a handful of others. Only a fraction of students go there. But "Atlantic" writer Annie Lowrey argues that it's still important to focus on these universities because they're deeply influential across our society.

Because these schools are so dominant in educating the elite, there's really strong evidence that you could actually really diversify that elite by just diversifying who goes to these schools. And socioeconomically diversifying that elite, given everything that we know about power and privilege, might really have an impact.

Lowrey writes about new research with hard numbers. Students who attend super-elite schools are 60 percent more likely to enter the top one percent of income-earners, and three times as likely to be working at a prestigious company. Also, the country's most powerful politicians, scientists, judges, and business leaders tend to come from these schools.

The first, and I think one of the biggest, is to eliminate the preference for legacy students, which functionally is affirmative action for rich White kids. It's not all legacy students that have a huge leg up. It's especially the very, very, very wealthy legacy students. And this ends up putting the thumb in the scale from students who come from top one percent families, top 0.1 percent families. And again, the thumb on the scale for wealthy legacy students, you can't believe how heavy it is. It's about a 40 percentage point advantage in admissions.

Another suggestion from the researchers is to stop recruiting athletes. There's this misconception that playing a sport is a way for low-income kids to get an edge. But the reality is different. Many student athletes get into elite schools because they have experience in elite, expensive sports, things like fencing and sailing. And Lowrey has one policy idea of her own. These top schools with massive endowments need to think bigger.

They could be admitting more students, many more students, twice as many students, 10 times as many students by diverting some of their resources into doing so. And so you can imagine them making their classes bigger and making them more socioeconomically diverse. And it would give many more kids the same advantages that they're giving mostly rich kids right now.

Now let's go to Ohio, as part of our series "State of the State," where we look at what voters want, and how their politicians are responding. Or in this case, not responding, which is why people are taking the matter of abortion rights into their own hands. Ohio residents have just gathered enough signatures to put a proposed constitutional amendment on the ballot this November. And according to a recent poll, 58 percent of Ohio voters want to approve it, and add protections for abortion rights to the state constitution.

Should I have a choice in what my healthcare is, and should I be able to say what this is? Should I be able to say that legislators and politicians might not know about medical decisions better than I do?

But before Ohio gets to vote on that in November, voters will face another election next month. And this one's a little complicated. It's a Republican-backed proposal that would make it harder to amend the state constitution. So it has major implications for the proposed abortion amendment. Right now, Ohio requires a simple majority of voters to amend the state constitution. But the issue on the ballot in August would change that to a 60 percent threshold.

Opponents are saying that's, makes it basically impossible to amend the Ohio Constitution. And then there are, the supporters are saying, this is what the U.S. Constitution does at 66 percent.

Reproductive rights advocates and abortion opponents across the country are watching what happens in Ohio. The outcome could influence their strategies for elections to come

Tonight the United States takes on the Netherlands in the World Cup. It's a high-stakes game to watch, a rematch of the last World Cup final when the U.S. beat the Dutch team. Meg Linehan is a writer for "The Athletic" and host of the podcast "Full Time with Meg Linehan." She's been to every single U.S. women's national team game this year. She told "After the Whistle" hosts Brendan Hunt and Rebecca Lowe that so far, the Netherlands doesn't seem to be the same team it was four years ago.

The Netherlands-Portugal game, I don't know if you watched it, but like, it was not a great game. And Netherlands were very wasteful, right? So for as much criticism as the U.S. was getting about, like, you're not finishing your chances, the Netherlands were not finishing their chances. So, it's not gonna be this 2019 final rematch, I don't think.

This match will set the tone for how the rest of the tournament will go, for the U.S. team. Linehan's prediction for the final is that the U.S. will take on Germany. And she says that makes her nervous.

When we played them in two friendlies back in November, the game that the U.S. lost, the first one, U.S. was the better team. Then the game that they won was a little more even. It does feel… it feels a little nervous if we get into USA-Germany, anything can happen.

Linehan is in New Zealand right now, and she says, even off the field, this World Cup has an energy that's pretty exciting.

It really does feel like there's a tournament. Like you walk down the street, and you will just hear people talking about it. And what's great to me is like, they're just saying like, "Oh, at the World Cup, are you gonna the World Cup?" There's no, like, "Are you going to the Women's World Cup?" here It's just World Cup. It's so nice.

That full episode of "After the Whistle" is queued up to play for you next. And remember to cheer on the U.S. women tonight at 9 p.m. Eastern, 6 p.m. Pacific. I'll be back with the news tomorrow.