Richard Kahlenberg

Richard D. Kahlenberg (born June 8, 1963) is an American writer who has written about a variety of education, labor and housing issues.

An education and housing policy consultant, he is also a senior fellow at the Progressive Policy Institute, a nonresident scholar at Georgetown University's McCourt School of Public Policy, and a professorial lecturer at George Washington University's Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration.

Kahlenberg graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College in 1985 and cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1989.

Between college and law school, he spent a year in Kenya at the University of Nairobi School of Journalism, as a Rotary Scholar.

The author or editor of 18 books, he has been called “the intellectual father of the economic integration movement” in K–12 schooling and “arguably the nation’s chief proponent of class-based affirmative action in higher education admissions.” He is also an authority on housing segregation, teachers’ unions, charter schools, community colleges, and labor organizing.

The New York Times called Kahlenberg “the most prominent self-described progressive with doubts about the current version of affirmative action.” In a magazine profile, The New Republic called him an “affirmative action prophet” for toiling away for decades in support of class-based affirmative action, an idea that was “a heresy” among liberals but is likely to become a key path forward for promoting racial diversity.

Kahlenberg's 1996 book The Remedy: Class, Race and Affirmative Action was named one of the best books of the year by The Washington Post.

William Julius Wilson's review in The New York Times called it “by far the most comprehensive and thoughtful account thus far for...affirmative action based on class.”

Kahlenberg won the William A. Kaplin Award for Excellence in Higher Education Law and Policy Scholarship for his research on ways selective colleges can open the doors to more economically disadvantaged students.

William G. Bowen and Michael S. McPherson wrote that he “deserves more credit than anyone else for arguing vigorously and relentlessly for stronger efforts to address disparities by socioeconomic status.” He served as an expert witness to the plaintiffs in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard and Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina.

Kahlenberg has been a Senior Fellow at The Century Foundation, a Fellow at the Center for National Policy, a visiting associate professor of constitutional law at George Washington University, and a legislative assistant to Senator Charles S. Robb (D-VA).

He is serves on the advisory board of the Pell Institute and the Albert Shanker Institute.

Kahlenberg's articles have been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist and The New Republic and he has appeared on ABC, CBS, CNN, FOX, C-SPAN, MSNBC, and NPR.