In a 1978 decision, Justice Lewis F. Powell articulated the rationale for efforts to improve academic diversity, writing, “A farm boy from Idaho can bring something to Harvard College that a Bostonian cannot offer. Similarly, a black student can usually bring something that a white person cannot offer.”

Justice Powell was a Democrat, and made an argument back then that, to me, sounds an awful lot like....

“We should challenge students in these schools,” Mr. Biden said. “We have this notion that somehow if you’re poor, you cannot do it. Poor kids are just as bright and just as talented as white kids.”

He paused, then added: “Wealthy kids, black kids, Asian kids — no I really mean it, but think how we think about it.”

In a 1978 decision, Justice Lewis F. Powell articulated the rationale for efforts to improve academic diversity, writing, “A farm boy from Idaho can bring something to Harvard College that a Bostonian cannot offer. Similarly, a black student can usually bring something that a white person cannot offer.”

Justice Powell was a Democrat, and made an argument back then that, to me, sounds an awful lot like....

“We should challenge students in these schools,” Mr. Biden said. “We have this notion that somehow if you’re poor, you cannot do it. Poor kids are just as bright and just as talented as white kids.”

He paused, then added: “Wealthy kids, black kids, Asian kids — no I really mean it, but think how we think about it.”