... point about fudnamental access, and how it is lacking from jump street... BUT:

Schools and their funding largely are representative of local mores: fiscal, cultural, and religious (last two overlap, but aren't the same). States, then counties, then town/cities decide how their public schools run. If East Cupcake, Long Island decides to flood its schools with dough, to the detriment of enarby Central Cupcake, Long Island; what is FedGov to do to even the scales?

Affirmative action is a Federal action to make at least a pandering effort to even the chronic imbalances that START locally. I agree with Grimm's assessment of its origins. White people blast it because they feel somehow cheated – "He took my place when I was more/just as qualified because he's BLACK!" But the truth is, for a LOOOOOOONNNNNG time, it's been the other way around: "He took my place when I was more/just as qualified because he's WHITE!" So what's a little payback amongst friends?

Also, even if its helping marginal students get access to universities; these marginal students will have a better chance at social mobility, and hopefully, their descendents will be LESS dependant on AA. So even evaluated at its worst – as reverse discrimination – it is an attempt to diminish long-term race distinctions, by adding EXTRA access at the end of the tunnel.