After graduating from law school, Kahlenberg served as a legislative assistant to
Senator Charles S. Robb (D-VA) from 1989 to 1993. He then served as a visiting associate professor of constitutional law at
George Washington University from 1994 to 1995 and as a Fellow at the
Center for National Policy from 1996 to 1998. From 1998 to 2022, Kahlenberg was a senior fellow at
The Century Foundation, a liberal think tank founded in 1919. There, he authored or edited 15 books on K-12 schooling, higher education, and labor unions.
Proponent of Class-Based Affirmative Action The New York Times referred to Kahlenberg as “the most prominent self-described progressive with doubts about the current version of affirmative action.” In a profile published by
The New Republic, he was described as an “affirmative action prophet” for his long-standing support of class-based affirmative action, an idea that was once considered “a heresy” among liberals, but is now seen as a potential path forward for promoting racial diversity. His 1996 book
The Remedy: Class, Race and Affirmative Action was named one of the best books of the year by
The Washington Post. In a review for The New York Times, sociologist William Julius Wilson 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, cases in which the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately declared racial preference policies unlawful. A front-page profile in the New York Times labeled Kahlenberg a “liberal maverick” for his role in allying with the conservative plaintiffs. Kahlenberg detailed his involvement in the cases in his 2025 book,
Class Matters: The Fight to Get Beyond Race Preferences, Reduce Inequality and Build Real Diversity at America’s Colleges. The New York Times called the book a “spirited argument for a liberal politics of class rather than race…serious, measured and fair-minded.”
Supporter of K-12 Integration by Socioeconomic Status Kahlenberg has been a long-time supporter of efforts to use socioeconomic factors to create racial and economic diversity in K-12 schooling. His book,
All Together Now: Creating Middle Class Schools through Public School Choice, was labeled “a clarion call for the socioeconomic desegregation of U.S. public schools” by the Harvard Education Review and “a substantial contribution to a national conversation” on education by the Washington Post. Kahlenberg has advised a number of school districts on diversity including New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Charlotte-Mecklenburg.
Housing Expert Kahlenberg has been a critic of exclusionary zoning laws that reduce the affordability of housing and increase economic and racial residential segregation. His 2023 book on the topic,
Excluded: How Snob Zoning, NIMBYism and Class Bias Build the Walls We Don’t See, was awarded the 2023 Goddard Riverside Award for Social Justice. He has testified before Congress on the topic, and as director of housing policy at the Progressive Policy Institute, Kahlenberg has been recognized by Washington Magazine as one of the most influential people shaping policy.
Director of the American Identity Project At the Progressive Policy Institute, Kahlenberg directs the American Identity Project, which seeks to support educators in teaching students what it means to be an American. The effort is guided by an advisory group of prominent Americans, including co-chairs
David Brooks and
William Galston, and members
Danielle Allen,
Anne Applebaum,
Don Beyer,
Bill Bradley,
Linda Chavez,
Francis Fukuyama,
Doug Jones, David McCullough III,
Elisa New,
Johnny Taylor Jr.,
Ritchie Torres, and
Darren Walker. ==Works==