Richard D. Kahlenberg (born June 8, 1963) is an American researcher and writer who has written about a variety of education, labor and housing issues.
Kahlenberg is Director of the American Identity Project and Director of Housing Policy at the Progressive Policy Institute, and a professorial lecturer at George Washington University's Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration.
The author or editor of 20 books, Richard D. Kahlenberg has been described as âÂÂthe intellectual father of the economic integration movementâ in KâÂÂ12 education and âÂÂarguably the nationâÂÂs chief proponent of class-based affirmative action in higher education admissions.â He has also written extensively on housing, teachersâ unions, charter schools, community colleges, and labor organizing.
Kahlenberg's articles have been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist and The Atlantic and he has appeared on ABC, CBS, CNN, FOX, C-SPAN, MSNBC, and NPR.
Kahlenberg graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College in 1985 and then graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School with his Juris Doctor degree 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.
After graduating from law school, Kahlenberg served as a legislative assistant to Senator Charles S. Robb (D-VA) from 1989 to 1993.ÃÂ 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.ÃÂ 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 âÂÂthe most prominent self-described progressive with doubts about the current version of affirmative action.â In a profile published by The New Republic, he was described as an âÂÂaffirmative action prophetâ for his long-standing support of class-based affirmative action, an idea that was once considered âÂÂa heresyâ 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 âÂÂby far the most comprehensive and thoughtful account thus far for...affirmative action based on class.âÂÂ
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 âÂÂdeserves more credit than anyone else for arguing vigorously and relentlessly for stronger efforts to address disparities by socioeconomic status.âÂÂ
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.àA front-page profile in the New York Times labeled Kahlenberg a âÂÂliberal maverickâ 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 AmericaâÂÂs Colleges. The New York Times called the book a âÂÂspirited argument for a liberal politics of class rather than raceâ¦serious, measured and fair-minded.âÂÂ
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.àHis book, All Together Now: Creating Middle Class Schools through Public School Choice, was labeled âÂÂa clarion call for the socioeconomic desegregation of U.S. public schoolsâ by the Harvard Education Review and âÂÂa substantial contribution to a national conversationâ on education by the Washington Post.àKahlenberg 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.àHis 2023 book on the topic, Excluded: How Snob Zoning, NIMBYism and Class Bias Build the Walls We DonâÂÂt See, was awarded the 2023 Goddard Riverside Award for Social Justice.àHe 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, Don Beyer, Bill Bradley, Linda Chavez, Francis Fukuyama, Doug Jones, Elisa New, Johnny Taylor Jr., Ritchie Torres, and Darren Walker.