The so-called Texas Ten Percent Plan allows high school students graduating in the top 10 percent of their Texas high school class guaranteed admission to public colleges and universities in the state. Last month, the Texas senate voted 24 to 7 to modify the law. The modification would remove the admissions guarantee and cap admissions to 50 percent, as opposed to the current 80 percent at the University of Texas (UT). The bill now goes to the house.
Inside Higher Ed reports that two new studies about the plan are scheduled to be released next Friday at the American Educational Research Association’s annual meeting. While one study focuses on high schools that send students to UT under the plan, the other study found that transfers from community colleges to UT fell under the plan, a consequence that negatively affects low-income and minority students.
And we can’t have any of that.
UT President William Powers complained about another unintended consequence of the Ten Percent Plan. It was causing capacity problems. Powers said if lawmakers didn’t change the policy, UT would run out of room for students who are not admitted under it. The Texas Ten Percent Plan was the result of a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, Hopwood v. Texas (1996). The court ruled that using race preferences in college admissions to achieve “diversity” was unconstitutional. Consequently, Texas created a new policy to admit more black and Hispanic students in a race-neutral way. Unfortunately, UT returned to the practice of considering race in admissions after the Supreme Court ruled in 2003 that race could be a factor.
We’ll post links to the studies next week if available.
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