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TEXAS' 10% ADMISSION COULD TEACH COLLEGES A THING OR TWO
From USA Today Opinion Website
March 28, 2008
Ten years ago, after a federal court blocked Texas colleges from considering race as a factor in admissions, the state, with George W. Bush as governor, came up with an innovative alternative. In an attempt to make affirmative action colorblind, the top 10% of graduates at each of the state's high schools was granted automatic admission to state universities.
While politically popular, the law was met with skepticism by many experts in both education and civil rights. Some educators feared that even the best students at inner city and rural high schools would never survive academically at the University of Texas. Civil rights leaders complained that the law was rooted in cynicism because it achieves integration in college by relying upon continued segregation of Texas high schools.
Ten years later, we know a little more about the law: It works. Maybe even a little too well, given that the president of the University of Texas asked the Legislature last week to scale it back.
Examples of its success at the University of Texas at Austin include:
* Students admitted under the 10% rule get better grades than other students. Plus, they graduate at higher rates.
* Racial diversity at the Austin campus improved. The number of Hispanic students has risen by 29% and the African-American student population by 32%.
* Economic and geographic diversity improved as well. Before the law took effect, the Austin campus drew from 616 high schools. Now it draws from 853 schools.
University of Texas President William Powers complains that the 10% rule has come to dominate the admissions system. In the next freshman class, it will account for 81% of the students, making it harder to recruit promising students at high-achieving high schools, including minorities, who fall below the 10% line. Powers wants to recruit only half the incoming class through automatic admissions.
Powers raises a fair point, but fixing the problem is just a matter of fine-tuning. The larger lesson is that the law has broadened diversity without running afoul of the courts. Poor white students from rural areas of Texas now get a shot at an elite university, as do poor urban black students. And that provides more diversity than just giving admission breaks to sons and daughters from upper-income minority families, a common feature of more traditional affirmative action programs - which, by the way, we've often supported in this space.
Many critics of the 10% law remain unhappy, pointing to the talented students who end up at campuses less prestigious than Austin because they fall below the threshold. But Texas legislators representing rural and urban neighborhoods have dug in against changes. For the first time, their kids are getting a shot at the state's best education.
Given Texas' success, it's reasonable to ask why other states haven't adopted similar laws. California and Florida enacted automatic admittance plans, but loopholes in both states limit their effectiveness. The plan in Texas deserves another look
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