May 22, 2005
Change in Top Ten Percent Rule Unlikely
By Byron LaMasters
The Houston Chronicle reports:
Prospects for changes to the state's "top 10 percent" university admissions law dimmed Saturday as a Senate committee killed a House bill that would cap admissions under the law.
The Senate Education Committee voted 3-3 against House Bill 2330.
As passed by the House, the bill would have allowed a university to cap its mandatory admissions at 50 percent of the total freshman class.
Even before the committee vote was taken, however, the bill had been rewritten with language from a Senate bill that would not have capped admissions, but would have required high school students to take harder courses.
That language was from Senate Bill 333, which also died in a House committee Saturday as a deadline passed.
Something needs to be done about the ten percent rule. It was a reasonable short term solution, but a long term solution is needed. I guess the lege was too busy making same sex marriage super extra illegal than actually dealing with higher education issues.
Posted by Byron LaMasters at May 22, 2005 11:41 PM
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Yeah, when they should have been dealing with homosexuals in the top ten percent of their class. (sarcasm)
At least we know where their priorities are...
"If we don't put the gays on double secret probation, Western civilization will collapse OMG!!11!!!1!"
Yeah pretty much. The 79th Lege has had some pretty effed-up priorities. That ought to be a major talking point.
Although my kids will no doubt be shafted by the 10% rule if we are still in Texas when they reach college age (they are ages 2 and 6 right now) because my wife and I will alway make an effort to live in neighborhoods with the best schools, I fail to see anything really wrong with the 10% rule. The real injustice is the educational disparity between school districts.
Perhaps the one change that could/should be made is to expand the program to include more universities. Why are Texas Tech, UTEP, Houston etc. not part of the program?
I also have no problem with requiring that kids take an advanced placement type of curriculum to qualify, provided that their school provides one.
Yeah, what's wrong with the top ten percent rule? I don't get the problem - the people who are most upset about it usually don't take advantage of the offer anyway. If you're an exceptionally bright or exceptionally rich, you're not going to waste your time in Texas public colleges and universities anyway. The majority of people who benefit from this are smaller, poorer, and more minority-filled schools. These are the kids who can use it to get their foot in the door at an approriate school for success. It's a better situation than quotas, although not good enough to get great diversity, Look at UT's black population - disgraceful. And it's by no means perfect, with discrepencies in variations of grading and this disparity of education at rich schools versus poor ones. Then again, those at rich schools are going elsewhere.
Perhaps you could explain the problem you have with a bit more. I get that the legislators are wasting their time - marriage bill and cheerleaders withstanding - but help me understand where your coming from.
