| For years, the University of Texas has been trying to amend the top ten percent rule to give them more flexibility in admissions. From my freshman class, 71% of those admitted were admitted by the top ten percent rule. With this year's freshman class, it was 80%. And in the 80th Session, too, the universities got real close. Top 10 Percent reform passed the Senate, and it even passed the House on a second reading -- but it failed on the third reading in the House.
Once again, Top Ten Percent Reform, in SB 175, has passed the Senate. Today it comes up in the House.
Democrats are pretty divided on this issue. The conflicting interests are accessibility (for Texans) and a higher national competitiveness for our Tier 1 universities. The Top Ten Percent Rule has been great for accessibility in that the best students at less privileged inner city schools and rural schools have more easily gotten into the University of Texas (and even Texas A&M).
The University of Texas and fellow proponents of reform have pointed out that the Top Ten Percent Rule has now left UT with much less choice as to who to admit, and the circumstances leave out smart high school students who simply were more dedicated to goals other than their grades. This might not be a problem, either, if UT has not tried to lower the amount of students on campus. The only problem is, the Legislature does not want to fund the University of Texas, so it was hard to keep so many students. Instead, the Lege has decided to work on kinks like this rule to help out.
Unfortunately, as the economy is worse, the current Top Ten Percent Rule will burden UT immensely, and such exclusivity to Texans that would come of it would lessen UT's reputation nationally. Attending this school, and seeing the professors that come here, I know this is one of the very top universities in the country, but not every ranking will show you that. Unfortunately, some students that rank, say, in the 8th percentile of their high school classes while doing little else with their lives come to UT instead of many people in the 12th percentile who are active in their communities. That is why some Democrats and I are on the side of reform. We are all for accessibility, but we want our schools to compete on the highest of levels.
Interestingly, the House Committee Substitute on SB 175 is more lenient to the Universities than the original SB 175 out of the Senate. I presume we will find out later today whether that is more reflective of the House moving towards reform than two years ago (as they were in the 78th and 79th sessions) or if it is more reflective of Higher Education Chair Dan Branch's strong relationship with UT President Bill Powers. I'd bet the latter, but we'll see where amendments go. And we'll see where the final vote ends up.
I imagine if the Committee Substitute from the House Committee on Higher Education passes the House, then a compromise will definitely be reached in the Senate. The Senate passed Top Ten Percent Reform easily for the second year in a row, and I doubt many Senators in a conference committee will have trouble working with a version more lenient to UT and A&M. On the other hand, do not be surprised if amendments in the House change SB 175 to be less lenient to UT and A&M than the Senate version. If a less lenient version passes the House, proponents of SB 175 will still have to lobby hard to get this passed. As we saw in 2007, it's the type of issue that can die quite easily.
In the Senate, everyone who voted against SB 175 was a Democrat. I imagine the same won't be true in the House. Since House districts are smaller, there are many more Republicans who represent entirely rural districts. And the Top Ten Percent rule helps out the rural districts more than urban districts. I think we will learn today a lot about the fate of Top Ten Percent reform, though. We will see how strongly the argument of accessibility for every TYPE of Texan does today. |
