Lawmakers Leave Texas Admissions Law Intact
Feature Story by civilrights.org staff - 6/7/2005
The legislative session in Texas concluded on May 24 without the House and Senate reaching agreement on proposals to modify a state law guaranteeing students in the top 10 percent of their high school class automatic admission to any state public university.Enacted in 1997, the law was intended to provide underrepresented minorities with access to colleges and universities, following a federal court decision banning the consideration of race in university admissions.
Senate and House legislation proposing modifications to the law differed dramatically.
Senate bill (SB) 333 was introduced by State Senate Education Committee Chair Senator Royce West, D. Dallas, an advocate of the top 10 percent law. SB 333 would keep intact the basic provisions of the law, while adding extra curriculum requirements for students seeking to qualify for the program.
State Senator West has called the top 10 percent law "the most fair and efficient way to ensure that students from all walks of life and from all parts of our state have access to institutions of higher learning."
House bill 2330, sponsored by State Representative Geanie Morrison, R. Victoria, would allow colleges to lower, from 100 percent to 50 percent, the acceptance rate of incoming freshman who are within the top 10 percent of their high school class.
The Texas affiliates of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), NAACP, and the League of United Latin American Citizens have testified at previous committee hearings in support of the top 10 percent law, highlighting how the program has helped underrepresented students from urban and rural areas.
Earlier this year, Luis Figueroa, state policy analyst at MALDEF, proposed that colleges should institute, in addition to the top 10 percent law, "a limited affirmative action program to allow for race to be considered among one of many factors to attend the universities in Texas."
Lawmakers are expected to revisit the issue in two years, at the start of the next legislative session.
