Automatic college spots for Texas' top grads under fire [View All]

[Nottingham]

Automatic college spots for Texas' top grads under fire
Associated Press


AUSTIN -- In a move likely to spark a fight at the Capitol, a state senator is working on legislation to repeal the law guaranteeing the top 10 percent of high school graduates a spot in the state university of their choice.
Sen. Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio, said after this summer's U.S. Supreme Court ruling allowing the use of race as a factor in college admissions, he has decided the top 10 percent law is unnecessary.

Wentworth doesn't see the topic coming up during the current special legislative session, but he is working toward getting it on the agenda next spring when Gov. Rick Perry is expected to call a special session on public school finance.
"It seems to me we can go back to the way we were admitting people before, which is better than the top 10 percent rule," Wentworth said in today's editions of the Austin American-Statesman.

The top 10 percent law has become an issue at the University of Texas at Austin, where more than 70 percent of Texans admitted as freshmen this fall were guaranteed admission under that law. In the regular legislative session this year, UT officials pressed for a cap on the percentage admitted, but that effort failed.
The law was passed in 1997 after another court case involving UT admissions resulted in a ban on affirmative action for Texas college and university admissions. After recent contacts from UT and Texas A&M University officials, Wentworth said he favors outright repeal.

more....

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/2119731

I guess Michigan is setting the standard now! :bounce: