The House passed a cap on the top 10% admissions policy for UT-Austin and Texas A&M.
"The University of Texas wants to be an all-white university," said Dutton. "... I think they are trying to give us the middle finger."The FW Startlegram story is where we found that gem.
Funny, we kind of get the middle finger a lot so we're more used to it than Dutton probably is.
Wonk hit it on the head. The only reason it works is Texas public schools are in essence segregated. Which to me, makes it all the more important we do cap the 10% rule and allow for narrowly targeted affirmative action as permited in the two UMich rulings by the Supreme Court last summer. I believe in very strongly every Texas university needs a diverse student body, but the 10% rule allows in too many that are not as academically prepared. Such an affirmative action program will help keep the balance.
This is the problem in America, the uninformed do all the talking. The numbers show that under affirmative action the number one benefactors are Caucasians. White women benefit most from affirmative action, and with the top ten percent students from rural Texas benefit most. Over the past 10 years the number of Black students at UT has only increased by 30 students. So the top 10% does not benefit racial diversity it benefits geographical diversity. Also the students admitted under the top 10% are out performing the rest of the student body. So by ending or capping the top 10% rule, rural Caucasians will be hurt. If anything capping will aide minorites in getting in. Please do your research next time.
Actually, the 10% rule results in an ethnically/racially diverse student body. It also results in the most diverse student body, in terms of students from every county in the state, than ever before in UT's history. The 10% rule is primarly opposed by those parents of kids from affluent school districts who aren't in the top 10% in their class, but still make good grades and have good SAT score -- those folks think THEIR kids have a "right" to go to UT. On the downside, the weird thing is that the 10% rule only results in a racially diverse body because school district are de-facto segregated -- i.e., generally speaking, black kids are in urban high schools while white kids are in suburban high schools; hispanic/latino kids are found in both urban and suburban schools, but also have high concentration in schools closer to the border.