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Texas Ten Percent Law Should Be Discontinued
In 1997, a law known as the Texas ten percent law was passed. This law requires Texas state universities to accept all high school seniors graduating in the top ten percent of their class. ... I will show that the law is not accomplishing its goal, but instead is destroying our public universities. The Texas ten percent law should be discontinued so that all college applicants will have an equal chance of admission.
The ten percent law is a direct result of an anti affirmative action law which was passed in 1996. This 1996 law, known as the Hopwood case was filed against the University of Texas Law School. “The Hopwood case involved Cheryl Hopwood and three other white plaintiffs, who after being denied admission to the University of Texas School of Law, filed a lawsuit against the University in 1992 claiming less qualified minorities were admitted based on race”(Hodgson 1). In 1996 as a result of the Hopwood case, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the School of Law could not consider race as a factor in admissions. ... In an attempt to restore minority enrollments in the state’s public universities, the ten percent law (House Bill 588) was passed in 1997 by the seventy-fifth legislator. This new law requires Texas state universities to accept all high school graduates graduating in the top ten percent of their class. Since the ten percent law was passed, there have been various opinions regarding the law’s necessity. A large sector of the minority population supports the law because it increases the minority enrollments in the universities. There are many minorities that would not have had a chance of acceptance before the law was passed, that are now being admitted. On the other hand, the students who went to non-accredited private schools, were in the lower ninety percent of competitive public schools, or were home schooled claim that the law prevents qualified students from being accepted. ...
Although the purpose for the law was to increase minority enrollment in Texas colleges and universities, it has not increased the number of minorities enrolled. ... Berdahl stated that the ten percent law has sustained roughly the same number of undergraduate minorities enrolled at the University of Texas as before the law (6). Since the law was passed, some universities have used recruitment procedures attempting to increase the number of eligible minority students applying to the universities (Holley 265). ...
Since I graduated from high school last spring, I have become very familiar with the ten percent law and how it is affecting students’ education. ... They said that the ten percent law had made the openings that were left highly competitive and I did not meet the qualifications to fill an opening. ... No, but this law is making many schools, students and parents do unreasonable and sometimes illegal things in order to be accepted: “Several Texas high schools have been accused of exaggerating the top ten percent of their graduating classes to allow more students an opportunity to attend the public college and university of their choice” (Trifilio 1). ...
As I stated earlier, the ten percent law is not accomplishing its initial goal, which was increasing the number of minority students enrolled in Texas state universities. Despite these reports that the ten percent law is not working, it still has numerous supporters. One argument that many supporters use in support of the law is that it allows students in poor schools, who do not take advanced level courses admission to the universities.
Approximate Word count = 2840
Approximate Pages = 11.4
(250 words per page double spaced)
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