Public universities in Texas do not practice "affirmative action." They'd love to, but a federal appeals court decision in 1996 gave them the negative. But the Texas university officials weren't going to take the decision lying down. The state quickly passed the "Top 10 Percent Law" which guarantees admission to any public university in Texas to all students with high school GPAs in the top 10 percent of their class. Because of the regional nature of the racial diversity of Texas, the plan has been successful in increasing numbers of minority students.
As the possibility looms of the Supreme Court deeming all explicit affirmative action in college admissions unconstitutional, public universities may look to the Texas model for circumventing this law. Florida and California already have followed suit. ("Texas' Colleges' Diversity Plan May Be New Model," The Washington Post, Nov. 4) However, laws that admit a certain top percent of a graduating class will satisfy no one. This law will both damage the success of public universities and prove unfair to deserving students.
Here's what happens with the 10 percent law: Since it is illegal to admit less qualified students explicitly by race, admit the same less qualified students just as explicitly by region. The extreme racial segregation of secondary schools in Texas guarantees the variety in the top 10th of graduates (The Washington Post). It's a brilliant plan where schools get their racial diversity even though race-based admissions is supposed to be unconstitutional.
But high schools in Texas are equally diverse in merit, as well. At highly competitive, predominantly white suburban schools, the top 10 percent cut-off may be close to a difficult 4.0. While at the poorer schools that the plan targets, GPA standards are much less stringent. You can bet that an A at the first is more challenging than the same grade at the second. UT-Austin's "Longhorn Scholars," underprivileged, mostly minority kids actively recruited under the 10 percent plan, typically have SAT scores more than 200 points lower than their counterparts (The Washington Post).
Standardized tests and other formal application components need not be even looked at for admission in Texas. In 2001, more than half of UT-Austin's incoming freshman class were accepted under the top 10 percent law (Common Data Set, University of Texas, Austin). Thus students, white or other, at good high schools, who may have exceptional boards, extracurriculars and essays but come in a little under the GPA requirements now compete for limited spots in the freshman class. Meanwhile, the cringe-word quota comes to mind for the plan's ability to get up minority percentages at the flagship schools of UT-Austin and Texas A&M. Previous policies at least reviewed candidates on an individual level.
On the university level, less qualified students are being shoved into an elite system. The law's enactment included provisions for remedial classes to be set up for incoming 10percent students from less competitive high schools. The fiscal consequences alone should give states and universities pause. The result in Texas was, yes, an increase of racial diversity to levels comparable to when affirmative action was practiced. However, the state is left with less qualified student bodies and a lot of angry white kids who are thinking about leaving Texas for college.
The 10 percent law hurts secondary school education, too. Texas students are well aware of the law's existence and implications, and elite schools report that the effects are obvious. Students who used to take challenging classes are going for guts like "choir" for the sake of the easy 'A' (The Washington Post). GPA has become of arbitrary value. The 10 percent law also deters diversification of high schools. Incentive decreases for a minority student to attend a competitive school where he would obtain a better education, if by staying at an easier school he would be assured admission to the public university of his choice. The plan's viability rests on high schools retaining homogeneity in race and quality of student.
Believers in the principles of affirmative action needn't be thrilled about the percentage plan, either. Consider that the original intention of affirmative action was not to proliferate an abstract idea of "diversity" but to make up for past injustice done to racial minorities, particularly blacks. Asian-Americans, not blacks, are benefiting most from Texas's 10 percent plan, enrolling at rates disproportionate to their total population (The Washington Post). Another group, rural, poorer white kids, are also reaping the fruits of this law. And the black student who challenged herself to attend one of Texas' best public schools? Chances are that even if she did well, she came in under 10 percent and thus is guaranteed nothing for her efforts.
What we have in Texas is something equivalent to admissions gerrymandering. If Virginia enacted something similar to Texas with higher standards, like California's top 4 percent law, many of you upper-middle class, Northern Virginia kids would be crying over at JMU. Your AP course transcript, 1400 SATs and perfect recommendations would be in the trash along with your essay on how a summer in Florence changed your life. The percentage plan is a glorified version of affirmative action that has the power to ruin the viability of public universities as competitive institutions. If the Supreme Court strikes down affirmative action, worry now that the battle to keep college admissions merit-based will all have been all for naught.
(Kimberly Liu's column appears Mondays in The Cavalier Daily. She can be reached at kliu@cavalierdaily.com.)
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