Texas University Diversity Plan Under Attack

Perry on Bush's Plan: "Texans see it as a problem"

Seven years ago, after a federal court outlawed the use of race in the admissions policies of the state's public universities, the Legislature came up with an answer: It passed a law guaranteeing admission to the top 10 percent of the graduating class from any public or private high school. After a few years of hard work, diversity was restored and other states, including California and Florida, adopted similar approaches. The law looked like a success.

But the 10 percent rule, which seemed to skirt the tricky issue of race so deftly, is coming under increasing attack these days as many wealthy parents complain that their children are not getting a fair shake.

Parents whose children have been denied admission to the University of Texas at Austin, the crown jewel of Texas higher education, argue that some high schools are better than others, and that managing to stay in the top 25 percent at a demanding school should mean more than landing in the top 10 percent at a less rigorous one.

el - Problems obvious from the beginning, conservatives don't think.

"It's a big-time social class story," said Marta Tienda, a Princeton University professor of sociology and public affairs who has studied the effects of the rule. "School type is the proxy for social class."

Guidance counselors and administrators at rural schools question the motives behind changing the rule.

"The State of Texas has done a great thing by offering this opportunity to get our most gifted students into a challenging educational setting," said Cherri S. Franklin, principal of the public junior and senior high school in Marfa. "And the rich people don't want them there."

Bruce Walker, vice provost and director of admissions at the University of Texas, said data collected by the university showed that students admitted under the 10 percent rule consistently get better grades than other students. Critics question that data, however, and argue that SAT scores are a better measure of students' abilities.

State Senator Royce West, a Democrat from Dallas, predicted that reaching consensus on changes to the 10 percent rule would be difficult. Senator West, who heads the committee that will hold the hearing on the rule, conducted an end-of-session filibuster to block a cap on it.

"I am not going to stand here and let this rule be abolished when it has not served its purpose yet," he said. He said any changes would have to continue some form of preference for students at schools that have historically been underrepresented.

Mr. Walker of the University of Texas said, "The only thing that would satisfy everyone is an open-door policy and an unlimited number of spaces."