Top 10 Percent Debate Will Begin Before Higher Ed Committee Today

The House Committee on Higher Education today will consider a number of bills that will tinker with the so-called “top ten percent rule.” The meeting is scheduled for 9:00 a.m.
You will recall that, late last year, we alerted you to the debate and likely assault that would be surrounding the rule this session. I expect today’s Higher Education committee meeting to be the first part of that.

The first bill up for consideration is HB 78 by Rep. Dan Branch (R-Dallas), which has companion legislation by Shapiro in the Senate.

Branch’s bill would cap the number of top-ten percent students granted automatic admission to Texas’ public universities to 10 percent. In short, the cap would result in universities like UT ending up only admitting the top eight percnt or top seven percent or whatever percentage cutoff would result in 40 percent of the incoming freshman class.

HB 212 by Rep. Beverly Wooley (R-Houston), however, is a full-frontal assault on the top-ten percent rule: it would scrap the program all together.

Those bills aren’t the only ones up for consideration. Check the committee agenda for more information.

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