The Ten Percent Plan

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/affirm/stories/aaop121997.htm

If you take a second to look at this article, you might something particularly interesting. Texas' Clinton-backed Ten Percent plan is a very interesting new way of trying to balance the demands of proponents of affirmative action with the fears of the combatants of affirmative action. For thoses uninterested in reading the article, it proposes, in Texas, automatically admitting the top ten percent of each school into UT or another state-run texas university. Keep in mind this discussion is from 1997 and I am just speaking of the idea behind the plan and its possible repercussions. The law acts as a way to fairly promote equality in admissions practices while still encouraging diversity, just not in the way UT was doing it before to have it be ruled unconstitutional (using "quotas" and adding "values of preference"). However, I agree it does not fully achieve its purpose. In areas where there are mostly caucasian kids and one african-american student, the chances of him making it to that top 10 are smaller than in other areas, and then he may be out of luck as far as affirmative action goes. Also, many minority students are deprived of appropriate education before the high school level, leaving them helpless in the face of the ten percent plan which bases its merit of high school graduation rank. I think it is an interesting idea, but I would sooner revise the way UT handles affirmative action instead of replacing it with this. What do you think about the ten percent plan?