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Latest Civil Rights Report Looks Into Playing the Percentages - abolishment of affirmative action severely affects minority enrollment - Brief Article

Black Issues in Higher Education, May 11, 2000 by Charles Dervarics

Across the nation, several states have replaced affirmative action with percentage programs in college admissions. California, Texas and Florida are at the forefront of this trend. Pennsylvania is looking into the possibility.

But while these programs may temporarily open up access for students of color, they will do little to promote an education pipeline that leads to graduate school, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights says.

Under percentage programs, state flagship colleges and universities agree to accept any student who graduates at a high level, usually within the top 10 percent, of their high school class. In Texas, Republican Gov. George W. Bush has made the percentage plan a major ingredient of his approach to college admissions following the Hopwood vs. Texas decision that outlawed affirmative action in that state.

His brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, also a Republican, has a similar initiative in his state even though Florida is not under a court order to end affirmative action.

The commission report has caused a stir in higher education circles. It breaks down post-Hopwood admissions information in Texas, noting that the new policy has helped restore some of the ground initially lost following the anti-affirmative action decision. However, a majority of the commission also found that such policies have no bearing at all on graduate school enrollment and do not help minority students outside the top 10 percent of their high school graduating classes.

"The major problem with the percentage plans is their inattention to law schools, medical schools and other graduate and professional schools, where ending affirmative action is devastating," according to the report released in April. In most cases, the plans only deal with admission to undergraduate institutions.

In effect, such plans abolish affirmative action "with nothing to replace it that will ensure inclusion for people of color in graduate and professional education."

"It is clear that the absence of an affirmative action program at (University of Texas at) Austin has detrimentally affected the admission of Black and Hispanic students not in the top 10 percent of their high school class who, pre-Hopwood, might have been admitted," the report states.

Minority students who are not in the top 10 percent of their high school graduating classes also have little hope for college admission under percentage policies, the report says. Even those in the top 10 percent may attend low-performing high schools that leave them without the pre-college credits required for admission to a state university system.

A majority of the commission members were particularly critical of the effort in Florida, where Gov. Jeb Bush has pushed for new policies even without a court ruling forcing a change. In Texas, some Black lawmakers played key roles in creating the percentage admission plan after the Hopwood decision left the state with few alternatives.

"Florida should keep affirmative action unless forced to abandon it," the report says.

Mary Frances Berry, an African American professor at Georgetown University who heads the civil rights commission, says it is important for the panel to review the percentage issue, which has received relatively little research attention so far.

"Whether one believes in the use of gender and race-conscious remedies such as affirmative action or not, it is important to understand the role percentage plans play in achieving higher education opportunity for all Americans," she says.

Her view was not unanimous among members of the commission, which includes Republicans and independents as well as Democrats. In a dissent with the report, commission members Carl Anderson and Russell Redenbaugh says the panel released its findings too quickly with no chance for public debate.

"Courts across the nation are striking down racial preferences and set-asides," they said in a prepared statement. "This does not mean we should do away with outreach, recruitment and other efforts to increase diversity and expand opportunities for minorities. But we can do that without discriminating."

For more information about the report, visit the commission's Web site at http://www.usccr.gov/.>