Bush Urges Top 20 Percent of Senior Classes to Apply at Fla. Colleges - Governor Jeb Bush encourages best students to apply to Florida state universities - Brief Article

Black Issues in Higher Education, June 8, 2000

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- State universities still decide who gets in, but Gov. Jeb Bush and top education officials are encouraging all the state's high school seniors in the top 20 percent of their class this year to apply.

So far, out of 21,000 "Talented 20" students statewide, more than 14,000 have applied to at least one of the 10 state universities, Bush says.

"We're now concentrating on those 7,000 who have not applied," Bush says.

Bush hopes that by making it easier for the top one-fifth of each class to get into a state college, minorities and women will be more interested in applying than they otherwise would have been.

The Talented 20 is part of his One Florida plan, which bans consideration of race and gender in university admissions and contracting decisions.

To get into a state university, students must have 19 academic credits, including two years of a foreign language.

While figures are available about the number of applicants, it s unclear how many minorities have actually been admitted. Each school has its own admissions deadlines, and officials say that at the earliest, numbers won't be available until later this month.