From 10% Admissions to 8% Admissions?

For months, Texas legislators have been lobbied about the state's "10 percent" admissions law, which admits all high school graduates in the state who are in the top 10 percent of their classes to the public institution of their choice. The University of Texas at Austin wants to limit the law, because too large a share of its freshman class is admitted that way. Advocates for minority students want to preserve the law, saying it has brought diversity to higher education. The Texas Senate has approved a bill that would limit how much of a class could be admitted under 10 percent and that measure moved to the House of Representatives on Thursday. There, the House approved a surprise amendment late Thursday -- while not yet approving the bill in its entirety -- to keep 10 percent statewide, but to only offer those in the top 8 percent admission to the University of Texas at Austin, The Dallas Morning News reported.