SAN ANTONIO, Texas (June 24, 2004) – A new report documents the
continuing lack of racial and ethnic diversity at Texas A&M, the University of Texas at Austin, and
within Texas law and medical schools, despite many energetic efforts to try race-neutral
alternatives.
Society Web Site
EXCERPTS:
(1) We also conclude that the Ten Percent
Plan is “good but not good
enough” regarding racial/ethnic diversity because the percentage of Black
and
Latino graduates from the most competitive high schools in Texas are less likely
to enroll in
selective public universities in Texas than they were prior to Hopwood….. (2) Another policy reason
for moving beyond sole reliance on test scores and
grade-point averages is the need to evaluate
students’ promise within the context
of their opportunities, rather than cementing structural
inequalities in K-12
education. For example, across all Texas high schools, 21.6% of Whites
are
enrolled in AP courses, compared to only 11.4% of African Americans and 12.4%
of Latinos.
While the Edgewood litigation and the subsequent school finance
legislation played a major role in
making public school funding in Texas more
equitable, as it stands there is still a legally
permissible gap between the
funding per student in low-wealth and high-wealth school districts. [pdf
55]
(3) “Texas is deeply segregated, regionally and neighborhood-by-neighborhood in its
major cities, so
the majority of our high schools are almost entirely white or black or brown. This
law is colorblind,
but it used our bitter history of segregation to promote diversity.”–David
Montejano [pdf 55, note 230]
(4) While the diversity rationale is the focus of this
policy report, the Supreme
Court also recognizes that remedying the present effects of past
discrimination
can be a compelling interest for public entities to justify race-
conscious
affirmative action. In order for a university to institute affirmative action
based on
a remedial justification, it must establish that it has a “strong basis in
evidence for its
conclusion that remedial action was necessary.” [pdf 61]
