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03/28/2008: "Affimative action dumbing down US universities"

Ten years ago, after a federal court blocked Texas colleges from considering race as a factor in admissions, the state, with George W. Bush as governor, came up with an innovative alternative. In an attempt to make affirmative action colorblind, the top 10% of graduates at each
of the state's high schools was granted automatic admission to state universities.

University of Texas President William Powers complains that the 10% rule has come to dominate the admissions system. In the next freshman class, it will account for 81% of the students, making it harder to recruit promising students at high-achieving high schools, including minorities, who fall below the 10% line. Powers wants to recruit only half the incoming class through automatic admissions.

[ Powers is right; supporting all those autoadmits means that UT classes have been dumbed down in many cases to the point where no one smart will attend them. ]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20080328/cm_usatoday/texas10admissioncouldteachcollegesathingortwo