I wish I could get excited about the goobernatural primary. But I find myself wanting to strangle both candidates. Today it's Gammage.
Gammage seems to be racking up some endorsements and is presenting himself as a "real progressive." I have to question what he means by that, however, when he sends out e-mails like this:
On his campaign website, Bell initially proposed altering the Top 10 percent plan to eliminate automatic admission to the University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M University and would allow only for automatic admission to these University of Texas and the Texas A&M University systems. The UT and A&M systems would then select which university -- such as University of Texas Pan American, University of Texas El Paso or Texas A&M Kingsville) -- the student would attend removing the students freedom to choice.Gammage goes on to claim that
Education experts and organizations representing minority interests fear that the Bell plan would create a separate but unequal system that punishes students attending smaller, under-funded or lower-performing high schools. Students graduating in the top 10 percent from these schools would automatically be at a disadvantage when compared to students graduating from wealthier, higher-performing and predominantly Anglo high schools. In addition, the so-called "feeder" universities are already experiencing rapid growth but are under-funded. The Bell plan would steer more and more students to these already strapped schools.Frankly, the top 10 percent plan does not work in Texas. Gammage claims that the feeder schools (like WTAMU) are under-funded and "strapped" but the flagships are in similar straights. U.T. is bursting at the seams and no longer accepts students who apply after October of their senior year. The admissions office has very little latitude to accept students who are not top-10 but may have other talents because they have to keep space open for the five gazillion top-10 students in Texas.
A plan like Bell's that guaranteed acceptance but allowed students to be appropriately placed would alleviate the crowding and maintain the prestige of Texas's most elite public universities. Furthermore, Gammage's fretting that students from "under-funded or lower-performing high schools" seems disingenuous. He should find a plan that would serve to fund those schools adequately to improve their performance rather than simply giving up on them and hoping the colleges can fix the kids.
spacedark
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