Just say no

The waning days of the 83^rd Texas legislative session are going to come down to yeas and nays.

The Senate HB 866 which reduced the number of tests public school children have to take. That means students who do well on state exams could skip mandatory tests (required grade level examinations) in sixth grade. That assumes that Texas can get a waiver from the federal government which requires 14 different tests by the end of eighth grade under the No Child Left Behind Act.  The law mandates our nation’s 98,000 public schools make “adequate yearly progress” and make remedial changes or risk losing federal funding.  Texas has over 80,000 fifth graders and 60,000 eighth graders who may be held back this year because of poor performance. While students have two opportunities to retake tests (in May and June), the bill’s supporters say resources used to administer tests can be targeted to help those most in need.  Further complicating the matter is that the Senate’s version still needs to be approved by the House which also eliminated tests in the fourth and seventh grades.

That’s a sticking point.

One measure that had legislators on pins and needles was mandatory drug testing (the use of biological material to detect specific drugs) for all unemployment recipients.  SB 11 by Sen. Jane Nelson (R-Flower Mound) required all unemployment recipients answer a screening survey about possible drug use in order to receive benefits under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families  (the federal and state government’s joint social welfare program).

Time ran out on the clock at midnight last night, however, when a compromise failed. It is noteworthy that one amendment was proposed which would have required mandatory drug testing for legislators.

One provision that makes it easier for UT-Austin to just say no is a measure that extended the university’s admissions’ cap.  Texas’ ten percent rule allows all students who graduate in the top of their class be admitted to their choice of public universities.  In 1997 the state legislature established the ten percent rule in reaction to Hopwood v. Texas from the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals which struck down public universities’ attempts to enhance diversity by using race as a key factor in admissions. By 2008, so many students in the top 10 percent of their class were using the rule that UT-Austin had to admit virtually everyone.  That hurt minority applicants who were good, but not good enough to meet the 10 percent cutoff.  So UT-Austin successfully obtained a waiver which was extended this week to effectively allow UT-Austin to admit the top seven percent.  Now the waiver is has a sunset provision (regulation that will eliminate the bill’s application) effective in 2017.

We will see what the U.S. Supreme Court has to say because we are waiting on a June decision in the Fisher v. Texas case which considers whether the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment permits the consideration of race in undergraduate admissions decisions.

Just say maybe.