learned a similar lesson since a federal court ruling forced it to abandon race-based admissionspolicies in 1996. Black and Latino enrollment dipped precipitously in the first year, but rose again after the legislature passed alaw guaranteeing college admission to all students who graduate in the top 10 percent of any public high school class. A recent report from the United States Civil Rights Commission attributed this success to innovative recruiting, mentoring andtutoring programs. But the overwhelming lesson in Texas is that the public schools from which minority students come must beimproved if these students are to perform at the top levels at the University of Texas. Texas now forces public schools to keepacademic achievement records by race, and penalizes schools that allow black and Latino children to fall behind. Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida is currently embroiled in a fight over an executive order that outlaws race-based admissions at thestate universities -- while guaranteeing admissions to the top 20 percent of high school classes. Mr. Bush's order was meant torender moot a ballot initiative on affirmative action that Republicans feared would heighten black turnout in this year'spresidential election. The 20 percent rule seemed non-controversial and even generous -- until Governor Bush found thatroughly two-thirds of additional black students who might benefit from the rule had been so neglected in high school that theyhad failed to graduate with the necessary credits for admission to the state university system. The state is now pushing publicschools that serve black students to provide better course offerings. What all these states have learned is that the only real way to make race-sensitive policies unnecessary is to guarantee blackand Latino children from poor communities a realistic chance at a decent education that prepares them for college. To kill thepolicies before those guarantees are in place is to court civic disa...
