Texas House Bill 588

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Texas House Bill 588 is a Texas law passed in 1997.

The law guarantees Texas students who graduated in the top ten percent of their high school class automatic admission to all state-funded universities. The bill was created as a means to avoid the stipulations from the Hopwood v. Texas case banning the use of affirmative action.

The law only guarantees admission into university. Students must still find the means to pay, and may not achieve their desired choice of major. (Another existing law, which preceded 588, provides a full tuition scholarship for the class valedictorian of a Texas high school for their freshman year at a state public school.)

The law has drawn praise and criticism alike. The law has been blamed for keeping students not in the top ten percent but with other credentials, such as high SAT scores or leadership and extracurricular experience, out of the larger state universities, such as The University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M University.

Some administrators, such as former University of Texas at Austin president Larry Faulkner, have advocated capping the number of top ten percent students for any year at one half of the incoming class. Others have suggested a move to a top seven percent law. However, the Texas Legislature has not revised the law in any way since its inception.

HB 78 (80R), which caps admissions under the 10% rule at 40%, was introduced during the 80th Regular Session (2007). However, it was left pending in committee after its introduction.