Higher educational institutions; automatic admission to certain students. (HB165)

Introduced By

Del. David Poisson (D-Sterling)

Progress

Introduced
Passed Committee
Passed House
Passed Senate
Signed by Governor
Became Law

Description

Automatic admission to institutions of higher education. Directs the governing boards of public institutions of higher education to provide for the automatic acceptance of those resident students applying for admission who: (i) have graduated from a public or private high school in Virginia with a grade point average in the top 10 percent of such student's graduating class; and (ii) have completed 320 hours of community service in a program approved by the Secretary of Education, in the year preceding the academic year for which the student is seeking admission. Read the Bill »

Outcome

Bill Has Failed

History

DateAction
12/26/2007Committee
12/26/2007Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/09/08 088146688
12/26/2007Referred to Committee on Education
01/30/2008Impact statement from DPB (HB165)
02/12/2008Left in Education

Comments

Eileen Levandoski writes:

Wow! This sounds great, but I have to wonder about the costs for that assurance and what the schools feel about it.

spotter writes:

By my math, about 8400 high school graduates would qualify for this plan each year, assuming they complete the public service. Combined, U.VA. and William and Mary have about 6700 spaces. What if everyone wants to go to one or the other of those two schools? Are we going to stop admitting out of state students? If so, where will the people from New York and New Jersey go to school?

Jeff Nelson writes:

The focus on grade point average creates a disincentive for students taking honors, Advanced Placement (AP), International Baccalaureate (IB) and other challenging high school courses in which students tend to receive lower grades. Some high schools, such as Fairfax, give students a half letter grade for taking AP and IB courses. But this incentive may be overridden by the bill’s guarantee of admission if a kid has a high grade point.

Gerbera writes:

Of course the sponsor is from Northern Virginia, where people are convinced there's a quota governing their admission to UVa and W&M.

To add to Spotter's comment, this will impact the budget at the schools dramatically. Out of state tuition money is pretty important to our state schools. Get ready for larger class sizes, crowded dorms...it all trickles down.

Gerbera, tracking this bill in Photosynthesis, notes:

Did the sponsors of this bill crunch any numbers before they threw this together?