Jenkins wants top high school graduates admission to college of choice
More star students would stay in state

Charles Jenkins

Representative Jenkins, candidate for state house district 8 announced his support for "Georgia's Promise." The legislation, introduced during the 06 session of the General Assembly, ensures high school students from every corner of the state who graduate in the top 10% of their class will be automatically admitted to the state school of their choosing.

Similar legislation was adopted in Texas and Florida and has proven very successful in guaranteeing spots for all top students, no matter where you attend high school, at the flagship institutions and keeping them from going out of state to receive their degree.

"This has been very successful in other states and gives those star students who have worked hard and made outstanding grades in high school the opportunity to go to the their choice of state universities," said Jenkins. "It will also keep these kids in Georgia who would have otherwise gone to a university out of state and found a career there after college. With this, more of our brightest students will stay in Georgia, which will benefit our local communities."

Under the legislation, admission is automatically granted to students in the top 10 percent of their high school graduating class without regard to wealth of the school district or the high school they attended.

In 1997 in Texas around 1,000 high schools, well more than half the high schools in the state, did not send a single student to the University of Texas at Austin's freshman class. After the enactment of their "Ten Percent Plan", endorsed by then Governor George Bush, every one of these 1,000 schools sent at least one student in each graduating class to the flagship university in the state. The University of Texas's own admission policies have also demonstrated that students who are under the 10% law have superior SAT scores and G.P.A.'s than those who fall outside of the top 10 percent.