By:  West                                             S.R. No. 1186
                                  SENATE RESOLUTION
 1-1           WHEREAS, The growth rate in Texas over the last decade was
 1-2     nearly double that of the nation as a whole, and much of this
 1-3     growth occurred in traditionally low-income areas such as
 1-4     inner-city areas and the border region; and
 1-5           WHEREAS, While public colleges and universities granting
 1-6     four-year degrees are becoming increasingly more accessible to
 1-7     students from low-income backgrounds, there has not been a
 1-8     commensurate increase in the enrollment of these students in
 1-9     graduate or professional degree programs such as law schools; and
1-10           WHEREAS, Students from low-income backgrounds are often
1-11     lacking the information and resources that may be more readily
1-12     available to other students when making education and career
1-13     choices, thereby compounding the difficulty of overcoming their
1-14     socioeconomic disadvantages; and
1-15           WHEREAS, The long-term consequences of this disadvantage are
1-16     evident in the direct correlation between a population's level of
1-17     education and its economic well-being; and
1-18           WHEREAS, An individual with a professional or graduate degree
1-19     is estimated to earn $2 million more over a lifetime than a person
1-20     with only a high school degree and $1 million more than a person
1-21     with only a bachelor's degree; and
1-22           WHEREAS, Cultivating a well-educated workforce now is
1-23     imperative to securing future economic prosperity, and the equal
1-24     opportunity of all Texans to earn a graduate or professional degree
1-25     is of paramount importance to both the individual earning the
 2-1     degree and to the state as a whole; and
 2-2           WHEREAS, Law schools should work to provide services to
 2-3     support and encourage highly qualified, economically disadvantaged
 2-4     students interested in pursuing a legal education, to provide
 2-5     financial support, including stipends and scholarships, and to
 2-6     offer summer programs to prepare economically disadvantaged
 2-7     students for a legal education; now, therefore, be it
 2-8           RESOLVED, That the Senate of the 77th Texas Legislature
 2-9     hereby direct the deans of the public law schools in Texas,
2-10     including Texas Southern University, Texas Tech University, the
2-11     University of Houston, and The University of Texas at Austin, to
2-12     give further study to these issues, propose plans for summer
2-13     educational institutes and other effective programs for increasing
2-14     representation of economically disadvantaged students in Texas
2-15     public law schools, and report the results of their work to the
2-16     chair of the Texas Senate Education Committee no later than
2-17     December 31, 2002.
2-18                                  ______________________________________
2-19                                          President of the Senate
2-20                                       I hereby certify that the above
2-21                                  Resolution was adopted by the Senate
2-22                                  on May 25, 2001.
2-23                                  ______________________________________
2-24                                          Secretary of the Senate