"No Pass, No Play" Initiative.

Prominent Texas business executive H. Ross Perot led a 1984-1985 campaign in his admittedly football-obsessed state to enact strictures barring failing high-school students from participating in sports. Perot's reform efforts were successful, and in 1985 a Texas law, which was emulated around the country, officially made achievement of a 70 average in every course for six weeks a prerequisite for playing a sport. A research study conducted three years later concluded that the Texas law was succeeding even beyond Perot's expectations. The percentage of students failing dropped from 15.5 in 1984-1985 to 12.8 in 1987-1988. Although opponents had predicted that students would opt for the easiest courses in the curriculum to assure sports eligibility, the number of athletes enrolled in honors courses remained constant. Also, most students interviewed for the study said the rule encouraged them to achieve.

Proposition 48.

The National...