The Texas House of Representatives has rejected a compromise bill that would have capped the number of students admitted to a campus under the state’s top-10-percent admissions law, the Austin American-Statesman reported. The Legislature has until midnight tonight to finish its work, and another vote is possible, but news reports said that was unlikely.

Under the 1997 law, which sought to increase minority enrollments, Texas high-school students who graduate in the top 10 percent of their class are automatically admitted to any public college or university in the state. The University of Texas at Austin had lobbied for the caps. Last fall, 71 percent of new, in-state students at the flagship were admitted under the law. Critics say the law causes good students to enroll in out-of-state colleges because they can’t get into the state’s flagship institutions.

The House vote was unexpected. The chamber had voted last week to approve an earlier version of the measure. But late Sunday, it voted, 75 to 64, to reject a compromise bill, similar to legislation passed in the Senate. —Charles Huckabee