It took amending the Constitution to change a 'C' to an 'A' for this Austin Republican

Changing a grade ended up being more difficult than an act of Congress. Rather, it took lobbying 38 states to amend the Constitution of the United States and a three-and-a-half decade wait.

Greg Watson, a longtime legislative aide and Travis County Republican precinct chairman, wrote a sophomore government class term paper at the University of Texas at Austin. The subject: a 1789 amendment that was never ratified and the process it would take to get it into the Constitution today.

He received "C" for the paper. He felt he deserved better, so he went out to prove his point -- eventually gathering enough support for it to become the 27th Amendment (the latest one in the Constitution, as it happens).

“No law varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives shall take effect until an election of representatives shall have intervened.” --Amendment 27 (ratified May 7, 1992).

According to a previous Tracker article, his quest was recognized by Gov. Greg Abbott in March of last year, giving Watson some much-deserved but rare praise for his labor of love. This came on the heels of Abbott's support for a Convention of the States to balance the federal budget, among other goals.

According to his former professor, Sharon Waite, and via a recent KUT story on Watson's surprise grade redaction:

"In light of the student's heroic efforts to prove the professor and T.A. wrong in their assessment of his term paper, Mr. Watson deserves A+."

It still has to be stamped by some people at UT, but when it is, 35 years after Gregory wrote his paper, he’ll finally get that C changed to an A.

It's about time. Hook 'em!

Read more at:
http://kut.org/post/he-got-bad-grade-so-he-got-constitution-amended-now-hes-getting-credit-he-deserves