The Supreme Court Leaves In Place The Admissions Plan At An Elite Virginia Public High School

WASHINGTON: The Supreme Court on Tuesday left in place the admissions coverage at an elite public highschool in Virginia that some mother and father claimed discriminates towards extremely certified Asian Americans.

The court docket’s order, over the dissent of Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, ended a authorized problem to a coverage that was overhauled in 2020 to extend variety, with out taking race under consideration.

A panel of the federal appeals court docket in Richmond had earlier upheld the constitutionality of the admissions coverage on the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, a faculty often cited among the many finest within the nation.

The excessive court docket’s consideration of the case adopted its determination in June that struck down admissions insurance policies at schools and universities that took account of the race of candidates.

The Fairfax County School Board overhauled the Thomas Jefferson admissions course of in 2020, scrapping a standardized check. The new coverage provides weight in favor of candidates who’re economically deprived or nonetheless studying English, but it surely doesn’t take race under consideration.

The impact within the first freshman class admitted beneath it was to extend the proportion of Black college students from 1% to 7% and Hispanic college students from 3% to 11%. Both teams have been enormously underrepresented for many years. Asian American illustration decreased from 73% to 54%.

For the present college yr, Black and Hispanic college students made up 6.7% and 6%, respectively, of these provided admission, the college board stated. Asian Americans represented 61.6% of these admitted, the board stated.

’We have lengthy believed that the brand new admissions course of is each constitutional and in the very best curiosity of all of our college students. It ensures that every one certified college students from all neighborhoods in Fairfax County have a good shot at attending this distinctive highschool,” stated Karl Frisch, Fairfax County School Board chair.

In 2022, a federal choose discovered the college board engaged in impermissible “racial balancing” when it overhauled admissions. The appeals court docket reversed that ruling.

Alito wrote that the district court docket acquired it proper. The appeals court docket basically dominated that “intentional racial discrimination is constitutional so long as it is not too severe,” he wrote.

The mother and father who challenged the coverage say it discriminates towards Asian American candidates who would have been granted admission if tutorial advantage have been the only real standards, and that efforts to extend Black and Hispanic illustration essentially come on the expense of Asian Americans.

“The Supreme Court missed an important opportunity to end race-based discrimination in K-12 admissions,” stated Pacific Legal Foundation senior lawyer Joshua Thompson, who represents the mother and father who challenged.

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