Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares said he’s found proof of racial discrimination tied to Fairfax County Public Schools’ admissions policy at Thomas Jefferson High School, even though the admissions policy was litigated all the way to the Supreme Court and ruled constitutional.
Miyares announced the findings of his investigation Wednesday at the Korean Community Center in Annandale, not far away from the high school.
The admissions policy at the elite school, overhauled in 2020, has already faced an unsuccessful legal challenge. A federal appeals court upheld the constitutionality of the policy, and the Supreme Court last year opted to leave it in place.
The new policy scrapped the standardized test and gives weight in favor of applicants who are economically disadvantaged or still learning English, but it does not take race into account, The Associated Press reported.
“This matter has already been fully litigated. A federal appellate court determined there was no merit to arguments that the admissions policy for Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology discriminates against any group of students,” the school system said in a statement to WTOP.
Fairfax County Public Schools said it’s reviewing documents Miyares released Wednesday and will issue a more detailed response in the coming days.
Miyares noted that even as the student body at the school has increased in recent years, the number of Asian American students enrolled there had declined.
You can see the makeup of students who have been offered admission to the top-ranked high school for the Class of 2029 on the Fairfax County Public Schools website.
Miyares said he would refer his findings to the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Education for further enforcement under Title VI of the U.S. Civil Rights Act.
“Thomas Jefferson High School was already, at that time, a minority majority high school, but they determined it was the wrong minorities,” Miyares said. “Their intentions — it was not an accident.
“Let me repeat that public officials entrusted with educating our children knowingly and deliberately used race as a factor in a public schools admissions process,” Miyares said. “That, ladies and gentlemen, is a clear violation of civil rights laws, both at the federal and state level.”
During his announcement, Miyares quoted from what he said were emails and text messages exchanged by members of the school board.
“One school member described the new admissions plan as having quote, ‘an anti Asian feel,’” Miyares said. “Quote, ‘There has been an anti-Asian feel underlying some of this, hate to say it, laugh out loud.’ Another school board member admitted the changes would, quote, ‘Kick out Asians.’”
The attorney general walked out without answering any questions from reporters about the impact of his referral.
But he noted the impact of the admissions policy change and the negative effect it had on Thomas Jefferson’s ranking among the top high schools in America.
“What this board did was pit one race against another, manipulating the system to produce their desired racial makeup, even if it meant hurting one group of students,” Miyares said.
“They knew what they were doing,” he also said. “They knew what they were doing was wrong, and yet they did it anyway.”
In its statement, the school system said it “remains committed to providing a world class education for all of our students.”
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