Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) became the subject of an Education Department (ED) probe Thursday after it was alleged that the district illegally overhauled a magnet school’s admissions policy to discriminate on the basis of race.
Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares triggered the probe after releasing a report Wednesday alleging FCPS intentionally “overhauled” Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology’s (TJ) admissions policy to deny Asian Americans access. FCPS was “dissatisfied with the racial composition” of TJ’s student body and ended up revising the school’s admissions policy “to achieve racial balancing,” ED said in a release announcing the probe.
“Virginia students’ dreams were illegally denied because of their race. Not merit, but race,” Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin stated in ED’s press release announcing the probe. “The Fairfax County School Board and administration dashed those dreams for many Asian American students by enacting an illegal admissions policy at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology. A policy purposefully engineered to discriminate.”
The school apparently began using a “holistic review process, instead of a meritocratic process” and dropped its standardized testing requirements which resulted in a substantial drop in Asian students, falling from 73% to 54% of the student body after just one year, according to a fact sheet on Miyares’ findings.
Thomas Jefferson High School and FCPS did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
Miyares launched the investigation in 2023 after reports circulated that the school was discriminating against Asians. Miyares published the results on Wednesday and referred the matter to ED and the Department of Justice (DOJ).
“In Virginia — and America — we do not uplift one group by tearing another down,” Miyares stated in the announcement of ED’s investigation. “We do not define individuals by the color of their skin.”
TJ’s admissions policy did not go unnoticed among FCPS board members, who described it as having an “anti-Asian feel,” according to messages obtained by Miyares.
“They knew the proposal would ‘whiten our schools and kick ou[t] Asians,’ one FCPS board member message reads.
The magnet high school is ranked 14th in the nation with a 100% graduation rate, and 100% of students have passed at least one AP exam and are proficient in math and reading, according to U.S. World and News Report. TJ is extremely selective, with an approximate admission rate of 15% during the 2010s, according to Ivy Coach.
“Thomas Jefferson High School in Fairfax County has long had a reputation for producing some of our nation’s brightest minds, due in no small part to its rigorous admissions process,” Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a statement announcing the probe. “The Fairfax County School Board’s alleged decision to weigh race in TJ’s admissions decisions appears to be both contrary to the law and to the fundamental principle that students should be evaluated on their merit, not the color of their skin.”
McMahon said the purpose of the investigation is “to ensure that all students [are] being assessed fairly, according to merit and accomplishment.”
Alleged racial discrimination in schools has been taking a beating under the Trump administration, with investigations opening into major school districts like Chicago Public Schools and even entire university systems. The administration has not hesitated to punish noncompliant schools.
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