‘Engineered To Discriminate’: Trump Ed Dep’t Probes Virginia School District Over Alleged ‘Illegal Admissions Policy’

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,