A federal investigation has been launched into Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) over controversial changes made in 2020 to the admissions policy at the prestigious Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (TJ).
The probe, announced Thursday, will scrutinize whether these revisions were intentionally designed to alter the demographic makeup of the student body, potentially discriminating on the basis of race.
The federal action follows a damning report released just yesterday by Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares. His office’s two-year investigation concluded there was “reasonable cause” to believe that FCPS’s overhaul of TJ’s admissions process discriminated against Asian American students, violating both the Virginia Human Rights Act and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Attorney General subsequently referred the complaint to the Department of Education.
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According to Miyares’ report, the Fairfax County School Board was dissatisfied with the racial composition of TJ and set out in 2020 to remake its admissions policies.
This involved eliminating standardized testing requirements and implementing a “revised holistic review process” in place of what was previously described as a meritocratic system, allegedly to achieve racial balancing. The Virginia Attorney General’s office stated that FCPS “succeeded in their mission, reducing the percentage of Asian American students from 73% to 54% in just one year alone.”
U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon commented on the investigation, stating, “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. 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.” She added, “The Department of Education is grateful for the diligent work of Governor Youngkin and Attorney General Miyares for documenting a pattern of concerning practices at TJ, and we will further investigate this complaint to ensure that all students being assessed fairly, according to merit and accomplishment.”
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Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin echoed these sentiments, saying, “Virginia students’ dreams were illegally denied because of their race. Not merit, but race. 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.” He thanked Attorney General Miyares and expressed gratitude for the federal investigation initiated by “President Trump and Secretary McMahon.”
Attorney General Miyares emphasized the gravity of his office’s findings: “In Virginia—and America—we do not uplift one group by tearing another down. We do not define individuals by the color of their skin. My Office of Civil Rights found reasonable cause to believe the Fairfax County School Board’s overhaul of TJ’s merit-based admissions system was deliberately designed to reduce Asian American admissions.”
Title VI of the Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin in federally funded education programs.
The investigation also comes in the wake of the 2023 Supreme Court ruling in Students v. Harvard, which held that educational institutions may not discriminate on the basis of race in admissions policies. The OCR will now delve deeper into the circumstances surrounding TJ’s admissions changes to determine if federal civil rights laws were violated.
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