{"id":1311529,"date":"2022-02-18T15:16:47","date_gmt":"2022-02-18T20:16:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1311529"},"modified":"2022-02-18T20:22:35","modified_gmt":"2022-02-19T01:22:35","slug":"attorney-discusses-lawsuits-against-new-unconstitutional-k-12-school-admissions-processes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/attorney-discusses-lawsuits-against-new-unconstitutional-k-12-school-admissions-processes\/","title":{"rendered":"Attorney Discusses Lawsuits Against New \u2018Unconstitutional\u2019 K-12 School Admissions Processes"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fattorney-discusses-lawsuits-against-new-unconstitutional-k-12-school-admissions-processes%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1311529&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/E78BDC3A-FA33-4204-BB34-3DB3AC6A75EA_1_201_a-1.jpeg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p class=\"p1\">Pacific Legal Foundation is challenging school admissions systems around the country where K-12 schools are upending their admissions policies and putting in place new criteria altering how students are able to attend selective schools.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The foundation has three ongoing lawsuits with another soon to follow. The cases are based in New York City, Fairfax county, Virginia, and Montgomery county, Maryland, and all are challenges to admissions policies in K-12 selective schools that offer advanced curriculum. Students must apply and be chosen to attend the schools.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">One of the schools involved is Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Fairfax county. The group filing the lawsuit is <a href=\"https:\/\/coalitionfortj.net\/\"><span class=\"s1\">called<\/span><\/a> Coalition for TJ.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">On their website, they state the concerns of the group made up of parents, students, alumni, staff, and community members of the school. They note, \u201cSchool district leaders&nbsp;eliminated the merit-based, race-blind admissions test&nbsp;to the school and replaced it with a&nbsp;race-based admissions process&nbsp;that targeted Asian students&nbsp;with discrimination.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">They add, \u201cThe percentage of&nbsp;Asian students&nbsp;offered admissions to TJ&nbsp;plummeted from 73 percent last year to 54 percent this year.&nbsp;Asians were the&nbsp;only demographic group&nbsp;whose numbers decreased from last year to this year, while the number of&nbsp;white students&nbsp;in this TJ class&nbsp;increased&nbsp;a whopping 43 percent to 123 students accepted this year from 86 last year.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">As The New York Times <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/02\/16\/us\/school-admissions-affirmative-action.html\"><span class=\"s1\">reported<\/span><\/a>, \u201c[t]he percentage of Black students increased to 7 percent from no more than 2 percent. Hispanic students increased to 11 percent from 3 percent. White students increased to 22 percent from 18 percent.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cOverall in the Fairfax County school system, about 37 percent of students are white, 27 percent are Hispanic, 20 percent are Asian and 10 percent are Black,\u201d the outlet added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Erin Wilcox, an attorney at Pacific Legal Foundation, and lead attorney for the Thomas Jefferson case and additional merit-based admissions cases, spoke to The Daily Wire about the challenges.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Wilcox explained, \u201cSchool administrators have decided that they don\u2019t like the racial makeup of these schools, and so they\u2019ve set about changing their admissions policies to figure out ways to change the racial makeup of the school.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">She added, \u201cThat is unconstitutional. Public school officials can\u2019t pick students who can get into public schools based on their race in the K-12 sphere.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Wilcox said that K-12 school administrators are aware that they can\u2019t have an overt racial quota. \u201cSo what they\u2019ve done instead are \u2026 using these racial proxies, so using something else that will achieve the same effect as having a racial quota, but that doesn\u2019t say race \u2026 on the face of the policy,\u201d she noted.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Thomas Jefferson has put a 1.5% \u201ccap\u201d on every middle school in the feeder pattern to TJ and said that only the top 1.5% of each middle school can get into Thomas Jefferson.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">She added, \u201cThe problem with that is Fairfax County Public Schools operate several middle schools that have advanced programming for kids who are very likely to go to TJ,\u201d meaning that a middle school might have previously had 80 kids get into TJ, but now not as many kids are allowed to attend.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">She added, \u201cA lot of Asian American kids go to these gifted middle schools. A lot of them apply to TJ and that cap just completely cut off many of their opportunities to get into TJ.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">She said that if the Coalition for TJ parents win, it will be the first lawsuit of its kind where parents have challenged these racial proxies and where a judge would decide it is unconstitutional. She said that would be a \u201cmassive win,\u201d especially because a lot of school districts around the nation are watching the case as they consider enacting these types of policies.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">If they don\u2019t win, Wilcox said they will appeal and believe it is an issue that the Supreme Court will ultimately need to rule on. Wilcox said that they want to see a judge make a definitive ruling saying the new process is unconstitutional; and generally in the cases, they want the schools to be made to go back to the previous systems they had in place before they took unconstitutional action.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cIt\u2019s incredible how parents are making their voices heard. It\u2019s really amazing to watch, \u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The lawsuits come as three members of the San Francisco School Board were recently <a href=\"http:\/\/www.apple.com\"><span class=\"s1\">recalled<\/span><\/a> in an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/san-francisco-school-board-members-face-recall-election\"><span class=\"s1\">election<\/span><\/a> led by parents who were in part frustrated by the school board\u2019s vote to permanently change the admissions process at a high school from a merit-based to a lottery-based system. A court changed the board\u2019s decision, but the board <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfchronicle.com\/sf\/article\/Lowell-High-lottery-admission-likely-to-remain-16705599.php\"><span class=\"s1\">voted<\/span><\/a> again to continue the lottery-based policy for 2022-2023 school year admissions because of timing. The recall was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/02\/17\/us\/san-francisco-school-board-parents.html\"><span class=\"s1\">fueled<\/span><\/a> by many Asian American voters as the admissions policy change negatively impacted Asian American students.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">As The San Francisco Chronicle&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfchronicle.com\/sf\/article\/Lowell-High-lottery-admission-likely-to-remain-16705599.php\"><span class=\"s1\">reported<\/span><\/a> in December, \u201cStudents hoping to get into San Francisco\u2019s prestigious Lowell High School next fall will face a lottery system again, after the city\u2019s school board voted Thursday to extend the mostly random admission process for another year.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cWith the upcoming admission season already started, Superintendent Vince Matthews asked the board for a one-year extension of the temporary lottery process. The board must go through another public process to make the change permanent at the school, which serves nearly 3,000 students,\u201d the outlet added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><i>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a<\/i> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>member<\/i><\/span><\/a><i>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pacific Legal Foundation is challenging school admissions systems around the country where K-12 schools are upending their admissions policies and putting in place new criteria altering how students are able &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1311529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1311529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1311529"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1311529\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1311529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1311529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1311529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}