Dive Brief:
- The U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday announced a settlement agreement with New Jersey's Dr. Ronald E. McNair Academic High School, a competitive college prep magnet school, over an admissions policy the agency said was "illegal DEI" and race-based discrimination.
- The school’s admissions policy used a quota system that preliminarily set aside an equal number of seats for Black, White, and Hispanic students, as well as students identifying their race as "other." After those seats were filled, the school would offer admission without regard to race.
- Under the agreement, the school will no longer be able to initially divide its incoming student body by race to ensure equal representation, and conduct nondiscrimination staff trainings.
Dive Insight:
The settlement agreement, which is in effect until 2029, is among the first overturning race-conscious admissions practices to be publicly announced by the Justice Department under the second Trump administration, which has steadily pushed back against the student diversification practice through various guidance and legal pathways.
In an effort to diversify student bodies at competitive schools that are sometimes disproportionately White, Asian or socioeconomically uniform, some districts have in recent years changed admissions policies that they say lend to better student representation. Schools have pursued this through various means — sometimes by changing high-stakes testing requirements, ensuring students are represented from various geographic regions, or through other means.
However, the Trump administration maintains that admissions policies that consider race, color or national origin amount to discrimination against White and Asian students under Title VI, the civil rights policy protecting students from such discrimination.
“Quota systems that define students by their race or national origin have been illegal since the 1970s,” said Harmeet Dhillon, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, in a July 10 statement. “Federal law requires that all students, regardless of their race or national origin, be allowed to compete for admission to the best schools in their district — and this Department of Justice will ensure they have equal opportunity to do so.”
Jersey City Public Schools, the magnet school's district, did not respond to K-12 Dive's request for comment in time for publication.
The Justice Department issued guidance last year spelling out what it defines as "unlawful" diversity, equity and inclusion practices in schools. That guidance said that using demographically driven criteria “to increase participation by specific racial or sex-based groups” in programs and opportunities was unlawful and opened school districts to legal liability.
The guidance marked a major shift under President Donald Trump in how federal agencies approach enforcement of civil rights laws, with officials now targeting programs that were often launched to fight systemic discrimination.
In February, the Justice Department also joined a lawsuit against the Los Angeles Unified School District over a desegregation plan that included magnet schools with race-conscious admissions, saying the district was “operating a system of racial spoils” and that its desegregation program has “outlived its usefulness to the point of being unconstitutional.”
Across the country, K-12 magnet school admissions have come under particular scrutiny in the wake of a 2023 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, which overturned race-conscious admissions in higher education institutions. Since then, multiple lawsuits challenging school admissions have reached the Supreme Court, which has since then consistently rejected hearing such cases.
The latest such case reached the high court last week, with a group representing mostly Asian American parents asking justices to review a case involving Maryland’s Montgomery County Board of Education. Justices have yet to deliberate whether they will accept or reject that case.
However, at least two justices have indicated in recent years that they would be in favor of taking up a K-12 admissions case.
