America’s once-leading science, technology, engineering, and math high school has been intentionally discriminating against Asian individuals, Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares said Wednesday, after his office concluded its lengthy investigation into Fairfax County Public Schools’ admission policy.
Formerly the best STEM high school in America, Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology came under investigation in 2023 after parents accused the school of adopting an equity-based admissions process in accordance with FCPS guidelines. TJHS enacted the change to increase the admission of black and hispanic students.
Acceptance of Asian-American students into TJHS declined after the policy change, which Miyares said his investigation found was “the intended outcome.”
“Public officials entrusted with educating our children knowingly and deliberately used race as a factor in a public schools admissions process, and that, ladies and gentlemen, is a clear violation of civil rights laws, both at federal and state level,” Miyares said.
Before FCPS’s policy change, students were accepted to TJHS based on their test scores, grade point average, teacher recommendations, and writing samples. The updated policy eliminated the standardized testing requirement in 2020, after community outcry about how few black students were accepted into the school.
“Thomas Jefferson High School was already, at that time, a minority majority high school, but they determined it was the wrong minorities,” Miyares said. “Their intentions — it was not an accident.”
“One school member described the new admissions plan as having quote, ‘an anti-Asian feel,’” Miyares continued. “Quote, ‘There has been an anti-Asian feel underlying some of this, hate to say it, laugh out loud.’ Another school board member admitted the changes would, quote, ‘Kick out Asians.’”
Parental advocates formed the “Coalition for TJ” to fight back against the changes, which they said were based on equity, not merit. When parents sued the school board for anti-Asian discrimination in 2023, a state court sided against them, and upon appeal, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up the case.
The school’s quest for “equal outcomes for every student, without exception” was achieved by clearly anti-Asian and “purposefully unequal” admissions standards, Miyares said. FCPS’s admissions policy change violates the Virginia Human Rights Act and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the attorney general added on Wednesday, and he has referred the case to the U.S. Departments of Education and Justice for federal review.
“A federal appellate court determined there was no merit to arguments that the admissions policy for Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology discriminates against any group of students,” FCPS said in response to Miyares’s investigation. “Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) division leadership and counsel are currently reviewing the documents released today by the Attorney General and will issue a more detailed response in the coming days. FCPS remains committed to providing a world class education for all of our students.”
TJHS’s national ranking dropped from No. 1 to No. 14 in the years after the school’s policy change, Miyares lamented. The school boasts a rigorous curriculum and, due to its proximity to Washington, D.C., allows students unique opportunities to work with the defense, science, and aerospace industries, among others.
“What this board did was pit one race against another, manipulating the system to produce their desired racial makeup, even if it meant hurting one group of students,” Miyares said. “They knew what they were doing was wrong, and yet they did it anyway.”
It is unclear if the attorney general’s office itself will pursue action against FCPS, past recommending the discrimination case to the federal government.