The U.S. Department of Justice moved Wednesday to intervene in a federal lawsuit alleging that the Los Angeles Unified School District discriminates against White students through its decades-old Predominantly Hispanic, Black, Asian or Other Non-Anglo desegregation program.
The policy provides certain schools additional resources and gives some students an edge in magnet admissions based on neighborhood racial demographics, according to the lawsuit.
“Treating Americans equally is not a suggestion — it is a core constitutional guarantee that educational institutions must follow,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement announcing the intervention. “This Department of Justice will never stop fighting to make that guarantee a reality, including for public-school students in Los Angeles.”
A spokesperson for LAUSD said Wednesday afternoon that because the matter involves pending litigation, the district is unable to comment on the specifics. However, Los Angeles Unified “remains firmly committed to ensuring all students have meaningful access to services and enriching educational opportunities,” the spokesperson said.
The lawsuit, filed last month by the 1776 Project Foundation, contends that LAUSD’s PHBAO designation amounts to unconstitutional race-based discrimination. The conservative nonprofit argues the policy disadvantages students based on the racial makeup of their schools.
In a court filing Wednesday, the Justice Department said LAUSD administers “a race, color, and national origin-based preference system” that classified schools as PHBAO when 70% or more of the resident student population fits within the district’s definition of Hispanic, Black, Asian and other non-Anglo.
According to the filing, schools designated as PHBAO receive additional staffing that lowers the student-teacher ratio by roughly 5.5 students per teacher than comparable to non-PHBAO schools. They are also required to hold two parent-teacher conferences annually, and students in those attendance zones receive priority points in the district’s magnet school admissions process.
“LAUSD treats attending school with non-Whites as a disadvantage equal to attending an overcrowded school,” the Justice Department said.
The filing also stated that roughly 90% of LAUSD’s schools are currently classified as PHBAO.
The Justice Department said it is seeking to join the case at an early stage under a Civil Rights Act provision that allows the attorney general to intervene in cases certified as being of “general public importance.” If granted, the federal government would become a party in the lawsuit and could pursue the same relief as the plaintiffs, including a court order barring LAUSD from using race-based classifications in school funding or admissions.
The PHBAO program traces its roots to desegregation efforts adopted in the 1960s and ’70s to address racial isolation within the district. According to LAUSD’s website, a school is categorized as PHBAO based on its “resident student population,” a calculation that excludes students attending on permits, open enrollment, special education placements or other transfers.
The case is pending in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.
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