DOJ seeks to join suit against LAUSD over desegregation policy

LOS ANGELES (KESQ) - The Trump administration today moved to join a lawsuit alleging that Los Angeles Unified School District discriminates against white students under its decades-old desegregation policy.

Brought by the 1776 Project Foundation, a Billings, Montana-based conservative group, the federal civil rights suit contends the district's allegedly racially discriminatory policies systematically disadvantage certain students based on the racial makeup of their schools.

Filed in Los Angeles federal court in January, the complaint targets LAUSD's use of race-based classifications to label schools as ``PHBAO''  -- Predominantly Hispanic, Black, Asian, and Other non-Anglo -- and to allocate benefits accordingly.

Fewer than 100 schools in the district lack the PHBAO designation, and the suit alleges that students at these schools, including white and Middle Eastern students, are being denied equal access to educational resources and opportunities.

In its motion to intervene Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Justice contends that LAUSD provides extra funding to the PHBAO schools to lower the student/teacher ratio by 5.5 students, and increase parent teacher conferences. It also gives students wishing to transfer to a magnet program an admissions preference equal to that for an overcrowded school, the DOJ alleges, adding that LAUSD treats attending school with non-Whites as a disadvantage equal to attending an overcrowded school.  

``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. ``This Department of Justice will never stop fighting to make that guarantee a reality, including for public- school students in Los Angeles.''   

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the DOJ's Civil Rights Division said Los Angeles County students ``should never be classified or treated differently because of their race.''

``Yet this school district is doing exactly that by providing benefits that treat students -- based on their race -- as though they have learning disabilities. Racial discrimination is unlawful and un-American, and this Civil Rights Division will fight to ensure that every LAUSD student is treated equally under the law.''  

An LAUSD spokesperson said when the complaint was filed that the district could not comment on ongoing litigation.   

``Because this matter involves pending litigation, we are unable to comment on the specifics,'' according to the statement. ``However, Los Angeles Unified remains firmly committed to ensuring all students have meaningful access to services and enriching educational opportunities.''

The plaintiffs maintain that LAUSD continues to use a race-based formula stemming from a 1981 court order related to desegregation, which categorized schools by student demographics. While that order aimed to remedy past discrimination, the lawsuit argues that the district has transformed the policy into a permanent and unconstitutional system of racial preferences.   

According to the 1776 Project Foundation, PHBAO schools receive more funding, staff and smaller class sizes than non-PHBAO schools. Additionally, the plaintiffs assert, only PHBAO school parents are guaranteed two annual parent-teacher conferences.

The lawsuit alleges violations of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and California's Proposition 209, which prohibits racial preferences in public education.   

The plaintiffs seek a permanent injunction to halt LAUSD's alleged race-based programming to ``ensure that all students receive equal treatment, regardless of racial classification,'' according to the foundation.

``Now in its sixth decade, LAUSD's desegregation program has outlived its usefulness to the point of being unconstitutional,'' First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said Wednesday. ``School districts must treat their students equally and no longer discriminate on the basis of race.''