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星期四, 12月 22, 2022

AG HEALEY CO-LEADS COURT BRIEF IN SUPPORT OF EQUITY IN SCHOOL ADMISSIONS

 AG HEALEY CO-LEADS COURT BRIEF IN SUPPORT OF EQUITY IN SCHOOL ADMISSIONS

Brief Supports Philadelphia School District Against Challenge to its Race-Neutral Admissions Plan for the 2022-2023 School Year

 

            BOSTON – Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey and Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro are co-leading a coalition of 20 attorneys general in support of the School District of Philadelphia against a challenge to its race-neutral admissions plan for four its selective high schools, which sought to reduce barriers to access for students of all geographic, social, and racial backgrounds.

 

            The amicus brief – filed today in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Sargent v. School District of Philadelphia – argues against the claim that Philadelphia intentionally discriminated against white and Asian-American applicants in revising its admissions plan for the 2022-2023 school year, and thereby violated the Equal Protection Clause. In its revised plan, Philadelphia eliminated standardized testing requirements for admission at the City’s “criteria-based” schools in favor of a race-neutral, lottery-based process for allocating seats to students whose academic achievements qualified them for admission. The plan included a built-in preference at four of the schools for academically qualified students from zip codes that had previously sent the lowest percentage of students to these schools.

 

The lower court refused to grant the plaintiffs’ request for a preliminary injunction blocking the policy change shortly before the school year began, and the case is now on appeal.

 

            “In order to ensure students everywhere have equal and fair access to public education, we need to support policies that address inequities and remove barriers,” said AG Healey. “I am proud to lead this brief in support of efforts by schools to achieve equity in their admissions process.”

 

            The attorneys general argue in the brief that longstanding Supreme Court and Third Circuit precedents reject the idea that race-neutral policies are subject to strict scrutiny simply because policymakers aimed in part to remove barriers to access that may disproportionately affect people of particular racial backgrounds—as well as various socioeconomic, geographic, or other backgrounds. The coalition argued that this theory would, if adopted, hinder state and local policymakers’ ability to ensure that government policies serve their residents equitably and effectively, as it would subject policymakers to strict scrutiny whenever they are aware of the potential demographic consequences of race-neutral policy choices and work to reduce inequities in policies’ impact across demographically identifiable groups. The coalition argued that acceptance of such a theory would have the potential to hinder effective policymaking in other realms beyond education, such as public health.

 

AG Healey has long advocated on behalf of students, working to break down barriers to access, advance equity, and increase student-body diversity within education. In September, AG Healey led a coalition of attorneys general in support of Boston Public Schools’ decision to revise its admissions plan for the 2021-2022 school year. In May, AG Healey led a coalition in support of a school board in Fairfax County, Virginia, that had implemented a new race-neutral high school admissions plan aiming to eliminate barriers to access and increase racial, geographic, and socioeconomic diversity at its flagship high school. And in August, AG Healey filed a brief at the U.S. Supreme Court in support of admissions policies seeking to foster diversity in higher education.

 

            To read the full amicus brief, click here.

 

            Handling the matter for Massachusetts are Ann Lynch and David Ureña, Assistant Attorneys General in the AG’s Civil Rights Division, and State Solicitor Bessie Dewar.

 

            Joining AG Healey and AG Shapiro in today’s brief are the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawai‘i, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Washington.

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