Now, a federal district court in Northern Virginia has handed down a major decision in Coalition for TJ v. Fairfax County School Board, ruling that a new admissions policy at the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, in Fairfax, Virginia is unconstitutional.  Recently, the county decided to change the admissions system for the elite school to increase minority enrollment.  Judge Claude Hilton ruled that the county unconstitutionally engineered the reduction of Asian-American students to achieve greater racial diversity.

As a parent of Fairfax public school students. TJ was always the premier high school for the most gifted students in the county. Even if your kids did not get into TJ, there has been great pride for its ranking as one of the best high schools in the country. 

Many parents were opposed when the county announced that it would pursue greater diversity in admissions. We have been discussing a movement to eliminate gifted and talented programs in cities ranging from Boston to New York to San Francisco.

The Court details the push to diversify the top school after the death of George Floyd.

"In June emails, Corbett Sanders promised intentional action. In an email to Brabrand, Corbett Sanders wrote that 'the Board and FCPS need to be explicit in how we are going to address the under-representation of Black and Hispanic students.'

At a June 18 Board meeting, Keys-Gamarra said that 'in looking at what has happened to George Floyd, we now know that our shortcomings are far too great... so we must recognize the unacceptable numbers of such things as the unacceptable numbers of African Americans that have been accepted to T.J.'"