LAUSD's Black student achievement program upended, targeted by conservative Virginia group
LOS ANGELES -- Under pressure after a conservative group took legal action, the Los Angeles Unified School District will overhaul a $120 million academic program for struggling Black students by eliminating race as a factor in determining which children will be helped.
The decision has outraged supporters of the district's Black Student Achievement Plan, who are demanding that officials stand by the original program, which had begun to yield some early, positive results.
The Virginia-based group Parents Defending Education — whose mission is to oppose "destructive practices" in schools, including policies related to race, sexual orientation and gender identity — had filed a complaint in July 2023 with the federal Office for Civil Rights against BSAP.
It alleged the program violated the Constitution and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by providing extra education services based on a student's race.
Over months of dialogue, federal officials told the district that a race-based program was legally unsustainable in light of multiple Supreme Court decisions, including the June 2023 ruling that struck down the consideration of race as a factor in college admissions.
The Virginia group's trustees include Edward Blum, who founded the organization behind the lawsuit leading to the 2023 Supreme Court ruling, according to tax filings.
The group's action against L.A. Unified reflects a broader playbook of the political right, which has fueled culture-war divides across the nation through school board elections and litigation. Its agenda encompasses restricting how race and the Black experience are taught, removing books with LGBTQ+ content from school libraries and curriculum and pushing for policies that
