Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

U.S. Supremes: No Pause on TJ Revised Admissions Policy

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by

James A. Bacon
in ,

The U.S. Supreme Court refused to pause Thomas Jefferson High School’s race-based admissions policy that, in the words of activist mom and journalist Asra Nomani, is “destroying the school’s culture and excellence.” The ruling means that the policy, which replaces admissions based on tests, will remain in effect at least one more year while litigation continues. The Federalist has her take on the ruling here.

The school still ranks No. 1 in the latest U.S. News & World-Report ranking of the top high schools in the nation. But Nomani questions how long it can hold on to its lofty reputation. As noted in the previous Bacon’s Rebellion post, TJ’s freshman class this year had weaker math backgrounds than previous classes. Despite a ramp-up in tutoring for struggling students, the number of dropouts, though relatively small, is up significantly this year.

“According to people familiar with the school, the situation has become so bad the principal has instructed counselors to connect her with students considering leaving the school, so she can meet with them and keep her numbers down, something she didn’t do regularly before,” writes Nomani.

Says an anonymous source for Nomani’s story: “Our country’s No. 1 school has become the Titanic.” 

— JAB

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28 responses to “U.S. Supremes: No Pause on TJ Revised Admissions Policy”

  1. Eric the half a troll Avatar
    Eric the half a troll

    Ooooo… anonymous sources and people familiar with the school… crackerjack journalism there….

    1. Nancy Naive Avatar
      Nancy Naive

      Uh, they failed on the Shadow Docket with activist justices? This is the same SCOTUS that has allowed the Texas civil vigilante law, right?

      Did they forget to mention QAnon in their brief?

  2. Nancy Naive Avatar
    Nancy Naive

    War, at first, is the hope that one will be better off; next, the expectation that the other fellow will be worse off; then, the satisfaction that he isn’t any better off; and, finally, the surprise at everyone’s being worse off. -Karl Kraus, writer (28 Apr 1874-1936)

  3. Nancy Naive Avatar
    Nancy Naive

    Best quote for the year and I wish I could attribute it properly, but…

    “Putin declared the Ukraine to be a part of Russia and then made the mistake of attacking Russia in winter.”

    1. WayneS Avatar
      WayneS

      Nice! I like it.

      1. Nancy Naive Avatar
        Nancy Naive

        Anyone who ever studied the Warsaw Ghetto defense would have realized that the plan to send an open field mechanized force into urban warfare would be met with extreme failure.

        It could have been Paris in the Spring and would have still failed.

      2. Nancy Naive Avatar
        Nancy Naive

        Anyone who ever studied the Warsaw Ghetto defense would have realized that the plan to send an open field mechanized force into urban warfare would be met with extreme failure.

        It could have been Paris in the Spring and would have still failed.

  4. Dick Hall-Sizemore Avatar
    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    What is your basis for labeling the Thomas Jefferson High School’s admissions policy “race-based”? A federal Appeals Court judge has declared it be “race neutral”. Admissions officers are not told the race or name of any applicant. https://img1.wsimg.com/blobby/go/0a8f89b7-005e-4b54-904d-5abbe494a46e/Annotated%20-%204th%20Circuit%20Stay.pdf

    1. Nancy Naive Avatar
      Nancy Naive

      Because it fits angry white grievances best.

    2. LarrytheG Avatar
      LarrytheG

      Fair question but the right wants this to be about race.

    3. f/k/a_tmtfairfax Avatar
      f/k/a_tmtfairfax

      Dick, the problem is not the final selection process. Rather, it’s the fact the basic qualification screen (the standardized test) has been eliminated. The result as has been discussed in other articles is that unqualified students, as shown by the institution of remedial classes in Alegebra I, are being admitted. And there is ample evidence that the school board and administrators eliminated the entrance exam for racial and ethnic reasons. That violates the Constitution.

      If the School had retained the entrance exam to screen out students not qualified and then allocated a minimum number of slots per middle school, I think the plan would pass muster.

      But that’s not what they did. The appeals court opinion fails to address these key facts. Real lawyers and judges follow the law and address all of the facts. Sooner or later, FCPS will lose. But they will have proven they are woke.

      1. Nancy Naive Avatar
        Nancy Naive

        So, apply the poll tax first.

        1. f/k/a_tmtfairfax Avatar
          f/k/a_tmtfairfax

          Typical. You cannot answer the argument, so you toss snark. Are you sure you aren’t on the Post’s editorial board?

          1. Nancy Naive Avatar
            Nancy Naive

            You’re assumng the feeder schools have identical programs, a fact that is evidence shows they don’t. Thus, the demographics of the feeders with the lesser programs will be disadvantaged by a uniform entrance exam, e.g., the poll tax.

            It’s the age old battle of aptitude v. Performance, eh?

      2. Dick Hall-Sizemore Avatar
        Dick Hall-Sizemore

        They have a basic qualification screen–a minimum GPA of 3.5. It is just a different qualification screen than they had before.

    4. James A. Bacon Avatar
      James A. Bacon

      The new admissions system does not explicitly use race as a criteria, but the system was engineered to change the student demographic.

  5. Dick Hall-Sizemore Avatar
    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    What is your basis for labeling the Thomas Jefferson High School’s admissions policy “race-based”? A federal Appeals Court judge has declared it be “race neutral”. Admissions officers are not told the race or name of any applicant. https://img1.wsimg.com/blobby/go/0a8f89b7-005e-4b54-904d-5abbe494a46e/Annotated%20-%204th%20Circuit%20Stay.pdf

  6. WayneS Avatar
    WayneS

    If there has been a reduction in academic rigor and it has harmed the the quality of education at the school, it will take 3-4 years for the negative effects on educational outcomes to be fully realized.

  7. Dick Hall-Sizemore Avatar
    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    As for the “higher” number of dropouts this year, this is a highly misleading claim. See my comments to the previous article.

  8. Stephen Haner Avatar
    Stephen Haner

    They all need to brace themselves because there remains an excellent chance SCOTUS will bless all this, because on its face it is race neutral. There would be a natural reluctance anyway to overturn a locally-elected school board’s decision. And I really don’t see this issue swaying those elections leading to change on that board. The students who suddenly are “stuck” in regular high schools are still likely to get into competitive colleges, get their science or engineering degrees, and have a big advantage in life.

    And as always, the real issue gets ignored — the underfunded, underutilized programs to identify and prepare the gifted and talented long before they get to high school. The observations that the rich have a leg up are certainly well founded. The place to address that is in the earlier grades.

  9. James McCarthy Avatar
    James McCarthy

    Ouch!!! The ill-fitting shoe of “facially neutral” policies has bitten the bum of its usually ardent advocates on the right. Nomani has made a career from mewling about disparate effects of the policy change. Recall the recent article on this blog by an apologist who asserted that the poll tax was facially neutral as it applied to Blacks and whites. That assertion in the face of declarations by the authors of the poll tax that its purpose was to discriminate (eliminate) Black voters. Righties cannot concede “facially neutral” laws may be struck down because to do so could enfranchise affirmative action. Worse, such might invite reparations for racial injuries.

    1. f/k/a_tmtfairfax Avatar
      f/k/a_tmtfairfax

      Ever hear of unconstitutional as applied? The Plan is not racially neutral as applied. It was designed to use lower admission standards for black and Hispanic students than for white, Asian and Middle Eastern students. It was the admissions test that was the big barrier to the results desired by the school board. So, they got rid of it.

      As I wrote, FCPS could have kept the admissions test and then admitted students who passed by a process that guaranteed so many places for each middle school in the County. But that approach would not have produced the racial and ethnic mix that the school board wanted, so to achieve such result, they eliminated the test, such that many black and Hispanic students are being admitted with lower requirements than other students based solely on race, which is unconstitutional as applied.

      1. James McCarthy Avatar
        James McCarthy

        The moderator characterized the admissions policy change as race based. Others argue it is facially neutral. “Unconstitutional as applied” sounds like disparate effect. Ms. Noman complains that the new policy is destroying TJ’s “culture and excellence.” If your analysis or allegations are correct, it should not have taken 6+ decades to eliminate the poll tax in Virginia (Harper v Virginia).

      2. James McCarthy Avatar
        James McCarthy

        Apparently, SCOTUS was not of the opinion that the admissions policy was discriminatory under an “as applied” theory or a facially unconstitutional standard. Either analysis approach must meet the case or controversy test and the Court has been struggling with this issue for over two decades. Nor does it seem like the Court deemed the issue to be sufficiently severable to grant relief.

      3. Dick Hall-Sizemore Avatar
        Dick Hall-Sizemore

        How do you know that “many black and Hispanic stuedents are being admitted with lower requirements than other students based “solely on race.” If the race or name of an applicant is not known to the admissions official, what evidence is there that black students are “being admitted with lower requirements than other students based SOLELY on race.” [emphasis added]

      4. LarrytheG Avatar
        LarrytheG

        TMT – the plan is not racial so how would you prove that it was intended to be?

        How would you prove that without any words in the policy that said that?

        And if they do have an academic standard for admission, doesn’t that assure that only qualified
        kids are approved for admission. How would you prove the standards are ‘too low’?

        How would a judge or panel of judges make such determinations which seem to be based on what you think or believe but don’t have anything to confirm it.

        1. f/k/a_tmtfairfax Avatar
          f/k/a_tmtfairfax

          One, I read email messages among FCPS school board members discussing how they needed to change admission procedures and standards to achieve the results they wanted — fewer Asians and more blacks and Hispanics. The emails were obtained under the state FOIA law and were then widely circulated. Just because the MSM doesn’t report on something doesn’t mean it isn’t true. Just ask Ralph “that was me; no it wasn’t” Northam.

          The poll tax has nothing to do with admissions to TJHSST. Toss red herrings around instead of addressing issues is a common Democratic tactic.

          Ditto for arguing that rejecting a request to vacate a stay is somehow a ruling on the merits when many on the left argue that decisions should not be made via the so-called “Shadow Docket.” Either SCOTUS should make interim decisions based on filings and the law or it shouldn’t.

          The School Board decided, with the help of FCPS staff, what level of changes to the admissions process, such as deciding how many seats per middle school with or without an admissions test and considering the demographics of each middle school would produce the desired results. Analysis showed that reserving seats per middle school would not produce the desired demographic changes so long as the admissions test was kept. So, they dropped the test.

          If they were admitting only qualified students, there would not be any remedial math classes being taught.

    2. Nancy Naive Avatar
      Nancy Naive

      Charter schools will fix these problems…
      “Staff at a now-closed North Carolina charter school falsified enrollment numbers to obtain more than $400,000 in state money that it wasn’t entitled to, according to a state audit released Wednesday.”

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