Dec 20, 2023
3 mins read
3 mins read

1st Circuit Court Upholds Boston School’s Admissions Policy Favoring Black and Latino Students

1st Circuit Court Upholds Boston School’s Admissions Policy Favoring Black and Latino Students

The 1st Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled in favor of Boston’s policy for admissions in elite public schools, emphasizing increased numbers for black and Latino students.

By yourNEWS Media Staff

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit recently ruled that Boston can utilize race-influenced admission criteria for its elite public schools. This decision comes despite the U.S. Supreme Court’s earlier ruling against affirmative action policies in college admissions. The appellate court’s decision may be further appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

In the case of Boston Parent Coalition for Academic Excellence Corp. v. The School Committee for the City of Boston, the court upheld the city school board’s policy aimed at increasing admissions for black and Latino students at the expense of white and Asian students. This policy change was implemented to distribute admissions more evenly across Boston’s zip codes.

U.S. Circuit Judge William Kayatta, appointed by President Barack Obama in 2013, stated in the court’s unanimous decision that race-conscious admissions policies are constitutional if they are “facially neutral.”

Boston’s school committee administers three prestigious exam schools – Boston Latin School, Boston Latin Academy, and the John D. O’Bryant School of Mathematics and Science. Traditionally, admissions to these schools were based on a merit-based “composite score,” combining an admissions exam and the applicant’s GPA. However, in 2019, the board changed this admissions policy to achieve a racial balance they preferred, leading to a significant shift in student representation in these schools.

The Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF) highlighted that under the new policy, the representation of white students dropped from 33% to 24%, and Asian American representation decreased from 21% to 16%. This shift was due to a zip code-based quota system that allocated 80% of seats to students based on GPAs within each zip code.

The Boston Parent Coalition for Academic Excellence, supporting merit-based admissions, sued the policy change but lost in federal district court. PLF attorney Christopher Kieser argued that the policy violates the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause by using racial proxies like zip codes.

The 1st Circuit Court found that the policy did aim to reduce the percentage of Asian and white students but did not see it as having a disparate impact. The court reasoned that Asian and white students are still over-represented compared to their percentage in Boston public schools. Kieser disagreed with this evaluation method, arguing that the correct approach is to assess whether an additional burden is placed on members of a racial group.

This ruling follows a similar decision by the 4th Circuit regarding Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Virginia. Both cases raise questions about racial discrimination in school admissions and may potentially be reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court.

The School Committee for the City of Boston’s spokeswoman, Liz Sullivan, has declined to comment on the ruling.

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