Judge to decide lawsuit alleging admissions discrimination

By MATTHEW BARAKAT
Associated Press

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — A judge has heard arguments on whether an elite public high school in northern Virginia discriminated against Asian American families when it overhauled its admissions policies amid a push to increase Black and Hispanic representation there. The hearing Tuesday in federal court in Alexandria debated the constitutionality of the new admissions policy at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology. The policy requires geographical diversity in who’s admitted. But plaintiffs say geographical diversity is just a proxy for racial quotas. The school system says it had no intent to discriminate. The school is routinely ranked as one of the nation’s best public schools, and admission is highly competitive.