Supreme Court to hear Maryland magnet school admissions case
The Supreme Court agreed Monday to hear a challenge to the lottery a Maryland county uses for its magnet middle schools, according to the court's order list. Parents say the plan was meant to cut the number of Asian American students. The school district in Montgomery County says it wants fair access for all.
The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear a challenge to the admissions policy for four magnet middle schools in Montgomery County, Maryland, according to the court's order list. AP and Maryland Matters also reported the decision. The case is Association for Education Fairness v. Montgomery County Board of Education.
A group of parents, mostly Asian American, says the district's policy is race-neutral on its face but was designed to boost the admission of Black and Latino students while disadvantaging Asian American children, AP and Maryland Matters reported. The group sued in 2020 over a policy that took effect in the 2021-22 school year, Maryland Matters reported.
The court will consider whether parents challenging a facially neutral admissions policy as racially discriminatory "must establish that the targeted racial group suffered an aggregate disparate impact relative to its share of the applicant pool," Maryland Matters reported. Lower courts dismissed the case because Asian American students were not underrepresented at the schools compared with the pool of applicants, AP reported. A ruling for the parents could revive the lawsuit, AP reported.
Students now qualify for a lottery based on standardized test results, but students at more affluent schools, where Asian American students are concentrated, must score higher to enter it, AP reported. The four schools offer humanities and STEM programs, Maryland Matters reported.
"You're using, in this case, geography as a proxy … to get the racial results that you want," said Chris Kieser, a senior attorney at Pacific Legal Foundation, which represents the parents, Maryland Matters reported.
Liliana López, a spokesperson for Montgomery County Public Schools, said the court is addressing a "purely legal question," Maryland Matters reported. "MCPS remains committed to providing equitable access to rigorous opportunities for all students," her statement said, according to Maryland Matters.
The district educates more than 150,000 students, AP reported. The 4th Circuit relied partly on an earlier case over a selective magnet high school in Virginia, AP reported.
What we know: The Supreme Court will hear the Montgomery County magnet school case this term.
What we don't: No second news outlet beyond AP and Maryland Matters has independently confirmed these details so far, and the argument date is not set.
Where outlets agree The decision comes from the Supreme Court's official order list, which AP and Maryland Matters also reported.
Where they differ The parents' lawyer says the lottery uses geography as a proxy for race, while the school district says the court faces a purely legal question and it remains committed to equitable access.