Supreme Court upholds TJ admission policy
The U.S. Supreme Court on Feb. 20 let stand an appeals court decision upholding the admissions policy for the elite Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology.
That decision ends a three-year legal challenge by the Coalition for TJ, a group of parents that claimed the policy unfairly discriminates against high-achieving Asian American students.
The Fairfax County School Board revised the admissions factors in 2020 to address the shortcomings in a system that persistently drew students from just a handful of middle schools and resulted in classes that lacked the socioeconomic and geographic diversity seen in the other schools.
While TJ is in Mason District, for example, very few of its students came from Mason District schools.
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The revised admissions system raised the minimum GPA, increased the number of students admitted, guaranteed every middle school a certain number of seats, and eliminated the use of standardized tests and the application fee. That policy does not take race into account.
In February 2022, a federal judge ruled that the school board engaged in “racial balancing” when it revised the admissions policy. A federal appeals court overturned that decision in May 2023.
According to FCPS, in the last group of admission offers for the freshman class that entered in the fall of 2023, economically disadvantaged students comprised 11.64 percent of the class.
Asian-American students represented 61.6 percent of the offers, with white students receiving 19 percent and Black and Hispanic students receiving 6.7 percent and 6.0 percent, respectively.
“All students admitted to TJHSST are qualified and have earned their place in this prestigious school,” FCPS stated.
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“We have long believed that the new admissions process is both constitutional and in the best interest of all of our students,” said School Board Chair Karl Frisch (Providence). “It guarantees that all qualified students from all neighborhoods in Fairfax County have a fair shot at attending this exceptional high school.”
“We’re very proud that the last three years of TJHSST admissions decisions included students from every Fairfax County middle school, and the average grade-point average was 3.9, which is consistent with historical averages,” Frisch said.
Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas wrote dissenting opinions against the Supreme Court’s ruling to let the appeals court decision stand.