AMAC Exclusive – By Shane Harris
Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (TJ) in Fairfax County, Virginia – consistently ranked the number one high school in the country – is once again at the center of a controversy over so-called “equity” policies. And like the admissions scandal that rocked the school last year, it is Asian American students and families who are suffering the most from this latest salvo in the left’s war on merit.
Just before Christmas, Asra Nomani, a former Wall Street Journal reporter and the mother of a TJ student, penned a piece for City Journal exposing how TJ had been “withholding notifications of National Merit awards from the school’s families.” Each year, a select few U.S. high school juniors are awarded recognition as National Merit Scholars according to their performance on the PSAT. The commendation is highly valued by college admissions offices and can help students earn scholarship money to continue their education.
The scandal has now grown to envelop more than a dozen other area high schools, raising questions about the legality of the schools’ actions and stirring parent outrage over apparent discrimination against high-achieving students.
As Nomani’s investigation revealed, TJ had purposefully not shared news of the award with students and their families as part of the school’s “equity” agenda, which promotes “equal outcomes for every student, without exception.” Because the National Merit Scholarship Corporation only notifies schools, and not parents, when a student earns the award, TJ administrators prevented hundreds of award recipients over five years from receiving the honor and credit they deserved. Because those students were not able to include the award on college admissions applications or compete for scholarships only available to award recipients, many likely missed out on potentially life-changing opportunities.
Brandon Kosatka, the director of student services at TJ, defended the decision by saying that “we want to recognize students for who they are as individuals, not focus on their achievements,” adding that he and school principal Ann Bonitatibus did not want to “hurt the feelings” of students who did not get the award.
This prompted Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares to launch a civil rights probe into the incident earlier this month. “To the extent that withholding of any of these awards at Thomas Jefferson High School was based on race, national origin or any other protected status under the Virginia Human Rights Act, that is unlawful,” Miyares said during a news conference. “If the law was broken, my office will both protect and vindicate the civil rights of Thomas Jefferson students and their [families].”
In a shocking new development in the case, since Miyares announced the investigation, 16 other Northern Virginia high schools have as of Thursday also confessed to withholding or delaying notification of National Merit awards to students. Although most of the schools blamed “accidental administrative oversight,” such a pattern raises immediate suspicion that the actual motive at these other Virginia schools was similar to the one explicitly stated by TJ administrators.
Following this latest round of revelations, Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin also weighed in on the matter, calling for legislation requiring schools to inform parents about academic awards and telling one local news outlet that schools “have a maniacal focus on equal outcomes for all students at all costs.” Youngkin added that promoting “equal outcomes” will inevitably lead to tearing down high achievers, slamming school administrators for “systematically withhold[ing] accolades and a path to college admission and scholarships from high-performing students.”
TJ administrators had also come under fire last year for replacing the school’s merit-based entrance exam with a racial quota system, prompting a lawsuit from a group of parents in the district. A federal judge ruled in February that the new policy unfairly discriminates against Asian American students, as the quota system had caused their representation at TJ to fall dramatically from 73.05% to 54.36%. However, a subsequent appeal has allowed the new policy to remain in place while the court battle rages on.
As Nomani pointed out, Asian Americans were again disproportionately affected by this latest scandal: 77% of TJ’s National Merit Semifinalists over the past five years were of Asian descent.
For conservatives, the scandal only further underscores the disastrous consequences of the radical left’s takeover of the American education system. In an opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal on the TJ story, William McGurn points out that, particularly when it comes to Asian Americans, proponents of “equity” policies are in fact creating the very racial caste system they claim to be trying to tear down. “What makes Asian-American achievement so resented by our equity warriors is that it exposes as false the narrative about an irredeemably racist America where minorities can’t succeed,” McGurn writes. “This progressive disdain for Asian-Americans is amplified by a resentment of moms and dads who believe they should have a say in their kids’ educations.”
Meanwhile, the United States is falling further behind many other developed countries in student performance. Pandemic-related school closures have placed an entire generation of young people behind where they should be in subjects like reading and math. Now more than ever, schools would be wise to celebrate their high achievers as an example for other students to follow, rather than discounting and hiding their accomplishments in service of a wrong-headed ideological agenda.
Shane Harris is a writer and political consultant from Southwest Ohio. You can follow him on Twitter @Shane_Harris_.
