White students called a “new minority” as Trump’s DOJ takes on LA school district

DOJ asks to join suit against LA schools

The Trump Justice Department asked a federal court on Feb. 18 to join a lawsuit against the Los Angeles Unified School District.

The DOJ’s Civil Rights Division filed a motion to step into the case, which a conservative nonprofit brought in January.

The suit challenges a decades-old program that steers extra resources to schools based on the racial makeup of their neighborhoods.

Attorney General Pamela Bondi said equal treatment is a core guarantee that schools must follow.

The suit targets a program called PHBAO

At the heart of the case is LAUSD’s PHBAO program, short for Predominantly Hispanic, Black, Asian, and Other non-Anglo.

Schools earn the label when 70% or more of the students living in their attendance zone are non-white.

The lawsuit says those schools get benefits others don’t, including extra staff that lowers class sizes by about five or six students per teacher.

PHBAO schools also hold two parent-teacher conferences a year, and students in PHBAO zones get preference points for magnet school admissions.

A conservative group filed the original suit

The 1776 Project Foundation, a conservative education nonprofit, filed the lawsuit in January 2026.

The group grew out of the 1776 Project PAC, which has backed more than 250 conservative school board candidates nationwide. The DOJ moved to join about a month later.

If a judge allows it, the federal government would become a full party in the case, with the power to seek the same outcome as the original plaintiffs.

About 90% of LA schools carry the label

LAUSD decides which schools get the PHBAO label based on who lives in the attendance zone, not who actually attends. Students who transfer in, use permits, or have special education placements don’t count.

Right now, about 90% of the district’s roughly 700 campuses carry the designation. Fewer than 100 schools don’t have it.

If a school drops below the 70% mark, it gets two years’ notice before losing the label.

The program traces back to the 1960s

PHBAO grew out of the civil rights era. In 1963, minority students filed a class action suit seeking to desegregate LA schools.

By 1970, a court found the district’s schools were segregated and ordered a fix.

In 1981, the court approved a voluntary plan that included magnet schools and the classification system that became PHBAO.

The Justice Department framed its intervention as a matter of general public importance under the Civil Rights Act.

Magnet schools were designed to address harms of racial isolation, including low achievement and limited access to college.

Plaintiffs cite the Constitution and state law

The lawsuit claims LAUSD violates the Equal Protection Clause, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and California’s Proposition 209.

Voters passed Proposition 209 in 1996, banning racial preferences in public education, employment, and contracting.

The plaintiffs want a permanent court order blocking LAUSD from using race-based classifications in funding or admissions.

The suit describes white students, who make up about 10% of enrollment, as “a new minority” harmed by the system.

Segregation in LA schools has grown deeper

LAUSD is the second-largest school district in the country, behind New York City. Its students are roughly 74% Latino, 10% white, 7% Black, and about 3% Asian.

According to a UCLA Civil Rights Project study, the share of intensely segregated schools in Los Angeles, those with 90% or more students of color, rose from about 49% in 1988 to about 77% in 2022.

That means racial isolation has deepened during the very decades PHBAO has been in place.

Defenders say the program helps disadvantaged schools

LAUSD said it can’t comment on pending litigation but remains committed to giving all students access to services and enriching opportunities.

School board member Nick Melvoin said the DOJ is “misdirected in its claim to champion equality.”

Pedro Noguera, dean of USC’s Rossier School of Education, called these lawsuits an increasingly common tactic and said no evidence shows that helping low-income kids of color hurts affluent white students.

UCLA’s Tyrone Howard called the suit part of a larger agenda to shift focus from centuries of discrimination.

Class size debate has a key nuance

The lawsuit says non-PHBAO students miss out on smaller classes, but the district says PHBAO isn’t the only way to get them. Some gifted and magnet programs at non-PHBAO schools also have reduced class sizes.

And the program bases its labels on a school’s attendance zone, not the race of individual students.

Education advocates have pointed out this difference, arguing the program targets school-level disadvantage rather than singling out kids by race.

The suit fits a bigger national push

The DOJ’s move is part of a wider Trump administration effort against race-conscious education policies.

Under threat of losing federal funding, schools and universities across the country have ended, renamed, or reorganized diversity programs.

LAUSD already faced a separate challenge in 2023, when Parents Defending Education filed a complaint against the district’s Black Student Achievement Plan.

LAUSD overhauled that program, though the federal Office of Civil Rights later dismissed the complaint after finding no current violation.

A federal judge decides what comes next

A judge must first rule on whether to let the DOJ formally join the case.

If granted, the lawsuit moves into legal briefings and possibly a hearing on whether PHBAO passes constitutional review.

Legal experts say the current Supreme Court’s recent rulings have opened the door to more lawsuits like this one. The case is pending in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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