Students for Fair Admissions Strongly Urges Evanston Illinois School District #65 to Reject Race-Based Seats for In-Person Learning

ARLINGTON, Va., Oct. 19, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA) sent letters to Evanston School Superintendent Devon Horton and each member of the board strongly urging them to not use a student's race or ethnicity as a factor for in-person classroom attendance.

Dr. Horton has proposed giving certain "marginalized groups" priority for in-person, classroom attendance while non-marginalized groups would be forced to continue classes remotely. The letter notes that this proposed policy violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

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Edward Blum, president of SFFA said, "The U.S. Constitution and our nation's civil rights laws and forbid treating school children differently because of their race and ethnicity. Dr. Horton's proposal to require most white and Asian-American children to be kept out of all classrooms, while giving all black and Hispanic children in-person classroom learning, is repugnant and unconstitutional." 

Blum added, "SFFA's letter notes there are significant percentages of academically underachieving non-minority children who would be barred from attending classes in-person. This fact alone makes this terribly misguided policy illegal and likely to be challenged in court."

Blum concluded, "If implemented, these racially-exclusive policies will subject to school district to costly and polarizing litigation."

Students for Fair Admissions is a nonprofit membership organization with over 22,000 members. SFFA is currently challenging in federal court the discriminatory admissions policies at Harvard, the Univ. of North Carolina and the Univ. of Texas.

Contact: Edward Blum
[email protected]
(703) 505-1922

SOURCE Students for Fair Admissions