How the DOJ is using civil rights law to attack school desegregation - Salon.com

In February, the Department of Justice joined a lawsuit against Los Angeles Unified School District brought by conservative activists, seeking to use the 14th Amendment to repeal a desegregation policy previously ruled unconstitutional.

The 1776 Project Foundation took issue with the school district’s “predominantly Hispanic, Black, Asian or other non-Anglo” (PHBAO) designation for schools, which is used by the district to demark schools with a resident population that is more than 70% non-white.

The designation was rolled out as part of a 1976 desegregation program, which aimed at improving educational opportunities across the city’s schools. These majority non-white schools are subject to two programs that non-PHBAO schools are not: specifically, smaller class sizes and increased parent-teacher conference requirements. The difference in class size maximums varies by grade level, per school district data, and PHBAO schools are mandated to have two parent-teacher conferences per year.