Fresno School District Sued Over $12M Office of African American Academic Acceleration

Racial tribalism is under legal assault in Fresno.

The Californians for Equal Rights Foundation last week filed a lawsuit that says the Fresno Unified School District’s special remedial program for black students is illegally discriminating against the non-black students it purposely excludes.

The District’s Office of African-American Academic Acceleration offers mentoring programs and summer programs designed to close the achievement gap of black students.  But the lawsuit says the program is only being marketed to blacks and non-black students who could benefit from its programs are purposely excluded.

Californians for Equal Rights is being represented by the libertarian-leaning Pacific Legal Foundation in Sacramento.  The lawsuit was filed on February 27 in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California.

Californians for Equal Rights Foundation executive director Wenyuan Wu told the California Globe that the lawsuit is intended to “stop this blatantly race-based program which targets students solely on the basis of race. This unlawful program violates Proposition 209 – California’s constitutional guarantee of equal protection, the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. As a taxpayer-funded public agency, FUSD should not expend precious public funds on any race-based programs. If FUSD wants to help those students that fall behind academically, the school district can and should do so on the basis of individual merit, rather than hand out unconstitutional group preferences. “

The Office of African-American Academic Acceleration, known as A4,  was established in 2017 because black students were lagging behind their counterparts academically.

Last year, the program had a budget of $11.5 million. It aims to improve black students’ reading and math skills.  It includes such things as a math camp during the summer and special reading and math programs for the participants in elementary school, middle school and high school.

But the lawsuit says the program has become a racial spoils system with non-black students kept in the dark about it by school administrators and steered away if they do learn about it.  “Non-Black students who learn about A4 programs are directed to other extracurricular offerings because of their race,” the complaint says. 

The lawsuit says that Californians for Equal Rights has members whose kids in the Fresno School system could benefit from the program but are purposely kept away from it because they are not black.

“CFER has members who reside in the Fresno Unified School District (Fresno Unified) who have children currently enrolled in Fresno Unified schools. These children are not African American and are either eligible for or would benefit from the same types of academic support offered by the A4 Office programs. However, because these programs are promoted and operated in a racially discriminatory manner, these members are denied an equal opportunity to participate.”

It gives a litany of cases of parents and  students on the wrong side of the racial divide.

For example, “CFER Member “A” is a parent of two children, neither of whom are African American and one of whom attends Fresno Unified’s Robinson Elementary School. Although that child would likely be interested in the A4 Office’s programs, neither Member A nor his child was ever informed of the A4 programs. The A4 programs discriminate against his children because of their race in both promotion and design.”

Another CFER member, described as CFER Member B in the complaint, has three kids who attend Fresno District schools, and none of them are black.  “Although her children would be interested in the A4 Office’s programs, neither Member B nor any of her children were ever informed of the programs. The A4 programs discriminate against her children because of their race in both promotion and design.”

The lawsuit describes how the program operates in a racially exclusive manner, shutting out kids who are not black.

The program “oversees approximately thirteen race-focused programs, including summer reading “for African American students,” math camps for “5th and 6th grade African American students,” and specialized leadership academies and college-prep programs targeted and marketed exclusively to black students.”

Moreover, “Official descriptions, advertisements, and District communications brand these programs as being “for African Americans”—and do not indicate that non-African American students are welcome.”

And teachers “directly invite their African American students to participate in these programs, at the direction of administrators, and do not encourage or inform non-black students, even if they are in similar academic need.”

This racial exclusivity is deliberate, the complaint says. “The district’s purpose is to create a racially segregated environment in these programs as much as possible and to give preferential treatment to certain students because of their race.”

Pacific Legal Foundation lawyer Wilson Freeman told the California Globe that the “most important principle in the lawsuit is, as stated in the complaint, that every student deserves an equal opportunity to benefit from public-school programs, regardless of race. Fresno Unified’s effort to target one race violates the constitution’s guarantee of equal protection.”

He also hopes the lawsuit can lay the groundwork for dismantling similar programs in other school districts. “In terms of precedent, our purpose with this lawsuit is to establish firmly in law that school districts cannot discriminate among their students on the basis of race, even in voluntary or extracurricular programs. All programs must be equally available to all, and promoted, marketed, and designed as such.”

  The Fresno Unified School District communications office did not respond to a request for comment.

Freeman said yesterday that the District’s response to the lawsuit is due within three weeks.