By Brian Trompeter
An e-mail to parents of students at Cooper Middle School in McLean about a college-preparatory program has drawn flak from Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares, who said the school illegally was discriminating against some pupils.
In a March 9 letter to Cooper Middle School principal Lisa Barrow, Miyares said the school appeared to be soliciting and selecting applicants to Fairfax County’s College Partnership Program (CPP) based on race, color and national origin.
Miyares’ letter quotes from an e-mail from the school, sent around March 1, that asks, “Do you have an 8th grader who WANTS to go to college AND do they fall into one or more of these categories?”
The message then encouraged eighth-graders in the following categories to apply:
• Students who are the first in their family to attend college in the U.S.
• Black or African-American students.
• Hispanic students, of one or more races.
• Students with disabilities.
• English learners.
• Economically-disadvantaged students.
“It’s shocking that we continue to find such blatant examples of racial and ethnic discrimination in the Fairfax County public-school system,” Miyares said in a statement released March 9. “Every student should be able to apply for the College Partnership Program and have the same opportunities as their peers, regardless of race. I demand that Cooper Middle School, its administrators, and anyone involved in this program stop this illegal discrimination immediately.”
After stating that the matter was under inquiry by his Office of Civil Rights, Miyares’ letter urged school officials to “cease and desist the illegal conduct of soliciting and selecting applicants to the College Partnership Program based on race, color, and national origin.”
The letter asked the school system to provide within six business days evidence that Cooper Middle School had retracted and corrected the e-mail inviting eighth-graders to apply to the College Partnership Program and was conducting the application process for the program in a “nondiscriminatory and legal manner.”
The Office of Attorney General will open an investigation if school officials refuse to cooperate or do not produce the requested materials by March 17, the letter read.
Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) officials issued a statement calling media coverage of the dispute “wholly inaccurate.” During the current school year, 352 Asian students (17.4 percent) and 176 white students (8.7 percent) were among the 2,018 students enrolled in the program, “which is designed to encourage historically underrepresented groups to consider a path to college.”
“We are disappointed that no one from the Office of the Attorney General for the Commonwealth of Virginia contacted Fairfax County Public Schools to check on the authenticity of these reports,” the FCPS statement continued. “Instead, false and damaging public accusations against Cooper Middle School have been made. Publishing false narratives like this undermines public school efforts to boost U.S. educational achievement.”
A program link provided by FCPS shows the program’s rate of participation by various racial groups. White and Asian students represent 36.6 and 19 percent, respectively, of the school system’s student body. Black students make up 9.8 percent of county schools’ student population and 28.1 percent of CPP participants; Hispanics account for 28.1 percent of the student body and 42.9 percent of students in the CPP.
While the program is open to white and Asian students, CPP’s participants typically fall into one of the categories mentioned in Barrow’s letter.
The program’s goal is to “increase the number of students, particularly first-generation and traditionally underrepresented students, that enroll and succeed in college,” the Website read.
Students participating in the program must attend CCP activities and maintain a grade-point average of 2.5 or higher in their core classes. Their parents should attend the program’s parent meetings, be aware of student CPP activities and monitor the attendance and grades of their student(s).
The Office of Attorney General,however, continued to press forward.
“The e-mail from Cooper Middle School speaks for itself and, in the judgment of the attorney general, violates the law,” said Victoria LaCivita, a Miyares spokesman. “That is why Attorney General Miyares has demanded a correction to the e-mail. If FCPS truly wants to boost educational achievement and not undermine it, it should stop sending e-mails like the one it did. Discrimination has no place in public education and Attorney General Miyares will continue to demand that it stops.”
