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Conservative groups have filed a lawsuit against the Los Angeles Unified School District, the nation’s second-largest school district, alleging decades of desegregation policies that discriminate against white students.
The lawsuit, filed Jan. 20 in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, alleges that students at “non-PHBAO” schools are subjected to “less favorable treatment and calculated disadvantage.” According to the Los Angeles Unified School District, PHBAO is an acronym for primarily Hispanic, black, Asian, or “other non-British.”
Schools are classified as PHBAO based on the number of students they reside in, according to the district’s website. A school is designated as a PHBAO if 70% or more of its resident students are Hispanic, Black, Asian, etc.
According to the CSUN University Library, the designation stems from a 1970s policy after a judge ruled that the Los Angeles Unified School District operated segregated schools and ordered the Los Angeles City Board of Education to develop a desegregation plan for the district.
The policy was aimed at addressing the “harms of segregation,” including low academic achievement, low self-esteem, lack of access to post-secondary opportunities, racial hostility and intolerance, and overcrowding, the district said on its website.
The lawsuit filed by the 1776 Project Foundation, whose affiliate PAC is waging a national campaign to oust school board members for supporting racial discrimination and social justice classes, challenges desegregation policies. It claims the district’s program is “racist in purpose and effect.”
“Because this matter involves ongoing litigation, we cannot comment on the specifics,” a school district spokesperson told USA TODAY. “However, Los Angeles Unified remains steadfastly committed to ensuring all students have meaningful access to services and enriching educational opportunities.”
History of school desegregation efforts in Los Angeles
According to the CSUN University Library, the push to desegregate Los Angeles schools began with a 1963 lawsuit and a 1970 court ruling that the Los Angeles Unified School District intentionally segregated schools.
The ruling led to a lengthy legal battle and the implementation of integration plans such as busing and magnet schools, but full integration remains an ongoing issue. The court-ordered bus service program didn’t last long, ending three years later in the 1980s, The New York Times reported at the time.
In 2017, Los Angeles School Report reported that a 1978 settlement required Los Angeles public schools with less than 30% white students to require additional teachers, counselors, and parent-teacher conferences. The district’s website also states that the PHBAO program has reduced class sizes.
PHBAO’s designated schools and related programs aim to improve learning conditions for students of color, who often face disproportionate educational disparities. However, several schools lose their designation each year, according to the LA School Report.
In 2022, the Stanford Graduate School of Education reported indicators showing that despite decades of school integration efforts, U.S. schools remain “highly segregated by race, ethnicity, and economic status.”
The three university districts that include Los Angeles are among the top 10 “most racially discriminatory between whites and blacks, whites and Hispanics, and whites and Asians,” based on average levels from 1991 to 2020, according to the university.
Lawsuit claims LA school district program gives ‘preferential treatment’ to students of color
More than 600 Los Angeles public schools are eligible for PHBAO, but fewer than 100 are ineligible, according to the lawsuit. PHBAO schools have lower student-teacher ratios, more guaranteed parent-teacher conferences and extra points for applying to magnet schools, according to the complaint.
The suit alleges that the district “directs opportunities, benefits, funding, and assistance efforts primarily toward certain racial groups, while systematically excluding or denying other students who could similarly benefit from favorable academic support.”
“The district’s purpose is to create a racially defined environment in these programs, favoring certain students based on their race,” the lawsuit continues.
The lawsuit also alleges that Middle Eastern students are classified as white by the school district and are “part of a disadvantaged group, along with other students on the wrong side of the school district’s bizarre racial and ethnic lines.”
Lawsuit arises amid Trump administration’s DEI war
The lawsuit comes amid the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle race-based policies in education and other areas. On his first day back in the White House last year, President Donald Trump issued an executive order cracking down on what he called “illegal and radical” diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) practices.
This was the first in a series of actions to fulfill the campaign promise to abolish DEI. The president has wiped out diversity efforts in the federal government and military, threatened to strip billions of dollars in federal funding and grants from universities, and pressured major companies to backtrack on diversity efforts or risk losing federal contracts.
Although DEI has become obscured by politicization, it typically refers to school programs aimed at eliminating racial and socioeconomic disparities on school campuses. In March 2025, the U.S. Department of Education ordered states and localities to end their DEI programs, but federal officials argued that the programs violated anti-discrimination laws or risk losing funding.
But in August, a federal judge ruled the Education Department’s anti-DEI order was illegal, USA TODAY reported. It has been blocked since April.
Contributors: Sudiksha Kochi, Erin Mansfield, Jessica Ginn, Zachary Schermele, Jennifer Boresen, Adrianna Rodriguez, america today
