UPDATE: On November 28, 2023, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights dismissed this complaint. See the letter here.
On March 14, 2023, Parents Defending Education filed a complaint against Newton Public Schools in Newton, Massachusetts, with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights. The complaint claimed the district was breaking Title VI, a law that bans race discrimination in programs that receive federal funds. It also claimed the district was violating the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause, which bars government bodies, including public schools, from treating people differently because of their race except in rare cases.
Newton North and Newton South high schools run the Dover Legacy Scholars program, which offers mentoring and support during school hours for students taking challenging courses. At the time, a school webpage described the participants as “young Black and Latinx scholars who work hard and are interested in pursuing their academics seriously.” DE argued that this made a taxpayer-funded academic program unavailable to students of other races.
Read the full complaint and see its evidence below:
