Boston’s elite exam schools consistently rank among the best public high schools in the country. Their alumni include some of America’s most celebrated artists, entrepreneurs, and intellectuals...
Boston’s elite exam schools—Boston Latin School, Boston Latin Academy, and the John D. O’Bryant School of Mathematics and Science—consistently rank among the best public high schools in the country.
Their alumni include some of America’s most celebrated artists, entrepreneurs, and intellectuals, and until recently, admission was based solely on academic achievement—serving as an institutional embodiment of the American Dream.
But over the past five years, the merit-based system that helped these schools and students thrive has been supplanted by a system that prioritizes race—stripping hardworking students of life-changing opportunities based solely on the color of their skin.
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My colleagues and I first challenged
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Boston Public Schools’ (BPS) thinly veiled race-based admissions reforms in 2022, representing the Boston Parent Coalition for Academic Excellence.
Over the next two years, we worked our way through the lower courts, ultimately petitioning the United States Supreme Court for review. Meanwhile, BPS officials redesigned their admissions criteria, shifting from a ZIP Code quota to an even-more-discriminatory tier-based system.
Although the Supreme Court ultimately declined to review our case in 2024, Justice Samuel Alito, joined by Justice Clarence Thomas, condemned Boston’s policy in a fiery dissent, calling the judiciary’s failure to stop it “a glaring constitutional error.”
For some, that may have been the end of the story. Fortunately, the families behind the Boston Parent Coalition are relentless in their pursuit of justice. Disappointed in the Court’s denial but undeterred, we went back to the drawing board.
Now—with new facts and clear signs of discriminatory intent—I’m excited to share that, a couple of weeks ago, we filed a new federal lawsuit
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challenging BPS’s reimagined tier-based admissions system.
READ MORE
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The Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause guarantees every qualified student an equal opportunity to compete for their place in one of Boston’s elite exam schools—regardless of race.
BPS’s new tier-based system is nothing more than an attempt to pull the wool over the eyes of Bostonians—transforming a once-proudly meritocratic system into a plainly discriminatory one that judges students not on their performance, but on their race.
These policies aren’t just immoral—they’re blatantly unconstitutional. Our children deserve better.
Keep an eye out for updates on this case and others like it—and check out our broader initiative, Ending Discrimination in Education
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, to learn more.
Chris Kieser
Senior Attorney
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