Los Angeles school policy discriminates against White students, lawsuit says

A conservative group has filed a lawsuit against the Los Angeles Unified School District, the nation’s second largest, alleging that a decades-old desegregation policy discriminates against White students.

The lawsuit, filed Jan. 20 in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, argues that students at "non-PHBAO" schools receive "inferior treatment and calculated disadvantages." PHBAO is an acronym for predominantly Hispanic, Black, Asian or "other Non-Anglo," according to the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Schools are categorized as PHBAO based on its resident student population, the district says on its website. A school is designated as PHBAO if its resident student population is more than 70% Hispanic, Black, Asian or other.

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 prepare a desegregation plan for the district, according to the CSUN University Library.

The policy was intended to address the "harms of segregation," including low academic achievement, low self-esteem lack of access to post-secondary opportunities, interracial hostility and intolerance, and overcrowded conditions, the district says on its website.

The lawsuit filed by the 1776 Project Foundation, whose affiliated PAC ran a nationwide campaign to oust school board members they alleged were in favor of racial and social justice lessons, is challenging the desegregation policy. It alleges that the district's programs "are racially discriminatory in their purpose and effect."

"Because this matter involves pending litigation, we are unable to comment on the specifics," a spokesperson for the school district told USA TODAY. "However, Los Angeles Unified remains firmly committed to ensuring all students have meaningful access to services and enriching educational opportunities."

History of school desegregation efforts in Los Angeles

The push for desegregation in Los Angeles schools began with a 1963 lawsuit and the 1970 court ruling that the Los Angeles Unified School District intentionally segregated schools, according to the CSUN University Library.

The ruling resulted in long legal battles and the implementation of integration plans such as busing and magnet schools, though full integration remains an ongoing issue. The court-ordered mandatory busing program did not last long, ending in the 1980s after three years, The New York Times reported at the time.

In 2017, the LA School Report reported that a 1978 settlement required Los Angeles public schools with less than 30% White students to receive additional teachers, counselors and parent-teacher conferences. The district's website also states that PHBAO programs offer reduced class sizes.

Designated PHBAO schools and associated programs are aimed to improve learning conditions for students of color, who often face disproportionate educational disparities. But each year, according to the LA School Report, a handful of schools lose their designation.

In 2022, the Stanford Graduate School of Education reported that an index showed U.S. schools remained "highly segregated by race, ethnicity and economic status" despite efforts to integrate schools over the decades.

Three large school districts, including Los Angeles, were in the top 10 "most racially segregated for white-Black, white-Hispanic, and white-Asian segregation" based on average levels from 1991 to 2020, according to the university.

Lawsuit says LA school district programs give 'preferential treatment' to students of color

The lawsuit states that more than 600 Los Angeles public schools qualify as PHBAO, while less 100 schools do not. According to the lawsuit, PHBAO schools are provided lower student-teacher ratios, more guaranteed parent-teacher conferences and receive extra points on applications to magnet schools.

The lawsuit argues that the school district "channels opportunities, preferences, funding, and outreach primarily to specific racial groups, while systematically excluding or failing to allow other students who similarly could benefit from the same favorable academic support."

"The District’s purpose is to create a racially-dictated environment in these programs and to give preferential treatment to certain students because of their race," the lawsuit continues.

The lawsuit also argues that students of Middle Eastern descent are classified as White by the school district and are "part of the disfavored group, as are others who fall on the wrong side of the District’s bizarre racial and ethnic line-drawing."

Lawsuits comes amid Trump administration's war on DEI

The lawsuit comes amid the Trump administration's efforts to eliminate race-based policies in education and other sectors. On his first day back in the White House last year, President Donald Trump issued an executive order cracking down on what he calls “illegal and radical” diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, practices.

It was the first in a series of actions to make good on campaign promises to end DEI. The president has purged diversity initiatives in the federal government and the military, threatened to strip billions of dollars in federal funding and grants from universities, and pressured major corporations to roll back diversity initiatives or risk losing federal contracts.

Though DEI has become nebulous because of politicization, it usually refers to school programs that aim to eliminate racial and socioeconomic disparities on school campuses. In March 2025, the U.S. Department of Education ordered states and local districts to end DEI programs, which federal officials said violated anti-discrimination laws, or risk losing funding.

But in August, a federal judge deemed the Education Department's anti-DEI mandate unlawful, USA TODAY reported. It had been blocked since April.

Contributing: Sudiksha Kochi, Erin Mansfield, Jessica Guynn, Zachary Schermele, Jennifer Borresen, and Adrianna Rodriguez, USA TODAY