Trump Stance On Affirmative Action Is Affront To Our Values: LA School Board President

Editor's Note: Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education President Dr. Ref Rodriguez issued the following statement in response to a New York Times report that the Trump administration is preparing to redirect resources to sue universities for affirmative action polices deemed to discriminate against white applicants.

The Los Angeles Unified School District prides itself on being an educational institution grounded in the importance and power of diversity and welcomes all, regardless of cultural, racial or linguistic background, to learn, to teach, and to lead.

It is deeply troubling and disheartening that the Trump administration appears to be challenging efforts by colleges and universities to expand educational opportunity to communities that have been historically marginalized in higher education. California and Los Angeles graduate thousands of college-ready students seeking to strengthen university campuses across the nation.

President Trump’s stance is an affront to our values as a school district and as a country rooted in the strength of diversity. A student body exemplifying racial, cultural, and linguistic differences offers students and their families multiple perspectives which allow them to acquire a broader understanding of themselves and the world in which they live. We challenge the President to use federal resources to increase access to opportunity for every learner in America.

Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the University of Texas’s use of race in admission. In fending off a lawsuit filed by a white applicant denied admission, the university argued it needed to consider race to ensure diversity of its student body and that it had exhausted other means of achieving that goal. Yesterday, an internal Department of Justice document obtained by the New York Times suggests that President Trump intends to investigate whether using race in college admissions discriminates against white students and sue schools deemed in violation.