Watchdog Seeks New Civil‑Rights Probe of LAUSD Black Student Program After Hot‑Mic Remarks
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An education watchdog group, Defending Education, has filed a new complaint with the U.S. Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights alleging that the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) continues to run its Black Student Achievement Plan (BSAP) as a race‑based program despite telling federal officials it had shifted to race‑neutral criteria. LAUSD launched BSAP in 2021 to address longstanding gaps in outcomes for Black students and has allocated about $175 million to it to date, including $50 million budgeted for the 2025–26 school year, with resources such as dedicated staff reportedly aimed specifically at Black students’ academic and social‑emotional needs. OCR dismissed an earlier Title VI and Equal Protection complaint on July 11, 2024, after LAUSD represented that BSAP resources would be available to all students regardless of race and allocation would be race‑neutral. Defending Education now cites an October 22, 2024 board meeting in which, during protests over alleged changes to BSAP, board president Jackie Goldberg was caught on a hot mic asking Superintendent Alberto Carvalho, "Do they not know that nothing has changed?" and Carvalho replied, "Nothing has changed," which the group calls an admission that the district misled the federal government. The new complaint asks OCR to reopen the case and examine whether LAUSD is operating an effectively segregated, race‑exclusive program in violation of Title VI, a dispute that could shape how far districts nationwide can go with targeted racial‑equity initiatives after recent court rulings on affirmative action and DEI.