Top North Carolina High School Slapped With Civil Rights Investigation for Race-Based Program

The Department of Education has opened a civil rights investigation into a top-ranked North Carolina high school over alleged racial discrimination.

In a letter obtained exclusively by the Washington Examiner, the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights confirmed an investigation had been opened into the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics.

Education advocacy organization Parents Defending Education filed a complaint with the OCR in May, alleging the school’s “Step Up to STEM” summer program discriminates on the basis of race by only seeking applications from black, Hispanic, and Native American students.

“Another day, another investigation into one of the nation’s most celebrated high schools,” PDE Vice President Caroline Moore told the Washington Examiner. {snip}

The program is aimed at honing the math, science, technology, and communication skills of rising ninth and 10th graders, but the program was “open by application to eighth grade African American, Hispanic American, and Native American students who live in North Carolina.”

NCSSM, which is consistently ranked one of the top high schools in the country, takes federal funding and could lose it if the Education Department finds its practices racially discriminatory.

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