Los Angeles Schools Accused of Quietly Funding Race-Based Programming for Black Students Only

An education watchdog is asking the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights to investigate the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) over allegations that the district has allocated tens of millions of dollars for services that only Black students can use.

Defending Education says LAUSD launched the “Black Student Achievement Plan” (BSAP) in 2021 to “address the long-standing disparities in educational outcomes between Black students and their non-Black peers.” The district also mentioned that the program is meant to help achieve “racial equity” and “[r]esources are allocated to different schools” according to “a race-based tiered system.”

The group says LAUSD has allocated $50 million for the program in the 2025-2026 school year, on top of $125 million previously spent on BSAP.

An example of the BSAP resource allocation in question is staffing support specifically dedicated to addressing the academic and social-emotional needs of Black students.

On July 11, 2023, Defending Education filed a complaint with the Office of Civil Rights over the policy, saying it violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.

But that complaint was dismissed exactly a year later, after LAUSD represented that it had “substantially changed its criteria for resource allocation to a race-neutral standard and that BSAP’s resources would be available to all students regardless of race,” and the Office of Civil Rights agreed that any potential violation had been rectified.

However, Defending Education alleges that only months after the complaint was dismissed, LAUSD Board of Education members said the program had not changed.

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