Supreme Court to Review Maryland Magnet School Admissions Challenge

The Supreme Court will consider whether parents can challenge an admissions policy they say disadvantages individual students by race, even when the policy does not explicitly mention race. The case concerns Montgomery County’s test-and-lottery system for four magnet middle schools and could influence similar disputes, including one involving a New York parent’s challenge to a school admissions initiative.

Supreme Court Case Could Chill Efforts to Broaden School Access

A Supreme Court ruling for the challengers could make school districts more vulnerable to lawsuits when admissions reforms change who gets into selective schools. That risk comes as New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani faces pressure to address the low numbers of Black and Latino students admitted to the city’s specialized high schools, where this year they accounted for 3.5% and 6.5% of admissions, respectively.

The Montgomery County case concerns a test-and-lottery system introduced during the pandemic with the aim of increasing Black and Hispanic enrollment. The challengers say the system harms Asian and white students; lower courts rejected the claim after finding that Asian American students’ share of admissions remained above their share of applicants.

Education experts who support admissions reform warn that a broader definition of discrimination could discourage efforts to improve racial or economic diversity. One researcher said such a ruling could leave an unfair status quo in place by making reforms that reduce white or Asian representation a target for lawsuits.

The city’s eight specialized high schools largely admit students based on the SHSAT. A ruling that narrows policymakers’ options could constrain efforts to change that system, even as officials face calls to address its sharply uneven admissions outcomes.

Supreme Court Takes Up Individual Rights in School Admissions

The Constitution protects students as individuals, not racial groups, and the Supreme Court now has a chance to clarify that principle in school admissions. Parents challenging Montgomery County’s magnet-school system say its locally adjusted test thresholds and lottery were designed to change enrollment and have reduced Asian American participation at one school from 58.2% to 30.3%.

Lower courts dismissed the challenge because Asian American students still made up a larger share of admitted students than of applicants. The parents argue that this approach makes a student’s right to sue depend on how other members of the same racial group perform. The Supreme Court’s decision could affect similar cases, including a New York parent’s challenge to an admissions initiative.

The dispute also matters to New York City, where Black and Latino students remain underrepresented at specialized high schools. But using racial outcomes as the basis for admissions reform risks treating students differently because of their race, rather than addressing individual students’ needs or school performance.

The city’s eight specialized high schools rely chiefly on the SHSAT. This year, Black students made up 3.5% of admitted students, while Asian students accounted for 56.5%. The court’s review will determine how challengers must show that a policy with no explicit racial criteria violates equal protection.