The Fairfax County School Board is set to vote Thursday night to gut the race-blind, merit-based admissions testing process at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology. T.J. is a state-chartered magnet school legislated to serve academically gifted and advanced students. The school board plans to replace the testing with a lottery or subjective selection process akin to a popularity contest.
The results of Freedom of Information Act inquiries reveal the attack on the school was months in the making. The campaign included one of the people most entrusted to protect the school, its students, and its families: the principal, working in sync with public school officials and radical alumni activists. The school principal and district officials didn’t respond to requests for comment.