All students deserve a quality education—no matter the color of their skin

Students are being turned away from some of Connecticut’s best schools simply because they have the wrong skin color. Connecticut law caps Black and Hispanic student enrollment at its world-class magnet schools at no more than 75%. This blatant racial quota is an unconstitutional outgrowth of a lawsuit involving Hartford schools. The Connecticut General Assembly expanded the racial quota statewide in 2017, which originally only applied to Hartford magnet schools.

The statewide racial quota has already done serious harm to magnet schools and their students. In New Haven, for example, an interdistrict magnet high school that enrolled 91% Black and Hispanic students was forced to shut its doors last year under the threat of more than $100,000 in penalties for failing to maintain the racial quota.

By forcing them into Connecticut’s failing neighborhood schools, the racial quota robs students of the opportunity to have a better life and brighter future.

Represented by Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF), today the Connecticut Parents Union filed a federal civil rights lawsuit challenging Connecticut’s statewide racial quota. This serves as a companion case to our case filed in 2018 challenging a racial quota enforced at Hartford magnet schools.

With the help of PLF, the Connecticut Parents Union is confident that the court will stop Connecticut’s discrimination and allow students to access their state’s best schools no matter the color of their skin.