Lawsuit challenges race-based student programs at Fresno schools

Fresno, CA; February 20, 2025: Californians for Equal Rights Foundation (CFER), represented by Pacific Legal Foundation, has filed a lawsuit against Fresno Unified School District (FUSD) for unlawfully gating access to academic support programs on the basis of race. 

Fresno Unified School District, California’s third largest, serves 71,000 students. In 2017, it established the Office of African American Academic Acceleration (A4 Office) to address achievement gaps between African American students and their peers, which now runs 13 programs with a $12 million budget, focusing on mentoring African American middle and high school students. 

Although these programs do not explicitly state a race requirement, they are marketed exclusively to African American students. Administrators direct teachers to inform only African American parents and students about these opportunities, leaving other students unaware. 

“It is unfair and unconstitutional to gate access to valuable educational programs based on a child’s race, regardless of whether the exclusion is explicit or implicit,” said Wilson Freeman, an attorney for Pacific Legal Foundation. “Taxpayer-funded academic support programs should be available to all students based on need, not race. FUSD’s practices violate multiple legal protections, including the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause, the Civil Rights Act, and California’s Proposition 209.” 

Racial classifications by the government lead to distortion, resentment, and segregated learning environments—all things the Equal Protection Clause is designed to eliminate. CFER, represented at no charge by Pacific Legal Foundation, is taking action with a federal lawsuit to ensure that these valuable educational programs are accessible to all students, regardless of race.

The case is CFER v. Fresno Unified School District.