A new lawsuit has accused Fresno's public schools of discriminating against non-black families and students by establishing and operating special academic programs, camps and other free assistance, open only to black students.
On Feb. 27, the San Diego-based organization known as Californians for Equal Rights Foundation filed suit in Sacramento federal court against the superintendent of Fresno Unified School District and the president of FUSD school board. Both were sued in their official capacities as leaders of the Fresno school district.
According to the complaint, Californians for Equal Rights was suing to press claims on behalf of several unidentified families with students in the Fresno school district, who purportedly are members of the CFER organization.
The CFER is represented in the action by attorneys from the Pacific Legal Foundation, of Sacramento.
“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 attorney Wilson Freeman, of the Pacific Legal Foundation. “Taxpayer-funded academic support programs should be available to all students based on need, not race."
The lawsuit takes aim at the Fresno school district's so-called A4 programs. Administered through the district's Office of African American Academic Acceleration since the office's establishment in 2017, the A4 programs were supposedly designed to close academic achievement gaps between black students and those of other races, notably white and Asian students, in California's third largest school district.
According to the complaint, more than 70,000 students are enrolled in grades K-12 in the Fresno district. Of those, more than two-thirds, or about 48,000 students, are identified as Hispanic.
Another 7,400 students are Asian, while 5,300 students are identified as non-Hispanic white.
About 5,100 students are identified as black.
According to the complaint, the district's students - who are mostly low income - generally struggle academically, with only 22% of K-6 students considered to read at grade level and only 17% at grade level in math.
When divided among racial groups, 38% of Fresno's white students are considered to read at grade level, compared to 25% of Asian students, 21% of Hispanic studetns and 16% of black students.
Faced with these statistics, the district established the A4 programs, explicitly to "address the disparities in academic outcomes faced by African American students" and to "ensure African American and Black students not only meet academic goals but thrive in a nurturing and empowering environment."
According to the complaint, the Fresno district alloted more than $12 million to the A4 programs in 2024 alone.
The A4 programs included 13 "race-focused programs," including special summer reading programs, math camps and "specialized leadership academies and college-prep programs targeted and marketed exclusively to black students," according to the complaint.
"Official descriptions, advertisements, and District communications brand these programs as being 'for African Americans' - and do not indicate that non-African American students are welcome," the complaint said.
"Teachers directly invite their African American students to participate in these programs, at the direction of administrators, and do not encourage or inform non-black students, even if they are in similar academic need.
"... The district’s purpose is to create a racially segregated environment in these programs as much as possible and to give preferential treatment to certain students because of their race," the lawsuit said.
In the complaint, the CFER said their member families would wish to take advantage of the academic achievement programs to improve their students' academic outcomes, as well, but are blocked by the allegedly illegal and unconstitutional discrimination inherent to the A4 programs.
The lawsuit asserts the the programs violate the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution's Fourteenth Amendment, as well as federal civil rights law barring the government from discriminating on the basis of race.
"The California and United States Constitutions forbid the government from segregating or providing preferential treatment on the basis of race. Yet Fresno Unified’s A4 Office channels opportunities, funding, and outreach primarily to a single racial group while systematically excluding or failing to inform other students who similarly could benefit from academic support," the lawsuit said.
The plaintiffs are seeking a court order blocking the Fresno district from continuing with the allegedly discriminatory programs and "from using race in any manner in operating, funding, advertising, or admitting students into the A4 Office programs."
According to its website, this marks the latest in a series of legal actions the CFER organization has launched against discriminatory programs in California cities, counties and schools.
Last year, for instance, CFER sued Sacramento County over an allegedly racially discriminatory child welfare program and sued the city of San Diego over an alleged discriminatory housing assistance program.
The organization has also sued the city of San Francisco, Alameda County and the state of California over other alleged discriminatory programs, notching wins against both the state and Alameda County, and an apparent victory over San Francisco, according to its website.