WASHINGTON — A Maryland fight over who gets into public school magnet programs is headed to the U.S. Supreme Court. On Oct. 19, the justices agreed to hear Association for Education Fairness v. Montgomery County Board of Education, a challenge to how Montgomery County Public Schools admits students to four magnet middle schools.
The case does not ask the court to decide whether Montgomery’s policy was discriminatory. It asks a narrower legal question that could reach far beyond one county. The question is what parents must prove when they claim that an admissions policy that never mentions race was designed to disadvantage students of a particular race.
Whatever standard the justices set would apply to equal protection challenges against public school admissions nationwide, including selective programs here in Southern Maryland.
What the case is about
A 2016 study by consultant Metis Associates found significant racial and socioeconomic disparities in enrollment in Montgomery’s selective programs, particularly for Black and Latino students, Bethesda Magazine reported. The district then tested changes, including comparing applicants with peers from schools with similar poverty levels.
In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the district moved to a lottery for students at or above the 85th percentile on local testing. A group of parents, the Association for Education Fairness, sued that year. They argued the changes were meant to reduce the number of Asian American students admitted, The Center Square reported.
A federal district court in Maryland found the parents had not plausibly shown that the policy harmed Asian American students or was adopted with discriminatory intent. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit upheld that ruling on Feb. 3, 2026, according to the Supreme Court docket.
The question before the court
The court limited its review to one issue. It will decide whether someone challenging a facially neutral admissions policy as racially discriminatory must show that the targeted group suffered an overall disparate impact compared with its share of the applicant pool.
Lawyers for the parents, from the Pacific Legal Foundation, argue that standard lets a school system set racial targets and meet them through race-neutral proxies without any inquiry into intent. Lawyers for the Montgomery County Board of Education counter that a lottery adopted in response to the pandemic cannot realistically be seen as intentional race discrimination.
The case is the most significant school admissions dispute the court has taken since its 2023 ruling in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, which ended race-conscious college admissions, according to The Center Square. The court is likely to hear arguments in early 2027 and rule by the end of its term next summer.
The Southern Maryland connection
Southern Maryland school systems also run programs that students must apply to. In St. Mary’s County, for example, students apply to the STEM Academy at Spring Ridge Middle School and Great Mills High School with an online application, a short essay and a teacher input form. St. Mary’s County Public Schools says it may also weigh attendance, grades, local assessments, accelerated coursework and extracurricular or volunteer activities.
Nothing in the Montgomery case challenges those programs. But the standard the justices adopt will govern any future challenge to selective admissions at Maryland public schools. It will shape what evidence a family would need to bring such a claim, and what school boards must be prepared to defend.
