(Washington Examiner) — It is not surprising that Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, or TJ, has fallen again in the 2024 U.S. News World Report’s ranking of best public high schools.
This year, TJ is ranked 14th, down from 5th in 2023, and 1st for three years before that. Its premier ranking occurred when Fairfax County’s only magnet school’s admissions were based on merit, not on “equity.” With the last merit-based class graduating in June, we can expect to see the flagship institution wither away and disappear as it succumbs to its diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI, cancer.
TJ’s tragic downfall has become clear to the public in recent months. Earlier this year, for example, McLean High School’s quiz bowl team defeated the long-favored TJ team in the 2024 Virginia High School League Scholastic Bowl State Championship. This marks the first time in nine years that TJ has not won a title. With the change in TJ’s admissions and its continued rejection of merit, it is likely the school will be losing its competitive edge in scholastic competitions such as quiz bowl, robotics, and debate.
The STEM school also has had to begin offering its admitted freshmen remedial math. In fact, the school’s principal, Ann Bonitatibus, was so enthusiastic in her expectations that all of TJ’s freshmen would be proficient in Algebra 1 by the end of this academic year that she sent parents an email on March 1, 2024, to brag about it. Her message took many Fairfax County residents by surprise because students entering TJ under the previous, merit-based system had usually finished Algebra 1 by the end of seventh grade.
But that was before institutionalized racism against Asians and other “privileged” students became socially acceptable among the Left.