Admission to what was until recently “America’s best high school” (as named by U.S. News & World Report) is again under assault from multiple directions. Seven teachers at Fairfax County’s acclaimed Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology allege that the school’s famously rigorous selection process has been eased, such that it’s no longer enrolling the ablest and best-prepared pupils.

A federal civil rights complaint filed by a former Fairfax County School Board member asserts that entry criteria at TJ, as the school is known, in conjunction with the district’s clumsy handling of “gifted and talented” education in earlier grades, rig the enrollment against black and Latino kids. At the same time, a law professor is pressing his claim that black students are favored over white students in the admissions process.