The FBI served search warrants Wednesday at the Los Angeles Unified School District's headquarters and the home of its leader, a former Superintendent of the Year who was knighted by Spain for his work. Federal officials would not give details of the nature of the investigation involving the nation's second-largest school district and Superintendent Alberto Carvalho's home, per the AP. The district said in a statement that it "is cooperating with the investigation and we do not have further information at this time." The FBI also searched a third location near Miami, where Carvalho previously led the public schools.
Rukelt Dalberis, a spokesperson for the FBI's Los Angeles field office, confirmed that agents were at the properties to serve warrants but declined to comment further because affidavits laying out details for the basis for the searches were under seal. Over the past five years in Los Angeles, Carvalho has been lauded for the district's improvements to academic performance. He won similar praise while overseeing Miami-Dade County Public Schools, Florida's largest school district, where the national superintendents association named him Superintendent of the Year in 2014. But both districts also drew scrutiny under his watch.
In 2024, Carvalho heavily touted an education technology company that developed an AI chatbot named "Ed" for the Los Angeles district to help students, calling it "a game changer." But less than three months after unveiling the technology and paying the company $3 million, the district dropped its dealings with AllHere, which collapsed into bankruptcy. Months later, founder Joanna Smith-Griffin was charged with securities and wire fraud, along with identity theft. Carvalho denied personal involvement in the selection of AllHere, according to the Los Angeles Times. After Smith-Griffin was indicted, Carvalho said he would appoint a task force to examine what went wrong with the LAUSD project. There have been no announcements of any task force being appointed.
During his tenure in Florida, Carvalho also drew scrutiny in 2020 after a nonprofit he founded solicited a $1.57 million donation from an online education company the district was planning to use but later dropped. The district's inspector general determined the donation didn't violate state or district ethics policies but did create the "appearance of impropriety" and should be returned. The nonprofit instead distributed the donation to Miami-Dade teachers in $100 gift cards. After taking the job in California, Carvalho became a harsh critic of the Trump administration's aggressive immigration crackdown, especially following raids in Los Angeles last year. On Feb. 19, the Trump administration joined a lawsuit alleging that the district discriminates against white students under its decades-old desegregation policy.
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