The FBI searched the home of Los Angeles Schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho on Wednesday, who earned a reputation for improving academics and graduation rates while leading two major U.S. districts.
Agents served Home search warrants as well as the headquarters of the Los Angeles Unified School District and a site near Miami, where Carvalho was previously superintendent.
The authorities did not provide details about what they were investigating.
Here’s what you should know about Carvalho:
Carvalho has described his background in numerous press conferences and interviews over the years.
He was born in Portugal and spent his childhood living in poverty. He came to the United States more than four decades ago when he was 17 and has had no legal status for some time.
Carvalho lived in New York City and then in Miami. His first job in the United States was washing dishes, and he later worked as a day laborer.
After graduating with a biology degree in 1990 from Barry University, a small Catholic school near Miami, he taught science in Miami-Dade County.
“My world changed when I became a teacher,” Carvalho said in 2021. “I still feel like this journey is a fairytale.”
He quickly rose through the administrative ranks at Miami, becoming principal, district spokesman, assistant superintendent and finally superintendent in 2008.
During his 14-year tenure leading Miami-Dade County Public Schools, Carvalho was recognized for improving graduation rates and academic performance, especially among Black and Latino students.
In 2014, he was named Superintendent of the Year by the National Superintendents Association, and in 2021 he was knighted by Spain for his work expanding Spanish language school programs.
In the same year the Los Angeles Board of Education They voted unanimously to appoint him as superintendentat a time when the district was flush with funding from state and federal COVID-19 relief and also struggling with the effects of the pandemic, including learning losses and declining enrollment.
Over the past five years, Carvalho has been praised for the district’s improvements in academic performance.
Carvalho has regularly opposed the administration’s policies Aggressive crackdown In and around Los Angelesreferring to his history as an immigrant living in the United States illegally.
The district, the second largest in the country, consists of about 500,000 students, about 30,000 of whom are immigrants and some of whom also have no legal status.
Before students returned to school last August, he urged immigration authorities not to conduct any enforcement activity within a two-block radius of schools.
“We appeal to the better senses of those who have the power to remove trauma from the streets of our community,” Carvalho said.
He announced several measures aimed at protecting students and families, including changing bus routes to accommodate more students. The district also said it will distribute family preparedness packs that include know-your-rights information, emergency contact updates, and tips on appointing a backup caregiver in the event of an accident. The father was detained.
Back in Florida, Carvalho faced questions in 2020 after a nonprofit he founded requested a $1.57 million donation from an online tutoring company the district planned to use but later dropped.
The district’s inspector general concluded that the donation did not violate state or district ethics policies, but said it created ” Inappropriate appearance ” and should be returned. The money instead went to Miami-Dade teachers in the form of… $100 gift cards.
Years before that, Carvalho had been criticized for a candid email exchange with a former Miami Herald reporter. He denied having an affair but acknowledged the exchanges were inappropriate.
In 2024, in Los Angeles, the development of an AI chatbot called “Ed” is promoted to area students by the AI company AllHere. Three months after unveiling the technology and paying $3 million to the company, the district dropped its dealings with AllHere when it collapsed.
Carvalho denied personal involvement in AllHere’s casting, according to the Los Angeles Times. After its founder was charged with securities fraud and identity theft, he said he would appoint a working group to examine what went wrong with the project. The appointment of a working team has not been announced.
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Associated Press writers Bianca Vasquez Tones and Christopher Weber contributed.