On Wednesday, federal agents from the FBI and the Department of Justice executed coordinated raids at the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) headquarters and at the home of Superintendent Alberto Carvalho in San Pedro. Simultaneous searches were also conducted at a residence in Florida linked to Carvalho.
While the federal operation seized electronic devices, financial records, communications, and nonprofit documentation connected to Carvalho, no formal charges have been filed, and the specific nature of the investigation remains under seal as of this writing. Following the raid, Carvalho was placed on administrative leave by the board on Friday.
The raids appear to stem from allegations that Carvalho accepted kickbacks from a private company during his tenure leading Miami-Dade County Public Schools. These claims reportedly prompted searches of a residence in Southwest Ranches, Florida, along with his home and office in Los Angeles.
The allegation stems from a 2020 episode in which Carvalho solicited a $1.57 million contribution from online education firm K12 Inc. (now known as Stride, Inc.) as Miami-Dade schools shifted to remote learning. The funds were directed to the Foundation for New Education Initiatives, a nonprofit he founded and chaired, while the company was pursuing a major district contract.
At the time, the money was distributed to teachers in the form of $100 gift certificates. A 2021 Inspector General report found no legal violation despite an “appearance of impropriety.”
Preliminary evidence also suggests a probe into Carvalho’s connection to AllHere, an AI startup which collapsed last year following the arrest of CEO Joanna Smith-Griffin for investor fraud.
AllHere secured a $6 million contract with LAUSD to develop the “Ed” chatbot, despite being a small, unproven company in generative AI. Federal scrutiny centers on Carvalho’s longstanding relationship with AllHere salesperson Debra Kerr.
Whistleblower reports have also highlighted the company’s mishandling of student data, raising questions about whether district officials, including Carvalho, knowingly ignored privacy violations.
Carvalho has consistently defended his role in LAUSD’s AI integration, asserting that while he championed the adoption of AI tools, he was not involved in the specific selection of AllHere.
Other concerns were raised earlier this year over LAUSD’s handling of approximately $76.7 million in Proposition 28 funds earmarked for arts and music education.
Carvalho has also been a vocal opponent of Trump’s policies and ICE enforcement on school grounds, barring federal agents from campuses and implementing “safe passages” for students at risk of detention. He has repeatedly stated: “Over my dead body will any federal entity enter our schools to take immigration actions against our kids.”
This federal action comes amid broader tensions between the Trump administration and institutions it perceives as resistant to its policies. LAUSD, UCLA and other educational institutions have faced legal and administrative challenges, with accusations ranging from anti-ICE stances to negligence to protect against “antisemitism”—the dishonest euphemism for opposition to the Gaza genocide—and alleged discrimination against white students.
Carvalho has criticized Trump’s policies, noting their authoritarian overtones and their targeting of educators and students who oppose militarization and anti-immigrant measures. Last June, in an op-ed for Time magazine titled “I was once undocumented. Now I’m a superintendent speaking out against Trump’s immigration raids,” he wrote, “No preschooler, no first grader ... poses any risk to the national security of the United States. And yet, the response we are seeing looks more like a military operation than an immigration process.”
The raids intersect with a period of intense political opposition and class struggle. LAUSD teachers and staff are on the verge of a massive strike, potentially mobilizing 30,000 teachers and 35,000 support workers. At the University of California, 40,000 graduate student workers are also in active dispute with administrators over wages, benefits and working conditions. The Trump administration is deeply concerned about the potential for unified resistance, seeking to neutralize opposition through targeted investigations and leadership changes.
While the DOJ has cited possible corruption, misappropriation of federal pandemic relief funds, and student data privacy violations as the basis for the probe, the operation bears all the markings of a political retaliation rather than a narrow criminal inquiry. By targeting a superintendent who opposed the government’s policies on civil rights and immigration enforcement, the administration appears to be sending a message to other public institutions that dissent will be met with intimidation.
Carvalho poses no real threat to the profit system. He is a municipal functionary with ties to the Democratic Party establishment whose career has been based on implementing austerity measures against workers and maintaining the status quo. Only last week, when the LAUSD Board of Education announced 3,200 layoff notices and at least 657 jobs cut, he stated the reductions were a “calculated risk” and admitted they might not be sufficient.
But the broader context in which this raid takes place is the growing upsurge of the class struggle and attempts by the Trump administration to squash all forms of opposition.
Importantly, in the first two months of this year, Los Angeles has experienced one of the largest waves of student activism in decades. Thousands of students across LAUSD, as well as UCLA, walked out of classrooms to protest an escalation in federal immigration enforcement and “surge” tactics by ICE.
On January 30, 2026, a “No Work, No School” strike saw significant mobilization. At Venice High School, the attendance rate dropped to 64 percent, while the district-wide average fell to 80 percent, indicating that many thousands of students likely stayed home or participated in local demonstrations.
The most significant mobilization occurred during the first week of February 2026, following reports of raids in the Los Angeles Fashion District and Westlake. On February 4, approximately 4,500 students from two dozen schools converged on City Hall and the Metropolitan Detention Center. Participating schools included John Marshall High, Roybal Learning Center, and Downtown Magnets. Two days later, participation nearly tripled. A district spokesperson confirmed that 12,500 students from over 85 schools walked out. In the San Fernando Valley alone, students from more than 40 schools joined the movement.
The raid on Carvalho is in all likelihood aimed at political retaliation, but Trump’s real concern is the growing opposition among the youth and the working class. What is required is the development of an independent political movement of the working class directed against the capitalist system itself, the real source of inequality, repression and war.