Alberto Carvalho is the superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District and on February 25, 2026 the Federal Bureau of Investigation raided his residences in Miami and Los Angeles and also searched LAUSD headquarters, as reported by The New York Times.
Carvalho accepted the Los Angeles post on December 9, 2021 following the resignation of Austin Beutner and assumed the office on February 14, 2022, after serving as Miami-Dade County Public Schools superintendent from September 10, 2008 to February 3, 2022.
The raids come amid Carvalho’s profile as a national education figure who has held board and award positions, and the FBI action specifically included both his private residences and the district administrative offices.
Career Record And Public Profile
Carvalho was born in Portugal to a father who worked as a custodian and a mother who worked as a seamstress, and he was one of six children and the only sibling to graduate high school, according to his biography.
He came to the United States in the early 1980s as an undocumented immigrant, worked in construction and restaurants and experienced homelessness, later working as superintendent just blocks from where he once slept under a bridge.
Carvalho attended Broward College and graduated from Barry University in 1990 with a bachelor’s degree in biology, and he began his education career teaching physics, chemistry and calculus at Miami Jackson Senior High before moving into administrative roles.
He rose through Miami-Dade district posts to become superintendent in 2008 when the district faced serious financial strain, and he led budget cuts of about $2 billion while saying he did not fire classroom teachers and described his budgeting as "zero-based, moral-values-based."
Under his leadership Miami-Dade won the Broad Prize for Urban Education in 2012 and saw improvements in Advanced Placement participation and performance, and Carvalho received awards including Florida Superintendent of the Year in December 2013 and AASA National Superintendent of the Year in February 2014.
Other recognitions include a White House honor in May 2014, appointment to the National Assessment Governing Board on October 6, 2015, the 2016 Harold W. McGraw, Jr. Prize in Education and the 2016 Magnet Schools of America Superintendent of the Year distinction.
Carvalho has opened and retained leadership roles in schools he helped start, including Primary Learning Center in 2009 and iPreparatory Academy in 2010, and he drew controversy over a reported 2008 romantic relationship with a former education reporter while he was married and over "franchising" the MAST Academy into multiple campuses.
