Never mind that the always dubious logic behind educational quotas and affirmative action is finally being exposed and discredited: New York’s socialist-in-all-but-name Mayor de Blasio is determined to have the city’s elite public schools “look like New York City,” which is code for “quotas.”
“The status quo is broken. We have to make a major change. We have to make sure that the very best high schools are open to every New Yorker, every kind of New Yorker. They need to look like New York City,” he has said. So he has announced a proposal that would change how students are admitted to eight of the city’s specialized high schools, the crown jewels of NYC’s school system, the equivalents of private schools in quality of teachers and challenging curriculum where students gain entry based on their performance on a single test, taken by all applicants. That seems fair…but since it doesn’t yield a perfect demographic match to the city as a whole, de Blasio’s social justice sensibilities are offended.
Black and Hispanic students make up 67 % of the public school population, but the specialized high schools, which include Stuyvesant High School and the Bronx High School of Science, have just 10 % of students from these groups occupying the 500 available slots, with no improvement in that percentage for years.
Ah! The test must be the problem! This has been the accepted, conventional wisdom and cant that has been repeated by Democrats and affirmative action activists for decades, despite little but blind faith to bolster it. The Mayor, of course, is a believer.
“The Specialized High School Admissions Test isn’t just flawed — it’s a roadblock to justice, progress and academic excellence,” Mr. de Blasio wrote in an op-ed on the education website Chalkbeat. “Can anyone defend this? Can anyone look the parent of a Latino or black child in the eye and tell them their precious daughter or son has an equal chance to get into one of their city’s best high schools? Can anyone say this is the America we signed up for?”
Me! Me! I can! I signed up for an America where people are allowed to succeed according to their ability, achievement and diligence, regardless of color. The black and Latino kids who have scored well on the test had the same chances of getting top scores as the white kids. If there are factors, and there are, that cause more minority students to lack the skills to excel, then by all means, address those.
This, however, is not how de Blasio, being a true fan of enforced diversity, approaches such problems.He wants to replace the test, called the SHSAT, and admit students based on their class rank at their middle school and their scores on statewide standardized tests. This looks like a non-starter, as the State Assembly would have to approve it, and has shown no inclination to do so. Among the parties opposing de Blasio’s plan are the parents of Asian-American students, who do better on the tests than everyone else, damn them, and would lose seats under any system that rewards color rather than ability.
On the other hand, such discrimination would prepare them to apply to Harvard, so there’s that.
Mayor de Blasio has initiated another measure that he can enact without the state’s approval. Beginning in the fall of 2019, the city set aside 20% of the seats for low-income students who will be just competing against each other. Those students would then attend a summer session called the Discovery program. Just 5% of the places at the elite schools are set aside this way now. Currently, poor students with sub-par scores from all over the city qualify for this group. Blasio’s plan will restrict it to high-poverty schools—in other words, to minority students. No matter how you spin it, de Blasio’s plan will mean that better qualified, higher-scoring students who deserve admission based on ability will be denied the opportunity because of their color….and de Blasio’s social justice priorities.
Nice.
But typical.
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Sources: NYT, New York Post, CBS
Ethics Alarms 
People like Mayor de Blasio are illogical imbeciles; you can’t fix their kind of stupid.
But you don’t have to elect them, do you?
If you happen to be an idiot you do.
So funny. Blas want the special NYC high schools to look like NYC. Great. Why not just make them normal high schools and eliminate the special schools. That’s what democracy should look like. Make ALL the schools crappy! Kind of like the socialist solution for income and wealth inequality along the communist model: make everybody poor and miserable! Hurray!
They elected HILLARY Clinton, didn’t they?
“But you don’t have to elect them, do you?”
I have thought of the voters of New York with disdain ever since they elected the Arkansas Carpetbagger, Hillary, as their Senator. That worked well for them /sarc
Let them stew in their bad choices
The more I observe public schools and public “free for all” solutions to education, and this may be deep cynicism, but I really don’t see how complete privatization of education wouldn’t actually be a net benefit to the nation…
I fully accept that the first decade would be painful, but what comes out on the far end would almost have to be more successful by leaps and bounds from the current system.
agreed
And by the way, people like Blas and HRC (and WJC and Al Gore and Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer) do not mean well at all. They are simply grifters looking for power and money with the least effort possible. They are sociopaths. Socialism is a very lucrative career path. Remember how Bernie bought a half million dollar lake house shortly after he lost the nomination fight? But hey, all the big shot commies had dachas, right? Why shouldn’t comrade Bernie have one?
Sooooo, it’s possible Billionaire & deep 8-n-9 figure net worth Socialistas-In-Name-Only CAN have nice things others don’t so long as they brush a few crumbs off’n their well-appointed tables in an appearance of caring for the great unwashed.
Pretty sweet gig when it works, and it always seems to work, am I right?
Perhaps the folks Mayor De Blasio wants to bear the Costs of his compassion should simply leave NYC and take their skills and high incomes with them. Let NYC become the next Detroit after Chicago.
A typical rob Peter to pay Paul approach. Why not just appropriately grow the program so Peter and Paul (sorry for the male gender references to keep the metaphor alive) can attend? After all, think of the children! All the children, even those Peters and Marys, etc. who get in on merit.
Petra and Paulina. No sexism and rather international sounding.
“We to make sure that the very best high schools are open to every New Yorker, every kind of New Yorker.”
Oh, so he supports vouchers then. Glad to hear it!
How does Diblasio reconcile his insult to the other NYPS teachers that don’t work at the “best” high schools. If they are not the best do they – should they get paid less?
That makes more sense than anything Blas has said since he was elected. The better products always cost more, right?
As a graduate of one of these eight schools (Brooklyn Technical High School, class of 1965) I am appalled. DeBlasio has done more to destroy the city of my origin than any other mayor. When I attended BTHS it was still an all-male institution whose predominant attendees were the first and second generation offspring of Italian and Jewish immigrants. However, we were not admitted due to our ethnic identity. We were all successful academically, recommended by our teachers, and high scorers on a stringent three-hour examination. The curriculum was based on the liberal arts with an emphasis on math and science, not the pseudo-social science of cultural identities. Alas, those days are about to be long gone.