Zohran Mamdani, the”Democratic-Socialist” (aka. Communist) who will be the next mayor of New York City, says he will end the gifted and talented program in elementary schools, and conservatives “pounced” on the news, arguing that this is a frontal attack on Asian-Americans who voted for him in the primary.
Former Mayor Bill de Blasio, not quite a Communist but married to one, announced his intentions in 2021 to phase out the gifted program for elementary schools, which has been accused of exacerbating segregation. The students qualifying for the program are substantially made up of Asians and whites, with Hispanics and black “under-represented” according to their percentage of the demographics. But unless you are a DEI nut case, it makes no sense to assign seats in an academically-gifted program by race, color or creed.
Under Mamdani’s plan, students who are in gifted classes now would remain in the program, but there would be no gifted program for kindergartners next fall, effectively terminating the program for the future.