KAROL MARKOWICZ: Kids will pay a steep price for this War on Merit in schools.

Look: Parents don’t have their kids apply for these programs because they are racist; they do it because they know the regular curriculum their kids get in regular city schools is weak. Math is usually a joke; reading and writing often even more so. A G&T program might mean their kid has to actually try to succeed, instead of just coasting through classes. Yet parents clamoring for more difficult work for their kids get called “racist.”

Not content with removing the G&T test, the DOE is now pushing to get rid of G&T programs themselves. Middle schools have already scrapped “screens,” such as test scores and grades, for admission this year in favor of lotteries. The city’s most competitive (and often best-performing) high schools constantly fear they’ll be forced to water down their standards.

Bad ideas may start in places like New York and California but don’t necessarily stay there. Seattle’s school board has begun the process of discontinuing its gifted programs. Denver’s largest high school has done away with tracking students into honors classes. In Stamford, Conn., they’ve dropped Advanced Placement exams. Discussions on whether to end accelerated programs are taking place in school districts in Virginia. This trend is spreading faster than COVID.

Leftism is bad for children and other living things.