I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around the opposition to programs that recognize bright, eager-to-learn kids and place them in special classes where they can excel and achieve great things.
Yes, the opposition is based on the fact that more white and Asian kids qualify for the special instruction than black kids, but instead of penalizing the "special" kids, why not work harder to uplift the black kids? It appears to me that no one in school districts that cite "white privilege" for why fewer black kids end up in these accelerated classes ever comes up with ideas to raise black kids up instead of holding other kids back.
Probably too much work.
New York's Democratic Socialist Party Mayor Zohran Mamdani thinks that these special programs that elevate some kids over others based on talent and gifts are an abomination and need to end. Catering to the lowest common denominator in education, the workplace, and government is how socialists keep everything nice and equal — equally mediocre, at least.
Catherine Salgado covered this story for PJ Media when it first broke last week. She wrote that Mamdani's plan will "prevent more than 2,000 students from accessing the special program at the earliest educational level." It's actually worse than that. Mamdani wants to deep-six the entire Gifted and Talented (G&T) program for all grade levels.
He's not the first New York City mayor to attempt this ill-considered plan. Former Mayor Bill DeBlasio also sought to end the G&T programs, only to run into a brick wall of opposition from parents. Those shouting the loudest were black parents who want their children to have the opportunity to excel.
They know the results. "In a study of student data from 2010 to 2019, black and Hispanic students in G&T programs showed the largest increases in academic proficiency scores," writes Maud Maron in The Free Press, who was one of the leaders in the fight to keep the G&T programs.
"About 90 percent of the city’s 148,000 charter school students are from black and Hispanic families who have chosen to leave the one-size-fits-all equity education offered by the 'abolish G&T' crowd to whom Mamdani panders," Maron writes. Maron also notes there are 50,000 names on a waiting list to get into these schools.
The foolishness, dishonesty, and hypocrisy of Mamdani’s words are hard to overstate. De Blasio wasted enormous political capital trying to end the Specialized High School Admissions Test (SHSAT), used to select students for eight high schools, including the Bronx High School of Science. De Blasio failed because families fought like hell to protect opportunities for their children.
“I look back and I’m like, ‘What were we thinking?’ ” he said last year in acknowledgment of the blunder. “And our philosophical orientation was right, but our strategy was really off.”
Mamdani appears ready and even eager to repeat the same “painful experience,” to quote de Blasio again, with the plan to phase out the G&T program. Like de Blasio, Mamdani is ignoring families who want G&T, will not settle for slogans, and will leave public schools in search of academic excellence.
Mamdani attended Bronx High School of Science. Everyone who attended that school had to take the same SHSAT test. "About 26,000 eighth graders took the latest SHSAT, and just 4,000 were offered a spot at a specialized high school," Maron writes.
Yes, but the tests are RIGGED! They favor white people and Asians! The questions they ask aren't fair to black kids!
There's no doubt that there is some bias in these standardized tests, although testing companies have worked very hard over the last few decades to reduce it as much as possible. However, the real problems in getting black kids to excel are problems of poverty and broken families.
"Racial gaps in G&T enrollment largely disappear after controlling for the education of a student’s mother, which often correlates with family structure, stability, and income," writes Maron.
Penalizing excellence is what socialists and other "levelers" do. That Mamdani is in a position to injure so many kids is a testament to the ignorance and appalling stupidity of New York City voters.
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