[The Federalist] To the outsider, New York City is world-famous for attractions like Times Square, the Statue of Liberty, and the Museum of Modern Art. But to a family of locals, perhaps no landmark impacts public discourse more than the city’s illustrious program for gifted and talented students known as the Specialized High Schools.
These are a group of eight highly selective, publicly funded high schools that offer meritorious students in NYC the opportunity to receive an advanced education. To many denizens of NYC, these schools, which include the famous Stuyvesant and Bronx Science High Schools, represent the hopes and dreams of parents desiring that their children have a better life. Just last week, Democratic Mayor Bill De Blasio released a plan to fundamentally upend the way these schools operate, especially as they relate to its most frequented minority group: Asian-Americans.
De Blasio’s plan would eliminate NYC’s Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT), and replace it with a requirement that the top seven percent of every middle school in NYC be admitted to a Specialized High School ‐ thus exchanging a fundamentally standardized, meritocratic applications process for one predicated on demographics. This approach would heavily favor minorities in low-performing schools (which trend black and Hispanic) over those in high performing schools (which trend Asian). His plan would also reserve 20 percent of seats for schools in "high-poverty" areas. |