New York City parents ripped Mayor Bill de Blasio’s “extremely disappointing” and “abominable“ plan to ax the public school system’s Gifted and Talented program in his final months in office.
Public school parents in the five boroughs told The Post that the lame-duck mayor’s proposal, announced Friday, to phase out the coveted exclusive education model by next fall — after he leaves Gracie Mansion at the end of 2021– is the wrong call for students in the Department of Education system.
Charleen Ang, mother of a student at a third-grade Gifted and Talented program on the Upper West Side, has been attempting to get her first-grade son into one without success and lamented that he may not have the opportunity.
“Now, there is no path for our son to ever join his sister,” she fumed. “It is abominable that de Blasio is, in his final months in office, dismantling one of the few successful education programs in New York City, adversely impacting a swath of children.”
“I am really angry that the mayor who has been in charge of our education for the last eight years uses his last days as mayor to make this very radical change to our public education,” said Yiatin Chu, cofounder of education advocacy group PLACE NYC, whose oldest child attended a gifted and talented program.
“I think it’s ridiculous that the mayor is making such a change at the eleventh hour.”
The current Gifted and Talented program for New York City’s elementary schools was instituted under former Mayor Michael Bloomberg. It offers accelerated classes and specialized advanced curriculum for students who qualify.
The program controversially required that children be tested at 4-years-old for admission — and those who made it in were disproportionately white and Asian and from well off parts of the city. But some black and Latino local politicians backed the program, too, as it offered many families who they represent an alternative to frequently struggling district schools.
Under de Blasio’s plan, released Friday morning, current students in the G & T accelerated-learning classes will be able to remain in them until completion. But new cohorts will be completely eliminated by fall 2022, putting an end to the current system wherein 4-year-old city kids are tested.
Lisa Marks, a parent and public school teacher from Manhattan, told The Post she has one older child in an accelerated program in District 2 and was planning on having a younger sibling apply there, as well.
“It’s extremely disappointing,” said Marks, who teaches at a Bronx high school. “We were planning to apply, but now I have to tell my daughter that she won’t get the same opportunity. It’s not right.”
Max Dickstein, a Forest Hills resident, is the father of one kid in the Gifted and Talented program, and was readying for his sibling to apply for the same school next year.
While Dickstein conceded that the existing single-test admissions system was outdated and in need of an overhaul, he said that nixing the programs entirely is not the appropriate solution.
“I think there had to be a change,” he said. “There is not a diversity of children in the classroom, but it’s disappointing that anyone is entertaining scrapping the whole thing.”
Craig Slutzkin, a Manhattan parent, also planned to have his child apply for a Gifted and Talented first grade spot next year. He said his kid is already bored in his classes this year, and predicted that eliminating opportunities for accelerated learning would cause some families to seek alternatives from the city’s public schools.
“One of the benefits of the New York City school system has been that it has always taken accelerated learners and worked with them to ensure that they are working at an appropriate level. It’s important to have these opportunities early on, because the first few years are important,” he said. “You want these kids challenged and engaged.”
The much-delayed gifted and talented overhaul, which City Hall has been blasted for failing to engage parents on, can still be tweaked in response to feedback, city officials insisted Friday.
“We want to hear from parents, community leaders, educators, and students. Brilliant NYC is a vision. It’s our vision for New York City,” Schools Chancellor Meisha Ross Porter said Friday morning on WNYC. “This is a blueprint for the plan that we intend to implement. Engagement is a critical part of moving this plan forward.”
“We’re going to bring this plan out to communities,” the mayor chimed in, during his weekly “The Brian Lehrer Show” appearance. “The chancellor’s going to go out there personally, a lot of the other key DOE officials are going to go out, meet with parents, meet with parent leaders, community education councils, hear their feedback, and then adjust a plan according to what we hear, and then that’s what we finally implement.”
De Blasio and Porter stunned the city with the Friday announcement — which came a day after the Department of Investigation revealed the mayor misused his police detail and despite repeated promises from the DOE of significant community engagement.
Ultimately, the fate of the Gifted and Talented program will be in the hands of the next mayor — who at the start of 2021 will take the helm of city government. The next mayor is likely to be Eric Adams, the Democratic nominee in the Nov. 2 race.
A rep for Adams, currently the Brooklyn borough president, said he “will assess the plan and reserves his right to implement policies based on the needs of students and parents, should he become mayor.”
Deborah Alexander — a parent leader at the Community District Council 30 in western Queens — labeled the up in the air fate of the G & T program “confusing.”
“No one really knows. Is it something that is set in stone? Is it something that they’re going to have meetings on, or is it something that they’re just tossing to the next mayor?” she wondered.
Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer was similarly puzzled.
“I could not understand exactly what is being proposed,” she told The Post Friday afternoon.
Brewer, like other elected officials, responded to the wave of outrage after the surprise announcement by again promising they would amend the program to incorporate advocate, teacher and parent input.
“The Department of Education needs to be able to meet the needs of children who are gifted academically, but it should include black and Latino families and it should be an integrated program,” she said.
“That’s simply not gonna happen,” she added of teachers being required to provide accelerated instruction alongside grade-level lesson plans. “They’re already swamped.”
Some existing G & T parents backed the new model. “I am extremely supportive of this new plan which will bring greater equity to all classrooms in the city,” said Idesha Fraser of Brooklyn. “Every single child in New York deserves equal opportunity and a level playing field.”
“The move to get rid of G&T is long overdue,” said Rachel Griffiths of Brooklyn. “You can tell at a glance in my sons’ school which class is G&T and which class isn’t — the racial divide is that stark. What does that say to all the kids about who is gifted and who isn’t? In addition to learning reading and writing, the kids get an ugly real-life lesson in systemic racism.”
Assemblyman Ron Kim — a Democrat representing parts of Queens and father of two children in gifted and talented programs — declared nixing G & T to be an “attack” on working-class and Asian immigrant families.
“These are not privileged, wealthy parents! These are working parents who want to challenge their kids,” the left-wing lawmaker told The Post. “How is putting kids out of gifted and talented programs going to solve racial segregation? Punishing kids who want to excel is wrong.”
He lamented that the preferences of working-class immigrants” has been absent from “discussion on school policy” during de Blasio’s tenure.
“It’s not right.”
Kai Mao, who wanted to enroll his 3-year-old son Samuel to learn in a gifted and talented curriculum, floated the possibility of either bolting from the five boroughs or placing his young son in a private school.
“It would be hard but we would have to do it,” he said. “Mayor de Blasio wants to make every kid uneducated equally.”
“It’s a good program,” added Moa, a Gramercy Park resident. “We need programs for smart students.”
