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De Blasio Looks to Albany for Revision of Elite School Admission Policies

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Mayor Bill de Blasio said that he did not unilaterally change the admission policy at five test-in high schools because he doesn’t think it would be legal, according to Crain’s New York. He’s taking his hopes to the state legislature. If he gets to work with Democratic majorities, Crain’s reports that there’s at least a modest chance of getting somewhere.

Crain’s reports that “the mayor has targeted the admissions policy because in the past 25 years, Asian-American students have become the predominant ethnic group in the eight test-in specialized high schools, and the number of black, Latino and white students has dropped dramatically. De Blasio blames the test for screening out blacks and Latinos, although the same test was used in 1989 when minorities were well represented in the three original specialized high schools.”

Admission to those three is governed by a 1971 state law that specifically names them. The other five test-in schools did not exist at the time, but the law anticipated their creation by the then-Board of Education.

The text of the statute, known as Calandra-Hecht for the names of its sponsors, says:

“Admissions to The Bronx High School of Science, Stuyvesant High School and Brooklyn Technical High School and such similar further special high schools which may be established shall be solely and exclusively by taking a competitive, objective and scholastic achievement examination, which shall be open to each and every child in the City of New York in the eighth or ninth year of study, in accordance with the rules promulgated by the N.Y.C. Board of Education, without regard to any school district wherein the child may reside.”

The mayor referenced the statute on Brian Lehrer’s radio show Friday:

“It’s a gray area and a debatable area legally and when—I’m a firm believer when you meet a legally unclear situation, the best way to resolve it is through legislative action.”

Because the mayor controls the school system, he could close specialized high schools and reopen them as something else in order to evade the state law. De Blasio could lose that control if the Legislature lets mayoral control of the schools expire next year. Specialized high schools could receive protections from being re-engineered if the legislature does what happened in 1971.

Asian-American groups would sue if the mayor did an end around, which could be politically unpopular and unhelpful to this already-struggling cause. Crain’s suggests that “diversifying these high schools in such a heavy-handed manner would not render the mayor a hero of the underprivileged because he would be displacing an underprivileged group: Asians, who have the highest poverty rate of any ethnic group in New York City. Some 45% of students at Stuyvesant (which is 75% Asian overall) are poor.”

Crain’s adds that the contrary could hold true as well despite what political prognosticators may say. “Asians have little political power in New York (Ron Kim, D-Flushing, is the only Asian in the state Legislature), which is why de Blasio dared to propose his reform plan in the first place.”

By: Kendra Bernstein

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