After Mayor Bill de Blasio recently announced his intentions to change the admissions process for the city’s eight elite academic high schools, also known as Specialized High Schools (SHS), politicians are getting out their stances on the changes.
De Blasio’s plan would expand the Discovery program, which helps lower-income students gain admission into the schools. The Discovery program allows students with lower-incomes to attend a summer session to earn a seat in the SHS.
Currently, the Discovery program accounts for five percent of the seats in the schools, under de Blasio’s plan, this number would increase to 20 percent.
The other change would be to eliminate the use of the single-admission test over the course of three years. Once the test is eliminated, the seats in the SHS would go to the top performers at each New York City middle school.
King’s County Politics reached out to the candidates running for the State Senate seat in the 22nd district to find out where they stand on the issue. The candidates are Democratic challengers Andrew Gounardes and Ross Barkan, and Republican incumbent Sen. Marty Golden.
The district includes Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights, Bensonhurst, Marine Park, Gerritsen Beach, Gravesend, Manhattan Beach, and parts of Sheepshead Bay, Borough Park and Midwood.
KCP: Do you agree with the Mayor de Blasio’s plan to change the admissions procedures from one single test to eliminate the testing requirement admission over three years, as well as expanding the discovery program, additionally, what other specific changes would you like to see to the process?
Andrew Gounardes: “I firmly agree that we need to have more diversity in our public schools. It’s a real problem. However, I don’t agree with Mayor de Blasio’s proposal to change the admissions process for specialized high schools in New York City, which serve only 5% of high school students and 1% of all students city-wide.
“This plan will disproportionately affect students in Districts 20, 21, and 22, many of whom are from first- and second-generation immigrant families, and is not a comprehensive solution to address the bigger issues facing our public schools.
We should be focusing our attention on making every school in our city a beacon of academic achievement and one that any parent would be fiercely proud to send their child to. That is why among other things, I am campaigning on a platform to make New York State the first state in the country to constitutionally guarantee free quality public education from pre-k through college.”
Ross Barkan: “While I am personally a skeptic of standardized tests alone as a general measurement of student achievement, I do not believe eliminating the SHSAT overnight will desegregate our schools. I do not support Mayor de Blasio’s proposal. We must focus on our horrifically segregated and underfunded middle schools and stop screening kids from an early age. Why not focus on the vast majority of schools that are underfunded and segregated? New York State owes us millions of dollars and that’s the education fight we should be taking on right now. The Asian-American community feels singled out by Mayor de Blasio and I understand why. They deserve a voice here.”
Sen. Martin Golden: “Currently, the specialized high schools are open to all based on test scores. Any changes to the current admissions system should be vetted. All stakeholders should be heard, and a consensus reached, before radical changes are made to a system, which has been successful. If these changes require State action to implement, it is my current intention to oppose them. By arbitrarily setting a percentage of students who failed to make the test cutoff, the Mayor will be denying students who earned a seat in these schools.”
“This move by the Mayor is going to start a race for the bottom. At a time when there is a focus on science and math degrees, the Mayor is turning back the clock. Now is not the time to recklessly change our specialized high schools, which have been producing some of the best and brightest students. By opening up our specialized high schools to students who failed to make the cut, we are sending the wrong message. Every student who wants to go to a specialized high school deserves a chance, but by instituting random quotas we are sending students the wrong message – your parents’ income is more important than your intelligence.”
“It is my hope that the Mayor will see the mistakes in his plan for our specialized high schools. The way to diversify our specialized high schools should be built on providing low-income students increased access to academic help, so they can earn a slot in the school of their choice, not to deny students whose work earned them a spot. However, if he doesn’t realize what he is doing, there is no doubt that the Legislature should get involved to protect our specialized high schools.”
