In a hotbed of opposition to admissions changes to New York City’s specialized high schools,
Carranza doesn’t back down
by Christina Veiga // Chalkbeat New York
Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza was cut off by a chorus of boos.
He faced about 100 parents Wednesday night at a town hall in south Brooklyn’s District 20 — the epicenter of resistance against the city’s plans to integrate its specialized high schools.
Spanning the neighborhoods of Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights, and a sliver of Sunset Park, the district has served as a reliable pipeline to the coveted schools. It is also home to the Christa McAuliffe School, where the parent organization has sued the city, claiming that admissions changes that will take effect this year will discriminate against Asian students.
“Let’s be really clear. The notion that you can only receive a quality education in a specialized high school is false,” he said, prompting disapproval from the audience.
The exchange illustrated how much is at stake for many of the district’s families, who have come to see the specialized schools as make-or-break, the best shot for their child’s success. That is especially true for many Asian families, many of whom come from modest means.
Carranza tried repeatedly to convince the crowd that the country’s largest school system offered plenty of other rigorous high school options — only to be met with a litany of questions about how the city’s plans for specialized schools would affect the area’s students.
“How is our district going to be represented in this equation, and how are we going to have equity and fairness to be able to aspire to these locations?” asked Adele Doyle, president of the local Community Education Council, which hosted the town hall.
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