Opinion | New York’s Best Schools Need to Do Better - The New York Times

Opinion | New York’s Best Schools Need to Do Better - The New York Times:  (March 30, 2019)

by the Editorial Board

The news that just seven black students were offered admission to Stuyvesant High School, the most celebrated public school in New York City, is an embarrassment.

It should also be a call to action for state lawmakers, who hold the power to change an admissions process that shuts out black and Latino students from New York City’s eight selective specialized high schools, which can provide a crucial path to success. 



 The major reason is a state law known as the Hecht-Calandra Act that requires the three largest schools — Stuyvesant, the Bronx High School of Science and Brooklyn Technical High School — to use a single exam as the sole criterion for admission. That law was passed in 1971, as the city weighed measures to increase enrollment of black and Hispanic students at the schools amid a broad push for racial integration. Whatever the law’s original intent, the effect has been to limit the number of black and Latino students.

It has also spawned a cottage industry in which parents — including Asian New Yorkers living in poverty — feel compelled to spend thousands of dollars on test preparation over several years to give their children a shot at one of these coveted seats. KEEP READING