The Radical Change that America Needs

New York Mayor Bill DeBlasio is considering getting rid of gifted programs in New York City’s public schools because of their lack of diversity. Hold on to your hats. This means that all white and Asian students will be leaving the five boroughs rendering racial diversity truly impossible. Well hopefully not.
While New York city’s public schools are diverse, I argue that they aren’t diverse enough because these very programs don’t really provide an opportunity for low income minority students. Instead they do the opposite, separate the poorest minority students that are the most from the least academically prepared.
A whopping 75 percent of the students in gifted NYC school programs are white or Asian. This means that only 25 percent of the programs are occupied by black or Hispanic students. So yeah there is some degree of diversity but not enough. This diversity by the way exists only in those special public schools that offer gifted programs and not across all New York City public schools.
Thankfully though the solution is simple: remove the programs and focus on the real issue at hand- the creation of an academically homogenous yet racially rich and diverse student body. My thoughts? Mayor DeBlasio should focus on allocating more resources to ensure that minority students are better prepared academically to excel side by side with their white and Asian peers across New York City public schools. This will in turn lead to better educational opportunities across academic grade levels and up to even higher education opportunities. Who doesn’t want to graduate from a four year college?
So yeah, New York City schools are diverse but not as diverse as people would like to think or as Mayor DeBlasio would like, especially for minority students.
But hopefully this means that white and Asian students will stand side by side with black and Hispanic peers if the proposed desegregation of gifted programs in New York City public schools is approved.

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