Bloomberg Supports Racially Exclusive Elite High Schools

Mayor Bloomberg voiced support for the racially unbalanced admissions results at NYC's most prestigious public high school. Black and Latino students are nearly completely absent from those schools.

Admission Testing

Our city's most elite public high schools use a single 2.5 hour admission test that is similar to the SATs to select students. The score on that single test is the only input for admission to these special schools.

But, the single-test approach leads to a virtual exclusion of Black and Latino students from these schools. At the best-known school, Stuyvesant, only 19 of the nearly 1,000 students admitted recently were Black, and only 32 were Latino. These 2% and 3% population levels are unacceptable in a school system in which a majority of the students are Black or Latino.

In fact, nearly 31% of white students who take the test are accepted while only 7% of Latinos and 5% of Blacks are accepted.

Now, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund has filed a complaint against NYC because of the admissions testing approach.

Bloomberg Defense

Mayor Bloomberg reacted to the news of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund complaint by stating "Life isn't always fair."

Bloomberg made other offensive comments, including his response to concerns that affluent families are paying for tutoring: "We have tutoring for all our kids. It’s called the public school system. We do it five hours a day, roughly five days a week."

Bloomberg's support for the current regime shows his lack of character. We need to demand that he does better.