Lawsuit targets gifted programs
Plaintiffs argue that system has worsened racial inequality
A major new lawsuit filed Tuesday could force fundamental changes to how New York City’s public school students are admitted into selective schools, and marked the latest front in a growing political, activist and now legal movement to confront inequality in the nation’s largest school system.
Even if the suit, brought by civil rights attorneys and student plaintiffs in state Supreme Court in Manhattan, does not upend the city’s admissions system, it will likely prompt scrutiny of New York’s school system, considered among the most racially and socioeconomically segregated in the country.
The suit argues that the city’s school system has replicated and worsened racial inequality by sorting children into different academic tracks as early as kindergarten, and has therefore denied many of its roughly 1 million students of their right to a sound, basic education. Defendants include Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Mayor Bill de Blasio and the incoming schools chancellor, Meisha Porter.
If the plaintiffs are successful, the city could be compelled to restructure or even eliminate current admissions policies for hundreds of selective schools, including gifted and talented programs and academically selective middle and high schools.
The suit could also accelerate pressure on Porter to articulate a school integration plan. The outgoing chancellor, Richard Carranza, resigned from his post over disagreements with the mayor over how aggressively to pursue desegregation.
And the crowded field of Democrats vying to become the next mayor will likely have to contend with the lawsuit’s claims about the school system. The primary election that will almost certainly determine the next mayor is less than four months away.
“This is the first case in the nation to seek a constitutional right to an anti-racist education,” said Mark Rosenbaum, one of the lawyers suing the city and state.
Rosenbaum, director of Public Counsel Opportunity Under
Law, a Los Angeles-based pro bono law firm, is joined on the case by prominent civil rights lawyer Benjamin Crump, along with the law firm Sidley Austin and Integratenyc, a youth-led integration group.
Danielle Filson, a spokeswoman for the Department of Education, defended the city’s record on school desegregation.
“This administration has taken bold, unprecedented steps to advance equity in our admissions policies.” she said in a statement. “Our persistent work to drive equity for New York City families is ongoing, and we will review the suit.”
Rosenbaum’s group has sued several states and school systems in recent years, most prominently the Detroit public schools, for failing to provide students with a basic education guaranteed under the Constitution. The law firm also sued the state of California last year for failing to offer a sound, basic education via remote learning.
In the Detroit case, a federal court found last year that the district had been so negligent toward the educational needs of students that children had been “deprived of access to literacy.” The court then declared that public school students had a constitutional right to an adequate education. The plaintiffs later reached a settlement with Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan to fund more literacy programs in the Detroit public schools.
The New York suit highlights the lack of nonwhite teachers relative to the student population, which is nearly 70 percent Black and Latino, and the disproportionately high suspension rates for nonwhite students compared with their white classmates. But it focuses mainly on the issue that has thrust New York’s divided school district into the national spotlight: the sorting of students as young as 4 years old for selective classes. New York is more reliant on academic prerequisites like test scores, grades and attendance to place students in public schools than any other U.S. school district.
The city’s gifted and talented classes for elementary school students are about 75 percent white and Asian American, and there are relatively few gifted programs located in predominantly Black and Latino neighborhoods. White students, who make up just 15 percent of the overall district, are starkly overrepresented in selective middle and high schools.