The LAST Straw
It’s just nuts that the city might have to cough up billions for supposedly racist teacher-certification exams it stopped using long ago. But don’t count on Mayor de Blasio to fight it.
To be clear: No one has ever had to show that the Liberal Arts and Sciences Test, aka LAST, was actually discriminatory. “Disparate impact” law makes it necessary to demonstrate only that members of minority groups perform worse on an exam than their peers. And if officials can’t then prove the tests are effective at screening out unqualified would-be employees — a highly subjective measure — well, case closed.
Thus, federal Judge Kimba Wood found that the fact that more than 90 percent of whites passed the LAST, but less than 62 percent of blacks and 55 percent of Hispanics did, was enough to brand it “biased” and hold the city liable.
Now, as The Post reported Thursday, a court-appointed special master has recommended the city pay $91.6 million to 219 plaintiffs theoretically harmed by the LAST “discrimination.”
Thing is, a total of 4,000 minority members got demoted or weren’t hired because they failed the test. They’re all eligible for payments; if they collect in line with the first 219, the hit to taxpayers would come to a whopping $1.67 billion.
And that’s not all: That suit only covers the period when the test was given, 1993-2004. Yet the judge also found the LAST’s replacement test (the LAST-2) was also biased. And the city’s Law Department says the parties haven’t even begun discussing LAST-2 claims.
Ironically, Wood found a third exam, the Academic Literacy Skills Test, did not discriminate against minorities, even though they passed at lower rates than whites. Still, the state decided to drop that test all the same last year and gave up on trying to replace it, because of its racial outcomes.
It’s crazy: The move meant potentially unqualified teachers (minority or otherwise) could be assigned to classrooms and their students — twothirds of whom, in the city, are minorities — would suffer.
Has de Blasio stood up for the city’s kids? Not a chance. And his team isn’t likely to put up much resistance to the financial blow, either. No, Hizzoner’s focus is on “racial equality,” and if minorities who failed the test are in line for taxpayer cash, who’s he to try to stop that?
For de Blasio — and now his schools chancellor, Richard Carranza — racial issues, no matter how bogus, trump the need to ensure a quality education for kids.
“We’re not about improving the system,” Carranza openly admitted. “We’re about changing the system.” Taxpayers can now join kids in paying the price for that.