Chancellor ‘bias’ slap at a mom

CITY SCHOOLS Chancellor Richard Carranza told an Upper West Side mom to take anti-bias lessons after she questioned him on-air about a tweet in which he called out white parents for failing to integrate their schools.

Carranza, 51, had been taking some criticism for the April 27 tweet in which he shared a headline that accused “wealthy white Manhattan parents” of ranting against a plan to desegregate Upper West Side middle schools.

In an NY1 video of the meeting that went viral, one mom tried to imagine telling children who worked hard to go to their schools that they can’t because of the admissions goals intended to desegregate classes.

“You’re telling them that you’re not going to go to a school that’s going to educate them the same way you’ve been educated,” the mom said of the plans. “Life sucks!”

The city’s public schools use a variety of secret methods to admit students, and critics have called on Education Department officials to increase transparency.

The WNYC caller, who identified herself as a career educator, as well as an Upper West Side parent, confronted Carranza (photo inset) on Friday over the tweet in his first appearance on “The Brian Lehrer Show.”

“It was divisive, in my opinion,” said the caller, who identified herself as Debra and said she supports the plan to desegregate her neighborhood’s middle schools.

“I’m still vocally supportive of it, but I have to say, Chancellor, you stunned me because of what I heard loud and clear,” the caller continued. “Me as a white parent in PS 199, I am not part of your constituency — my family, my children.”

Carranza, who started on the job April 2, stood behind his tweet and said he’d never support statements that were made in the raucous Upper West Side school meeting.

He pointed out that the city has just set aside $23 million for anti-bias training of city teachers, and he suggested the caller take advantage of the program.

“We’ve just secured in the budget millions of dollars for culturally relevant pedagogy training. I hope you will avail yourself of that training,” Carranza said.

“And we’ve secured millions of dollars for anti-implicit bias training. Again, I hope you will avail yourself of that,” he added.