Racial unifying in class: Banks
Incoming city schools chief David Banks isn’t going to be “the chancellor who is going to beat everybody over the head with race” but will prioritize greater curricular diversity, he told The Post Tuesday.
The gregarious Brooklyn native made the statement while addressing the use of “affinity groups” in some city classrooms where kids are separated by race during social-justice discussions.
Banks said he would strive to bolster the self-image of black and brown kids while maintaining a racially unifying climate in city classrooms.
“Creating a sense of common purpose is critically important,” he said. “We weren’t meant to exist in silos of neighborhood, silos of race. That’s not what America should be at its best. However, race is a fundamental issue in this nation.”
Banks said many minority kids go through grades K-12 without having a teacher who looks like them or a book that reflects their lives and experiences.
“That has an impact,” he said. “That’s what we’re really trying to say. Sometimes people speak in more extreme terms. That’s not me. I’m not an extremist.”
The son of a city cop said African American history is often limited to slavery and the works of Martin Luther King Jr.
“We have suffered through a school system that has not always recognized and given kids the things they need,” he said.
“Not an obsession with race, but darn it at least the basis of knowing you are worth something. That’s all I’m talking about. I’m not going to be the chancellor who is beating everyone over the head with race.”
Banks also tackled the Department of Education’s fraught relationship with the city’s Asian community in recent years.
“They have made a priority of educational pathways as their route to success, and they have thrown everything they have into that,” he said. “I salute that, and I support that. I’m not working against them at all. I will do everything I can to be as supportive to the Asian community as I possibly can.”
The incoming leader of the nation’s largest school system said admissions in general are often too reliant on standardized tests for all groups vying for competitive spots in city schools.
“I don’t think anyone should have to study for five hours a day from the time that they are 5 years old to prepare for one day that you’re going to take an exam to get in,” he said. “That’s outrageous to me. I would love to help the Asian community to access specialized schools without having to spend every nickel and dime that they raise to prepare their children for that.”
But Banks reiterated that he and Mayor-elect Eric Adams are unlikely to tamper with the admissions process for the existing specialized schools and will seek to establish new ones with different entry formats.