Mamdani revives DEI goal of ending gifted and talented program in NYC schools

In the name of equity, New York City’s leading candidate for mayor pledged he’ll start phasing out the city’s gifted and talented program in elementary schools.

It’s part of a nationwide push by the left to purge classes for the ultrasmart because they don’t enroll enough minorities.

Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani’s plan follows other school districts that have sought to equalize accelerated learning programs that have long been populated by mostly White and Asian students.

For at least a decade, school districts across the country have moved to scrap highly selected, gifted and talented-style classes in favor of broader enrichment programs that use enrollment formulas aimed at increasing the number of Black and Latino students. Other districts have softened enrollment requirements in order to increase diversity.

“It’s certainly becoming a trend, this idea that you have to have racial balance in all things,” said Erin Wilcox, a senior attorney at Pacific Legal Foundation, a public interest law firm that targets government overreach.

“Racial balance is just a word for discrimination, and it’s so often leveled at gifted and talented programs because it’s White and Asian kids that are typically a higher proportion of kids in those programs,” she said.

For Mr. Mamdani, axing the school’s gifted and talented programs is part of a socialist-inspired agenda that includes free city bus services, a rent freeze in rent-stabilized housing and government-run grocery stores to control food prices.

His plan for gifted and talented classes would pick up where ex-New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio left off.

Mr. de Blasio, a Democrat, sought to end the program for the city’s elementary schools due to racial inequity. He first lowered admission standards to boost minority enrollment numbers and later decided to get rid of the program entirely, starting with kindergarten through second grade.

The current mayor, Democrat Eric Adams, reversed the move and sought to expand the program. He dropped his bid for a second term earlier this month.

Mr. Mamdani, who now leads in the race by double digits, said he’ll restart Mr. de Blasio’s plan.

“Zohran will ensure our public schools are fully funded with equally distributed resources, strong after-school programs, mental health counselors and nurses, compliant and effective class sizes, and integrated student bodies,” his campaign website pledges.

Mr. Mamdani did not respond to an inquiry from The Washington Times.

Ms. Wilcox said eliminating the program could violate the 14th Amendment because Mr. Mamdani “is suggesting he’s going to end a public program because he doesn’t like the race of the people who are using it, and that’s just unconstitutional.”

Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is trailing Mr. Mamdani by 13 points in the latest poll but is his closest opponent, wants more classes for gifted and talented students.

Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat running as an independent, said he would expand gifted and talented programs in every borough and build eight new specialized high schools “to create opportunity for all students.”

The idea that DEI, which stands for diversity, equity and inclusion, should extend to accelerated learning programs has gained traction in liberal-leaning school districts across the U.S.

One of the nation’s top schools, the once-highly selective Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, eliminated its standardized entrance test in 2020. The Alexandria, Virginia, school replaced the test with “a holistic review” that considers grades and experience factors, including students who are “economically disadvantaged, English language learners, or special education students.”

In Montgomery County, Maryland, public school officials changed the selection process for the county’s popular gifted and talented programs that once relied heavily on testing and teacher recommendations. Now, students are evaluated on a number of factors, including test scores and in-class performance, and a broader group of students is automatically screened for admission. The changes were aimed at enrolling more minorities.

At the Montgomery County Schools and Thomas Jefferson High School, the changes reduced the number of Asian students enrolled in the programs, leading to accusations of discrimination and lawsuits.

Pacific Legal sued the Fairfax County School Board on behalf of a coalition of families who believed the changed admission policy at Thomas Jefferson discriminated against Asian American students. The 4th Circuit rejected their argument, and the Supreme Court declined to hear the case.

Ms. Wilcox said she’s hoping the high court will consider the matter when a future case is litigated.

“Racial balancing is illegal. And it’s unconstitutional,” Ms. Wilcox said.

Proponents of reforming programs for advanced learning in public schools say changes made to widen diversity, such as universal screening of students and altering other admission standards, have been successful in helping to enroll qualified minority students who might otherwise be overlooked.

The change in admission standards at Thomas Jefferson has, over the past several years, increased the number of Black students to 7%, up from 1%, while Latino students enrolled at the school increased from less than 5% to 11%. According to school data, nearly 12% of students in the class of 2027 are “economically disadvantaged,” and 3% are “English language learners.”

The changes at Thomas Jefferson worsened outcomes for other minorities.

While the percentage of White students has remained about the same, Asian-American student enrollment has plummeted since the admission requirements were changed, from 73% to 54%.

The school’s national academic ranking also took a dive. Ranked number one in 2022, the school dropped to number 14 in 2024.

In some liberal school districts, parents have joined administrators in the push to close accelerated learning programs that do not serve enough Black and Latino students.

In Portland, Oregon, parents are currently circulating a petition to shutter the district’s two gifted and talented schools to stave off cuts to other school programs.

The parents pointed out that “inequities” are behind the push to close the schools, which enroll more students from higher-income zip codes than from lower-income neighborhoods.

Elsewhere, the Seattle school district has begun dismantling its “Highly Capable Cohort” program for gifted students, citing racial imbalances. The program is being replaced with individualized learning plans within regular classrooms.

In the 2022-23 school year, 52% of students in the program were white, 16% were Asian, and 3.4% were Black.

“The program is not going away, it’s getting better,” school district officials announced last year. “It will be more inclusive, equitable, and culturally sensitive. In particular, students who have been historically excluded will now have the same opportunities for services as every other student and get the support and enrichment they need to grow.”

In New York, some liberal groups back the phase-out.

The ACLU of New York called the public school system’s gifted and talented program “highly segregated,” and said it serves mostly white or Asian students.

“We need to move away from a system where children are labeled and sorted into cohorts, and toward one where each student’s individual needs are met, speed of learning is respected, and talents are cultivated,” NYCLU’s Education Policy Center Director Johanna Miller said.

Michael J. Petrilli, president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, an education reform think tank, said New York City’s gifted and talented program for students in kindergarten through second grade is unique because it starts so early.

“Many high-quality gifted education programs around the nation start in second or third grade, so it’s not unreasonable for New York’s to do the same, as Mamdani has proposed,” Mr. Petrilli said.

Mr. Petrilli criticized a comment made later by his campaign spokesperson, Dora Pekec, who said Mr. Mamdani does not want five-year-olds taking an assessment that could separate them from other students, which, Mr. Petrilli said, indicates a lack of concern about whether all kids, including the ultra-smart, get the opportunity to be challenged every day.

“If Mamdani really cares about ‘equity,’ he would work to expand gifted education to every elementary school in New York, not work to end it,” Mr. Petrilli said.