Albany progressives, backed by the New York City teachers union, want to lower standards for students to attend the Big Apple’s eight specialized high schools because some minority students can’t pass their rigorous entrance exams.
The New York Post took issue with proposed legislation that would change the criteria for New York City’s elite high schools from a merit-based exam to a formula that also considers grade point average and attendance.
“Turns out, minority kids are not passing the exams in numbers proportional to their population. So pols are offering their usual condescending solution: lower standards,” according to the Post editorial.
“ … (I)t’s crystal clear what our elites mean when they claim the exams are ‘biased’ against blacks and Latinos: They’re really saying they don’t believe these kids can pass. We don’t believe that for a moment.”
The Post points out that Asian students, for example, represent half of the students in the city’s top high schools, “more than triple their population.”
Lawmakers should look for ways to improve the achievement of black and Latino students, instead of dragging everyone down, and they need to look no further than the city’s Catholic and charter schools to learn how it’s done, the Post opined.
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