In New York City, students apply to high school during their 8th-grade year.
What We Know:
- A group of NY students is filing a lawsuit against the largest public school system in the U.S They are accusing the system of perpetuating racism by using a flawed admissions process for selective programs that favor white students. One of the lawsuit’s stipulations asks a judge to order the school system to eliminate its current admissions screening process. The segregated programs include the more academically rigorous middle and high schools and gifted & talented programs.
- The plaintiff in the lawsuit is IntegrateNYC, which is a youth-led non-profit devoted to integrating the school system. Several civil rights attorneys brought the lawsuit to state court in Manhattan. Minority students are often denied the opportunity to gain access to more selective programs from elementary to high school. The “rigged system” begins sorting children academically when they are as young as four years old.
- After going through the application process, minority students are typically ushered into failing schools that emphasize existing inequalities. The city and state education departments are being listed as defendants in the case. Other defendants of the lawsuit are being listed as Governor Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio. Two years ago, de Blasio attempted to eliminate the admissions exam for elite specialized high schools, but the state legislature rejected the proposal. No defendants have issued any comments regarding the lawsuit.
- Other accusations detailed in the lawsuit include fault the school system’s curriculum. The lawsuit argues that students of color are taught history from a Eurocentric point-of-view.
The lawsuit asserts, “Nearly every facet of the New York City public school system operates not only to prop up, but also to affirmatively reproduce, the artificial racial hierarchies that have subordinated people of color for centuries in the United States.”
- In 2019, students attending NYCiSchool and Chelsea Career and Technical Education High School staged weekly protests demanding action on school integration.
It appears as though young students have taken matters into their own hands by speaking up about issues that impact them as well as NYC students in the future.
