Zohran Mamdani, the ‘Democratic Socialist’ who is likely to become the next mayor of New York City, wants to end elementary school programs for gifted students in the city.
This is DEI policy in action. It’s all about equity. If we can’t make everyone equally smart, we’ll just hold back the smarter students.
It’s especially galling because Mamdani went to an elite private school, which likely functioned as a gifted program in practice.
The New York Post reports:
Zohran Mamdani plans to phase out Gifted and Talented program in NYC elementary schoolsMayoral front-runner Zohran Mamdani wants to phase out New York City’s Gifted and Talented program — the democratic socialist’s latest move to revert to ex-Mayor Bill de Blasio’s era.Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for mayor, said Thursday he would eliminate the accelerated learning program at the kindergarten level, something that’s likely to anger parents, who have been passionately divided on the issue.The gifted classes would remain active through the school year, but would no longer be available next fall, he said.Critics have attacked the coveted learning model as racist due to the higher number of white and Asian students that gain entry through the exam.But backers argue getting rid of the classes would eliminate opportunities for thousands of bright students from low-and-middle income families.Mamdani’s proposal would be the first step in undoing the program across all elementary schools — a controversial change inside the Department of Education made by de Blasio on his way out the door in 2021, and reverted by Mayor Eric Adams when he took office.“I will return to the previous policy,” Mamdani told the New York Times in a statement. “Ultimately, my administration would aim to make sure that every child receives a high-quality early education that nurtures their curiosity and learning.”
Professor Jonathan Turley of George Washington University wrote about this in a recent op-ed at The Hill:
Mamdani’s plan to ruin public education in New YorkZohran Mamdani appears to have a plan for leveling the playing fields in education. Faced with a huge number of students with comparably dismal scores in math, English, and science, Mamdani is going to bulldoze higher-achieving programs. It is a pledge that only Soviet central planner would relish.By eliminating gifted and talented program in lower grades, Mamdani will increase equity through mediocrity. With some on the left demanding the closure of all such programs, the concern is that New York is following the trend in other blue cities. (His opponent, former Governor Andrew Cuomo, has said that he would actually expand these programs).Even the Washington Post’s editors have objected to his plan as “damaging education in the name of equity.”Although Mamdani is currently focusing on lower grades, these programs are under fire as racist or privileged since less than a quarter of students come from Black or Latino populations. Activists have long objected that roughly 70 percent of students in gifted classrooms were white or Asian American, even though these groups comprise only about 35 percent of the student body.The result is that politicians like Mamdani are virtually pushing high-achieving families and students out of public education. Once they are gone, the glaring contrasts in proficiency among programs will also be gone.
The concept of equity is pretty simple.
It makes everyone equally miserable.
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