Our Black and Hispanic Children Remain Left Behind by NYC’s “Ivy League” High Schools

 

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW
By Senator Rev. Rubén Díaz
District 32 Bronx County, New York

You should know that our Black and Hispanic children have little or no opportunity to be accepted and enrolled in the best public high schools in the City of New York.

According to an article written by Carl Campanile, “DROP IN BLACK, LATINO KIDS AT BEST SCHOOLS,” that appeared in the March 5, 2016 edition of the New York Post, Asian and White students in New York City’s public school system are being treated better and given greater chances than our Black and Hispanic students to attend our best high schools.

You should already know that throughout the City of New York, there are schools called Specialized High Schools. Among them are: Bronx High School of Science, Stuyvesant, Brooklyn Tech, Staten Island Tech, High School of Math at City College, HS of American Studies at Lehman College, Queens HS for Science at York College, and Brooklyn Latin School.

Those “Ivy League” Public High Schools are packed with Asian and White students with a minimal quota of Black and Hispanic students.

Mr. Campanile wrote: “Blacks (27 percent) and Hispanics (40 percent) combined account for more than two-thirds of city public-school students, but only 8.9 percent of those kids are admitted to the top high schools … The dearth of minorities in each magnet school was startling.”

It is so unfair and irresponsible for any of our leaders to fight against Charter Schools and further deny the excellent educational opportunities that Black and Hispanic children receive in New York City’s Charter Schools.

When you compare the enrollment of Black and Hispanic children in New York City’s Charter Schools to New York’s “Ivy League” Public High Schools, those figures are an embarrassing contrast to each other. 

You can see that about 90% of the Charter School students are Black and Hispanic, and less than 10% of the “Ivy League” Public High Schools are Black and Hispanic.

According to the NY Post, the NYC Department of Education sources show the following acceptance rates for New York’s “Ivy League” High Schools:

Out of the 8,062 Asian test takers, 2,741 (34%) were accepted.

Out of the 4,729 White test takers, 1,386 (29.3%) were accepted.

Out of the 6,070 Hispanic test takers, 320 (5.3%) were accepted.

Out of the 5,914 Black test takers, 210 (3.6%) were accepted.

As you can see, it is nearly impossible for Black and Hispanic students to get accepted into these “Ivy League” Public High Schools.  But we all know that more than 90% of Black and Hispanic children enrolled as students in our Charter Schools are given educational opportunities to succeed and compete in college and in the world.

My suggestion to my Black and Hispanic colleagues in government who fight against Charter Schools is to take a close look at these statistics and realize how detrimental their actions really are.  

They should stop opposing the quality educational opportunities that Charter Schools provide for our Black and Hispanic children and instead, concentrate their energies and efforts to make sure that the "Ivy League" Public High Schools give Black and Hispanic children the same opportunities that they give others.

I am Senator Reverend Rubén Díaz, and this is what you should know.