The numbers came out, like they do every year. Of the 777 students who received offers to Stuyvesant High School, only three were Black. Of course this is a problem. But the immediate reaction — ban the test — not only ruins a series of great schools like Stuyvesant and Bronx Science, it does nothing to solve the underlying problem.
The underlying problem isn’t the lack of equity at a handful of specialized schools. It’s that our schools are failing hundreds of thousands of students every year. We know the school system isn’t working. A fifth don’t even graduate. Only 52% of those are college ready. That is a complete and utter failure. The question is why.
We know the answer isn’t more money. Every year, more and more money is thrown at the system and nothing changes. Since COVID, 127,000 students have left the system and yet not only have results failed to improve, there’s not even any indication that the reduced cost of serving so many fewer kids has been put to good use. We spend $43 billion to run the system and yet the average teacher makes just under $99,000 a year. That comes out to roughly 30% of the total. Where is the rest going?
Some of it is more people. The system increased by nearly 9,800 employees under Bill de Blasio, driven largely by the 3-K/pre-K expansion. Some of it is overhead, bureaucracy and maintenance. But the money itself isn’t even the core issue. It’s the inability to honestly look at the system and figure out what is and isn’t working — and change it.
If we were to solely approach running schools as serving the best interests of kids, we would undoubtedly come up with answers that anger everyone. Some will upset the UFT, the CSA, DC 37. Some will upset parent groups. Some will upset education reformers. So what? Guess what all of those people have in common? They’re adults, not kids. Their interests are not what matters most.
Mike Bloomberg and Joel Klein tried a number of major reforms. Several really worked like breaking up large failing high schools into more personalized schools, closing persistently underperforming schools, and expanding parental choice through charter schools. De Blasio added pre-K. That’s great. But those are not the norm for how the system is run. The norm is to just keep doing what’s already been done, make excuses about larger societal problems, spend more money, and confuse process with results.
The Democratic Socialists of America, Mayor Mamdani’s political party, posits itself as the protector of the least fortunate among us. Who is less fortunate than kids in a highly underperforming school system? If Mamdani and Chancellor Kamar Samuels truly care about helping poor kids learn, they will do more than just say the right things. They’ll question every program, every entrenched interest — and be willing to take on all of them.
If that means copying what Eva Moskowitz does at Success Academy charter schools, do it. If UFT President Mike Mulgrew has good ideas that actually help kids, implement them. Sometimes, that will mean angering the mayor’s base. Going out of your comfort zone is hard, but it’s what great leaders do.
The only way to ensure that a lot of kids get the kinds of scores needed to get into Stuyvesant — or just to get a high quality education that allows them to succeed in both college and life — is by having the courage to truly examine and radically change a system that currently fails far too many of them. It’s the least we can do.
Tusk is a venture capitalist, political strategist and philanthropist.