A group of elected officials and community leaders are expected to join the former chancellor under Mayor Eric Adams on Tuesday in calling for admissions reform at the city\u2019s specialized high schools, putting further pressure on Mayor Zohran Mamdani to address segregation in the city school system.<\/p>\n
Former schools chancellor David Banks and his wife, former First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright, will join Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, three borough presidents, and others at Harlem\u2019s Abyssinian Baptist Church for a live taping of his podcast, \u201cThe Beacon and the Blueprint.\u201d<\/p>\n
Banks said in an interview that he expects the discussion to focus on how Mamdani could quickly reform the admissions process for five of the city’s eight specialized high schools<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cHe can do it tomorrow, and it can go in effect for the next school year if he were so inclined,\u201d Banks said. \u201cThat is, I think, what you’re going to hear from speaker after speaker tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n State law requires the SHSAT to be the sole determinant of admissions to the top three specialized schools: Stuyvesant, Bronx High School of Science, and Brooklyn Technical High School. The education department currently relies on the test to determine admissions to all specialized schools.<\/p>\n But Mamdani is under growing pressure to take whatever steps he can to address the lack of diversity<\/a> at the prestigious schools, where only 3.5% of roughly 4,000 specialized high school seats went to Black students last school year.<\/p>\n The discussion on specialized high schools comes as Mamdani faces mounting calls to fulfill his campaign promise to integrate the city\u2019s public school system, which is one of the most segregated in the country.<\/p>\n Last week, parents and students jeered Chancellor Kamar Samuels at a town hall<\/a> with New York Times journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones, who pressed him to share an integration plan.<\/p>\n The issue has inflamed tensions<\/a> between Mamdani and some Black parents, who say the mayor has a racial blind spot when it comes to the concerns of Black New Yorkers.<\/p>\n While they represent a small corner of the city\u2019s public schools, the coveted specialized high schools have become a microcosm of segregation in the broader system.<\/p>\n Last year, Stuyvesant<\/a> High School admitted only three Black students. The statistic reflects a pattern of declining Black and Hispanic student enrollment in the city\u2019s elite public high schools over the past 40 years, according to a New York Times<\/a> analysis.<\/p>\n Asian students received 56.5% of offers to the specialized schools last school year.<\/p>\n \u201cWe feel a great deal of moral urgency to act,\u201d said Lincoln Restler, a Brooklyn city councilmember who is participating in the event. \u201cThe segregation that exists across our entire public school system is unacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n