Neetu Chandak on March 19, 2019
An elite New York City high school that has a total of 895 spots in its freshman class accepted seven black students Monday.
Stuyvesant High School is a selective specialized school with the city’s highest cutoff for a test that allows students to gain admission into NYC’s specialized high schools, The New York Times reported Monday. The high school’s population is comprised of 74 percent Asian-American students.
Stuyvesant focuses on math, science and technology, according to the school’s website.
“We’re also once again confronted by an unacceptable status quo at our specialized high schools,” New York City Department of Education Chancellor Richard Carranza said in a statement to The Daily Caller News Foundation. “We need to eliminate the single test for specialized high school admissions now.”
Mayor Bill de Blasio proposed a diversity plan that would make elite schools set aside 20 percent of seats for students coming from low socioeconomic backgrounds, The Washington Post reported.
He eventually wants to get rid of the SHSAT, but that would require legislative approval, according to TheNYT.
Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez took to Twitter on Tuesday to express her disdain for Stuyvesant’s low admission of black students.
“To only have 7 Black students accepted into Stuyvesant (a *public* high school) tells us that this is a system failure,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted.
68% of all NYC public school students are Black or Latino.
To only have 7 Black students accepted into Stuyvesant (a *public* high school) tells us that this is a system failure.
Education inequity is a major factor in the racial wealth gap. This is what injustice looks like. https://t.co/89NKvXk4vg
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) March 19, 2019
NYCDOE’s statement to TheDCNF said 10.5 percent of offers to specialized high schools went to black and Latino students, comparable to 10.4 percent in 2018.
Stuyvesant accepted 10 black students in 2018, according to NYCDOE data.
