zohran mamdani is safely ahead in his race to become Mayor of New York City. At least as of this moment, neither of his two opponents – Republican Curtis Sliwa or Independent Democrat Andrew Cuomo – indicate any intention of dropping out.
So now, while mamdani is safely in the lead, the decidedly leftward Washington Post is noticing just one of the major problems with him taking the office.
From Marc Tamasco’s article for Fox News, via msn.com, we have this:
The Washington Post editorial board slammed New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani Friday for “holding back gifted students in the name of equity” following his proposal to phase out gifted education programs in the city.
“Who could have guessed that Zohran Mamdani (D), the leading candidate to become the next New York mayor, would provoke a firestorm by announcing this week that he intends to phase out the city’s early elementary school programs for gifted students in the name of equity? Parents of bright children want access to schooling that meets their needs?” The Post questioned. “Shocking.”
In response to a New York Times questionnaire on Thursday, the mayoral hopeful revealed his plans to eliminate gifted programs for public school children in N.Y.C. until they enter third grade.
The city’s current program allows students to enter these gifted programs starting in kindergarten after they have been nominated by their preschool teachers, and meet other criteria based on their grades.
The argument against these programs is that a disproportionate percentage of students meeting the program’s criteria are White. So instead of questioning why this would be – why Black students are falling behind – the idea is to make sure that gifted students are not given the chance to excel.
This is mamdani’s position. And the Washington Post doesn’t like it. Congratulations to them. Now: where have they – and the New York Times for that matter – been for all the years that New York (along with other major cities around the country) have had schools churning out students who don’t learn and are unprepared to function in the post-school world?
And then there are the parents. How do they feel about this?
Here’s a hint for you: New York City’s charter schools – which are stronger on education and less tolerant of misbehaving students who disrupt classes/make it harder for students who want to learn – are oversubscribed.
Why? Because parents – very much including Black parents – want their children in those schools for the same reason any other parents do; so their children can actually LEARN something.
If parents, including Black parents, are so hot to extricate their children from public schools, maybe the answer isn’t to punish gifted students; maybe the answer is to fix what’s wrong with the public schools.
But don’t expect that from a mamdani mayoralty. Expect gifted students to be punished instead.
Voters get what they vote for. And if the voters of New York City want to elect zohran mamdani, this (among other godawful policies) is what they will get. Good and hard.
I hope they enjoy it.
