As his two terms as New York’s mayor approach their end, and long after his presidential campaign ended with a whimper, Bill de Blasio has chimed in with one last act of destruction — a proposal to end the public schools’ entry-by-exam gifted and talented program for first graders.
De Blasio’s gripe is that selection by tests results in a student body that is, as New York Times reporter Eliza Shapiro slyly put it, “widely criticized for exacerbating segregation.” Of course, what de Blasio, Shapiro, and the anonymous critics she repeatedly references are complaining about is not actually segregation, which means imposed separation by race. It is the fact that the racial percentages of the gifted students differ from those of the city as a whole.
