Mayor de Blasio’s proposed solution to this gap is multipronged. He has already made public test-prep programs more widely available, which has not made a meaningful difference for integration so far. He is also in the process of expanding the number of spots reserved for low-income students — which has had the converse effect racially, increasing the share of low-income white and Asian students while black and Latino numbers stagnate. But the third proposal is the most controversial, and will require a change in state law. De Blasio is seeking to scrap the SHSAT altogether and instead offer admission to the highest-performing 7 percent of students at every middle school in the city. In a system with an overwhelming black and Latino majority, this would likely increase their representation significantly. And this is not sitting well with some white and Asian parents. At least 30 cheered each other on and booed District 2 Community Education Council deputy chancellor Josh Wallack on December 3, when the proposal was discussed before a crowd of 300. “You people are proposing a grand experiment on our children,” NYU professor Alan Siegel told Wallack, according to Chalkbeat — while deigning to consider whether segregating them in the first place was equally so.
