The city education department should appoint a chief diversity officer to overhaul its highly segregated schools, Public Advocate Letitia James said.
“In 2016, our public school system is still far too segregated and far too unequal, and a child’s zip code still determines far too much about their future,” James said at a press conference Wednesday.
New York schools are among the most segregated in the nation, James said. Some 96% of black students and 95% of Hispanic students attend schools that are majority low-income.
James said new diversity officers should spearhead an effort to increase integration citywide. Students who attend diverse schools are less likely to drop out and more likely to go to college, she said.
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According to a Citizens Committee for Children analysis, 71% of schools are intensely segregated, meaning 90-100% of the student body is students of color, while only 23% have at least three racial groups making up 10% or more of the student body.
The city has moved to integrate schools in certain neighborhoods through rezoning plans — and met fierce resistance from parents in areas like the upper West Side and Dumbo.
James, who declined to take a position on the zoning fight currently raging on the upper West Side, said a plan spanning the whole system would be more effective.
“We cannot have a patchwork, piecemeal approach to desegregating our schools,” she said.
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Ernie Logan, president of the Council of School Supervisors and Administrators, which represents principals, backed up the call.
“Parents see themselves as targets when all of a sudden they are asked to desegregate, and you’re saying, ‘Well what about the rest of the city?’” he said.
The DOE shot down the idea of a new officer, while saying they agree on the need for more integration.
“We agree that students learn better in diverse classrooms and we are eager to continue working with Public Advocate James on these important efforts. However, at the DOE, the buck stops with the Chancellor and she’s asked her senior leadership team to work on these important efforts,” said spokeswoman Devora Kaye.
“These efforts extend far beyond one individual or division and a more simplistic approach would discredit the importance of the effort, the complexity of the issue and the need for collaboration both internally and externally. We look forward to sharing our larger plan later this school year.”
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