The numbers are in and they’re not pretty when it comes to the admission of Blacks and Latinos into the city’s eight elite schools, schools that in fact are organized to produce excellence, to develop leadership in areas of business, professions and even politics. The students traditionally form a network of support that lasts throughout college and into their chosen careers. In fact, it is a network for leadership, and if these schools are not enrolling Black and Latino students, denying them the opportunity for this elite experience then we are sadly losing the very best for our students and certainly a dearth of leadership quality.
This year, Stuyvesant High School admitted 762 new students – only seven were Blacks. But this is not unusual because back in 2019, the same high school admitted 895 new students, and there again only seven were Blacks. So this has been a pattern over the years, a lack of diversity pattern in the enrollment of the school and a representation of the real percentage of the diversity of New York City, a city with a student population of close to 70% Blacks and Latino has an abysmal negligible rate of admission into these elite schools. Something must be done. There has been debate around admission reform, preparations for admission, a visionary policy and enlightened policy would want to pursue, that the population of the city and the diversity in these schools represent an opportunity for all, not just a few, to advance and develop into a strong leadership core. What is clear is that the current policy is not working, has not worked, and certainly, if it remains in place, will only be aggravating the situation and providing no path for the talented in our community.
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For a city like New York to be so segregated in its elite schools is troubling and it creates disillusionment among students with ambition and drive when these elite schools are off limited or unavailable to them. We cannot ignore the problem. We have to face the problem, and as James Baldwin said, “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it’s faced.” The problem of the issue of admission to elite schools must be faced in an attempt to make the necessary change to bring about equality and diversity.
