The debate over gifted programs in New York City public schools spilled into the mayoral race this week after Democratic front-runner Zohran Mamdani said he’d phase out those classes for kindergartners.
About 2,500 children out of the school system’s more than 60,000 kindergartners are in gifted programs.
“I continue to believe that it is incredibly important for us to deliver excellent quality public education for each and every New Yorker, and that for kindergartners, we should not have a gifted and talented program that is separating them on the basis of that assessment,” Mamdani said at an unrelated press conference on Friday.
Asked whether he believed a test for third grade gifted programs should also be scrapped, Mamdani demurred. “ My commitment is solely on the question of kindergartners,” he said.
Mamdani objects to a “singular assessment” for rising kindergartners “that unfairly separates them right at the beginning” of their schooling, his spokesperson Dora Pekec said.
Mamdani, a Bronx Science alum, has said he would keep the test for specialized high schools.
His rival Andrew Cuomo, who is running as an independent in the mayoral race, immediately seized on the issue. He is promising to expand gifted and talented programs in every borough and double the number of specialized high schools from nine to 18.
Gifted programs have long been controversial. Some families see them as an essential pathway to rigorous academics and top-tier public schools, including the specialized high schools. Education experts say they exacerbate segregation in the school system: 70% of students in the city’s gifted classes are white or Asian, even though those two groups of students only comprise 35% of total enrollment.
Former Mayor Bill de Blasio announced at the tail end of his administration in 2021 he would eliminate and replace gifted classes in an effort to tackle segregation in the school system. That plan and a failed effort to dismantle the test for specialized schools sparked intense opposition, particularly from many members of the city’s Asian community.
Mayor Eric Adams backed away from plans to phase out gifted programs, but tweaked admission for young children by replacing the test for rising kindergartners with preschool teachers recommending students. After that, the number of Black and Latino kindergartners in gifted programs more than doubled. Some critics call the teacher recommendation method subjective.
At an event in Chinatown on Friday morning, Cuomo repeatedly tied Mamdani to ex-Mayor Bill de Blasio, who is supporting Mamdani.
“It’s a very clear difference between me and my opponent,” Cuomo said. “My opponent opposes the gifted and talented programs, which is just like Mayor de Blasio.”
He later told reporters: “My opponent is a shorter de Blasio.”
Mamdani said Cuomo was echoing President Donald Trump in seizing on his opponent’s appearance. “ To focus on the appearance of a politician is to do disservice to the people of the city who would prefer to actually have a substantive debate as to the policies that we are putting forward,” he said.
Cuomo was joined at his event by Yiatin Chu, co-founder of Parent Leaders for Accelerated Curriculum and Education, which advocates for accelerated academic programs in the public schools.
Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa is also in favor of expanding gifted programs. He accused Cuomo of staying silent when de Blasio sought to eliminate the programs.
“When de Blasio took an ax to our schools, Cuomo either backed parts of it or stayed silent,” Sliwa said on X. “Now he is on a redemption tour, a chameleon trying to fool New Yorkers.”