{"id":293351,"date":"2025-10-11T01:01:20","date_gmt":"2025-10-11T01:01:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/293351\/"},"modified":"2025-10-11T01:01:20","modified_gmt":"2025-10-11T01:01:20","slug":"lawmakers-push-for-gifted-programs-to-be-more-widespread-in-nyc-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/293351\/","title":{"rendered":"Lawmakers push for gifted programs to be more widespread in NYC schools"},"content":{"rendered":"

State lawmakers are calling on their colleagues to pass legislation that would expand New York City’s gifted and talented programs<\/a> as they become a flashpoint in the mayor\u2019s race.<\/p>\n

The legislation would require the city to increase the number of seats for the program in every school district across the five boroughs.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne size does not fit all,\u201d said Assemblymember William Colton, a South Brooklyn Democrat. \u201cI spent 11 years in elementary school classrooms earlier in my career, and I know from personal experience that children\u2019s needs and special skills \u2014 which vary dramatically \u2014 must be appropriately addressed from the very beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Colton planned to rally with fellow lawmakers Friday afternoon to promote a bill he introduced in January that would require more gifted classes.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery child in New York City deserves a chance to reach their full potential, and every family deserves access to programs that meet their child\u2019s abilities,\u201d state Sen. Stephen Chan said in a statement. Chan, a South Brooklyn Republican, said he was also introducing a bill on the subject.<\/p>\n

The fight over gifted programs was reignited last week when Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani said he would eliminate the program for kindergartners and move the program’s entry point to the third grade. Mamdani supports maintaining the accelerated classes from that point onward. Independent candidate Andrew Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa have meanwhile called for expanding the program.<\/p>\n

The Mamdani campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the state lawmakers\u2019 proposals.<\/p>\n

Gifted programs serve a small fraction of the city\u2019s students and generally use the same curriculum as regular classrooms, but move at a faster pace.<\/p>\n

Nyah Berg is the executive director of New York Appleseed, which advocates for more integrated schools. She said the programs perpetuate already high levels of segregation in city schools.<\/p>\n

Roughly 70% of students in the city\u2019s gifted classes are white or Asian, even though white and Asian students only make up 35% of total enrollment. Black and Latino students account for more than 60% of the school system.<\/p>\n

\u201cGifted programs are more a measure, especially at a young age, of social capital or social mobility your family might have,\u201d Berg said.<\/p>\n

But supporters of the accelerated programs say some children are ready to move at a faster pace than their classmates, and parents often see the programs as pathways to the city\u2019s most rigorous and selective high schools.<\/p>\n

Towards the end of his administration, former Mayor Bill de Blasio said he would eliminate and replace gifted classes<\/a> in an effort to tackle segregation. The Adams administration backed off that plan, but introduced changes to how the youngest students were selected, relying on teacher recommendations rather than a standardized assessment.<\/p>\n

Colton\u2019s bill states children should gain admission to the programs through \u201cacademic merit\u201d but not a test.<\/p>\n

Mamdani said rising kindergartners are too young to be evaluated for the program.<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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,\u201d Mamdani said earlier this month.<\/p>\n

Cuomo is promising to expand gifted and talented programs in every borough.<\/p>\n

Sliwa also favors expansion and has accused Cuomo of failing to stand up for the programs when de Blasio sought to dismantle them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"State lawmakers are calling on their colleagues to pass legislation that would expand New York City’s gifted and…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":293352,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-293351","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-city","11":"tag-newyork","12":"tag-newyorkcity","13":"tag-ny","14":"tag-nyc","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-united-states-of-america","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115352835420175947","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=293351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293351\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/293352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=293351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=293351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=293351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}