WWW.QNS.COM APRIL 22, 2022 12RIDGEWOOD TIMES
Raise the bridge, don’t lower the tide
Approximately 1,100 children across
the fi ve boroughs will be added to
the city Department of Education’s
Gi ed and Talented (G&T) Program this
September, according to Mayor Eric Adams
and Schools Chancellor David Banks.
The additional seats will be allocated
to 100 kindergarteners and 1,000 thirdgraders
in every single school district
in the city. It’s an unprecedented move
that comes at a time when many education
advocates have suggested the G&T
Program serves as a form of intellectual
segregation in the city.
As the city describes it, the G&T Program
“o ers accelerated instruction to
eligible elementary school students in
New York City.” Students entering the
third grade are invited to apply for G&T
if their second-grade marks are in the top
10% at their school.
Tragically, through the decades, G&T
seats were not made as easily available
in less a uent parts of the city. That contributed
to an ever-present educational
gap among low-income students whose
parents are more than likely unable to
EDITORIAL
ESTFAontB: EnLgrIavSerHs OlEd EDngl is1h 9No0rm8al
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Unlike the former mayor’s plan, Adams’ G&T expansion raises the bridge while keeping the tide level so more students may
pass underneath, at their own speed. Photo by Dean Moses
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a ord tutoring and other services to
advance their children’s education.
But the move to expand G&T should
not be seen as continuing bad policies of
the past. In o ering 1,100 seats in every
school district in the city, the Adams
administration is taking a major step
forward in advancing educational opportunities
to all young New Yorkers,
regardless of background.
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It also put an end to the half-baked
“Brilliant NYC” plan that former Mayor
Bill de Blasio pitched in his last few weeks
in o ce. Brilliant NYC would have made
accelerated instruction available in regular
classrooms, though that plan could
have led to all sorts of confusion among
the students themselves.
Unlike the former mayor’s plan, which
would have lowered the educational
river to let all student ships pass under
the bridge of success, Adams’ G&T expansion
raises the bridge while keeping
the tide level so more students may pass
underneath, at their own speed.
If we’re going to close the education
gap in New York City, we need to make
more services and more programs like
G&T available to more students — not
take such services and programs away.
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