12 OCTOBER 14, 2021 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
An un-brilliant plan
Mayor Bill de Blasio raised some
eyebrows, and ire, on Friday
when he announced his
plan to phase out the Department of
Education’s Gift ed and Talented (G&T)
program, which off ers enhanced education
services and opportunities for
high-achieving students.
But raised eyebrows and ire might
be the only things the lame duck mayor
truly accomplished in the end.
Mayoral front-runner Eric Adams
remains a fan of G&T, and indicated in a
published report his willingness to continue
the program with greater assets
and resources allocated to reduce the
disparities that have made the program,
in many eyes, unequal and controversial.
Critics of the G&T program have suggested
it unfairly rewards students who
are white or of Asian descent, and are
generally more affl uent. They pointed
to the kindergarten evaluations for G&T
as also being poor barometers to judge a
student’s brilliance.
The Brilliant NYC program, which
de Blasio announced Friday as a replacement
for G&T, would shift those
EDITORIAL
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Aft er emigrating from Germany, the
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Mayor Bill de Blasio raised some eyebrows when he announced his plan to phase out the Department of
Education’s Gifted and Talented program. Photo by Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Offi ce
evaluations to the second grade. But
beyond that, the plan is lacking in any
real substance other than to eliminate
G&T outright.
How de Blasio can expect the next
mayor of New York to just go along with
his empty script is the height of arrogance
for a politician clearly in search
of his next gig.
We predict that likely incoming Mayor
Adams will scrap de Blasio’s Brilliant
NYC program and reinstate G&T, but
with key changes to ensure that every
high-achieving student, regardless of
their background, gets the opportunity
to join.
The biggest trouble with G&T is the
lack of availability to communities
across the fi ve boroughs. We suspect
that the Department of Education and
other key groups within a school community
— including parent associations
and teachers — have not done nearly
enough to educate parents about the program,
and off er the resources needed for
students to qualify.
No one in an individual school community
is necessarily at fault over this.
They’re doing the best they can with
the resources they’ve been provided by
a city and a bureaucracy that too oft en
focuses on students as numbers rather
than people.
But if the city is serious about making
G&T available to every student who
meets its stringent standards, then it
needs to foster such an environment
early on.
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