26 THE QUEENS COURIER • OCTOBER 14, 2021 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
editorial
Photo by Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Offi ce
Mayor Bill de Blasio raised some eyebrows when he announced his plan to phase out the Department of Education’s Gifted and Talented program.
Title: Pop-up parties in former Middle Village hardware
store raise concerns from elected officials and residents
Summary: Several complaints have been reported to 311
this past weekend about a vacant storefront formerly
belonging to the Midville Hardware store being used as
a location for pop-up parties.
Reach: 7,231 (as of 10/11/2021)
A less-than-
brilliant
plan
Mayor Bill de Blasio raised some eyebrows,
and ire 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 highachieving
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. Th ey pointed to the
kindergarten evaluations for G&T as also
being poor barometers to judge a student’s
brilliance.
Th e Brilliant NYC program, which de
Blasio announced Oct. 8 as a replacement
for G&T, would shift those 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
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
THE QUEENS
students.
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for a politician clearly in search of
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changes to ensure that every high-achieving
student, regardless of their background,
gets the opportunity to join.
Th e 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.
Th ey’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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