[car horns honking] [chattering] <i>[haunting music]</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>- I’m from Bushwick, New York.</i> <i>My neighborhood was what people would consider, like,</i> <i>a very dangerous neighborhood like ten years ago.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>[suspenseful music]</i> <i>- I went to PS 321 for elementary school.</i> <i>It’s considered to be</i> <i>one of the best public elementary schools.</i> <i>We had tons of resources,</i> two playgrounds, science class. - We had a small facility where classrooms were breaking down. Like literally tiles on the ceiling were falling. <i>DODAI: These two teens</i> <i>grew up just a few miles from each other.</i> <i>But the gap in the quality of their education</i> <i>will likely put them on unequal paths</i> <i>for the rest of their lives.</i> <i>One public school system,</i> <i>two very different experiences.</i> <i>School segregation was supposed to be</i> <i>a problem from the past.</i> <i>Supposed to have ended in the 1950s.</i> <i>Instead, today black children are more segregated</i> <i>in this country than they’ve been in half a century.</i> ALL: Education is a right, not just for the rich and white. Education is a right, not just for the rich and white. <i>DODAI: Here in the biggest city in America,</i> <i>a decade’s old conversation about schools and race</i> <i>has been reignited.</i> - Will you stand for this any longer? ALL: No! <i>- We have a segregated system</i> and we want to integrate the system. <i>DODAI: This new school’s chancellor</i> <i>is using language that’s rarely heard</i> <i>from city officials.</i> - Ooh. What did you say? Integrate? What does that mean? ALL: Hey-hey, ho-ho, segregation has got to go. <i>DODAI: And there’s a growing number of students</i> <i>seizing on this moment.</i> <i>“Metro” reporter, Eliza Shapiro,</i> <i>and magazine reporter, Nikole Hannah Jones,</i> <i>have been closely following the issue</i> <i>of school segregation in New York.</i> ALL: Segregation has got to go! <i>DODAI: It’s the first time in years that integration</i> <i>is being spoken about at the highest levels.</i> ALL: Racist Carranza! Racist Carranza! <i>DODAI: But it means both fighting decades in inequality</i> <i>as well as going up against the parents...</i> - This is not the solution. <i>DODAI: Who see steps to integrate schools</i> <i>as a threat to their own children’s education.</i> - I want to keep the current specialized high schools as high schools for the best of the best. - Fire that Carranza! - We must fight. We must fight! <i>DODAI: So six decades after segregation</i> <i>was supposed to have ended,</i> <i>can New York create a more equal school system?</i> - Where power is shared by all groups. <i>DODAI: And is this the man who’s going to lead the way?</i> ALL: We must fight! We must fight! We must fight! <i>[soft music]</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>[suspenseful music]</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>DODAI: New York City,</i> <i>one of America’s most diverse places.</i> [car horn honks] <i>Eight million people, 800 languages.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>And yet...</i> - We’re the most segregated school system in the nation. - And we’ve known about this in a real data based, legitimate and, you know, real way for years. [kids clamoring] <i>DODAI: The city has over a million</i> <i>public school students.</i> <i>It’s the largest system in the country.</i> <i>70% of students are black and Latino.</i> <i>The majority are poor.</i> <i>Most attend schools with very few white children.</i> <i>Many of those schools face higher dropout rates</i> <i>and teacher turnover,</i> <i>and have fewer resources.</i> Help people who are not in your shoes, who haven’t ever had to sit in the type of schools that you and so many of the kids in your neighborhood across the city have to sit in... Help them understand what’s at stake. - What’s at stake is an education and—and that’s an access to life. If you don’t have a proper education, then you don’t—you’re not motivated to go to school, which can lead you to drop out, and which can lead you to go into issues like—like drugs and—and jail. <i>DODAI: Decades of research shows</i> <i>that black and Latino kids in segregated schools</i> <i>are more likely to remain in poverty,</i> <i>more likely to face unemployment,</i> <i>and more likely to have health problems.</i> - I think Richard Carranza is definitely very passionate about the issue and—and wants to integrate schools, and I’m hoping that he’s willing to go to that extra mile to rock the boat to get justice for, uh, black and Latinx students. <i>CARRANZA: I’ve been very, very transparent</i> <i>about the issue of segregation.</i> <i>DODAI: Richard Carranza was hired out of Houston in 2018.</i> <i>His new boss, Mayor Bill de Blasio,</i> <i>years before had run on a progressive platform</i> <i>to end inequality,</i> <i>but has barely used the word segregation.</i> <i>And when Carranza, in his first month on the job,</i> <i>retweeted a viral video,</i> <i>he immediately became a lightning rod.</i> <i>DODAI: The video captured an angry debate</i> <i>over an initiative to diversify middle schools</i> <i>in one Manhattan district.</i> - You good? - Yeah. - Testing. One, two, three, four. Good to see you. <i>DODAI: It’s April 2019, a year into Carranza’s tenure.</i> <i>Over the next six months,</i> <i>he would face pressure from the forces for and against</i> <i>integrating New York’s schools,</i> <i>and we were there to watch it unfold.</i> - So one of the first public statements you made was via Twitter. Were you trying to send a very early message about the type of chancellor you were going to be. - I wanted to just highlight the fact that this is happening in our city and bring that to people’s attention, but it also, I think, was, um, perhaps an insight to the fact that, um, what you see is what you get. - We have, um, had a community that has largely wanted to tiptoe around the issue of inequality and segregation, even in language. - If the Supreme Court of the United States can use the term segregation, then why can’t the chancellor of New York City’s public schools use the term segregation to describe the real conditions that exist in—in—in the organization and the schools that I visit on a—on a almost daily basis? I think that it makes people uncomfortable, um, and I understand that, but the word is the word and the meaning is the meaning. <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>What I’m gonna do this afternoon with you</i> is perhaps speak to you like no chancellor has ever spoken to you before. We have a moment of opportunity here to do the right thing, and we’re gonna do the right thing. That means that adults are gonna feel uncomfortable. That means that your voices are gonna get heard. And here is my other promise to you— that when the going gets tough, and people say to us, “We can’t do that because we’ve never done it before.” But no, we will not wait to integrate our schools. We will not wait to dismantle the segregated systems we have. We will not wait to make sure that every student, regardless of who they are... group: ♪ We going to school and to get to school ♪ ♪ We shouldn’t slow or stop ♪ <i>- I really love the chancellor’s speech</i> <i>but it’s hard to just believe words</i> <i>when you’ve been in this space,</i> <i>and you’ve seen politicians say it.</i> <i>- He talked and then he left. </i>- Right. - How are you gonna hear me if you’re not in the same building as me? - What would you guys have asked him? What are some questions you have for him? - What does he have planned for now? What is he doing right now that, like, what does he have planned for the future? - If all these, like, people of high positions care so much, and they’re trying to do what they can for change, like, why hasn’t change happened yet? <i>REPORTER: May 17th, 1954 was a Monday.</i> <i>The court said separate educational facilities</i> <i>are inherently unequal.</i> <i>[suspenseful music]</i> <i>DODAI: In the decades after</i> <i>the Brown v. Board of Education decision,</i> <i>many schools across the country</i> <i>actually did integrate.</i> <i>White kids in classrooms bring resources and funding,</i> <i>and studies showed that everyone benefitted.</i> <i>Generations of students, black and white,</i> <i>had better outcomes</i> <i>when it came to things like employment, health,</i> <i>or civic engagement thanks to integration.</i> <i>But there was a fierce backlash.</i> <i>White communities violently protested,</i> <i>harassing and attacking black students.</i> <i>Over the ensuing decades,</i> <i>this opposition would dismantle integration.</i> <i>In New York,</i> <i>schools were never integrated in the first place.</i> <i>Black and Puerto Rican children lived in</i> <i>the poorest neighborhoods,</i> <i>and were funneled into the most underresourced</i> <i>and neglected schools.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>MARCUS: It’s been 65 years.</i> <i>We are still dealing with segregation</i> <i>in New York City public schools.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>SOKHNADIARRA: I was surrounded by black people,</i> <i>I’ve always been surrounded by black people.</i> <i>The only white kids I see are on TV.</i> So how am I supposed to know if what I’m getting is the right education or not? <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>DODAI: To get into New York’s</i> <i>highest performing schools,</i> <i>you need to pass through a screening process</i> <i>or qualify for a gifted program.</i> <i>These selective methods</i> <i>largely cut off disadvantaged kids.</i> - I didn’t have a choice to go to a gifted middle school because I wasn’t labeled as a gifted kid because I didn’t get three’s and four’s on my state test scores, I got two’s. - How does that feel as a—a child to be told, “Actually you’re not good enough to go to this school“? - It was demoralizing. Like to be told to go back to a place where ceilings are falling down and fights are breaking out all the time was just like— I don’t know. I felt like a hole was inside because, like, at this point, what do I do? I feel like once I got into high school, or like during that process, um, I was kind of ashamed of being black. ‘cause I tied my low state scores and my socio-economic class to my race. And I took that to high school thinking, “If I got white friends, I would somehow become like them.” <i>I hated myself, I hated my race.</i> <i>I hated the people around me.</i> <i>I know I could’ve gotten a better situation,</i> <i>and I just felt like I was robbed of an opportunity.</i> <i>[somber music]</i> - It really hit for me when I spoke to Coco. <i>She goes to one of the wealthiest schools,</i> <i>Beacon High School.</i> - Have a good day. - Have a good day. <i>If you didn’t have certain grades or test scores,</i> it was made explicit that, even though you were getting an interview, your chances of getting into the school were slim to none. <i>DODAI: Screens are admissions requirements.</i> <i>Schools can use test scores, attendance records,</i> <i>and even interviews or portfolios of work</i> <i>to select students.</i> <i>- When these schools are screening,</i> they’re only looking for the students that came from privilege and took advantage of that privilege. I cannot take advantage of nothing. <i>- Education is a right, not just for the rich and white.</i> ALL: Education is a right, not just for the rich and white. [cheers] <i>DODAI: These are the reasons Marcus, Coco,</i> <i>and Sokhnadiarra are part of Teens Take Charge,</i> <i>a student group that’s been trying to integrate schools.</i> - It shouldn’t be 65 years. Dot, dot, dot. Really? - Yeah, something like that. You know? <i>DODAI: They’re appealing directly</i> <i>to Carranza and the mayor.</i> - We’re going to be hosting a meeting at city hall. with D.O.E. officials and city council members to push them to integrate the school system. <i>DODAI: They have specific demands,</i> <i>including taking away things like screens,</i> <i>demands that they’ve been pushing the city</i> <i>to take seriously.</i> - Because 65 years... - Is enough. - Is more than enough. <i>- So good morning.</i> This month marks 65 years since the Supreme Court issued the landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education. <i>DODAI: At a city council hearing in May,</i> <i>Carranza faced some of his toughest questions.</i> - What is the department’s overarching plan to address segregation in a sustained way? - We have been trying and waiting for 65 years. What you would do differently? - Do you commit to adding metrics? - The overall strategy is to continue to lay a vision for integration of our schools. It’s both a bottom up with the coalition of the willing, but it’s also a top down where we’re pushing, um, the engagement process. <i>DODAI: When he was asked to make specific commitments,</i> <i>Carranza repeatedly deferred to an advisory committee.</i> - The Diversity Advisory Committee is going to be making recommendations. We are going to meet with the School Diversity Advisory Committee. We are going to meet with the School Diversity Advisory Committee. The School Diversity Advisory Committee... <i>DODAI: But the chancellor has the authority</i> <i>to introduce his own policies.</i> - Let me just interject here. Chancellor, I say with respect, I mean, the School Diversity Advisory Group is not a separate branch of government with oversight over this administration. The City Council is. So when we ask questions at an oversight hearing, we expect answers. <i>DODAI: But Carranza didn’t seem to have</i> <i>a citywide integration plan,</i> <i>and Mayor de Blasio had not given any indication</i> <i>that he was supportive of any major integration efforts.</i> <i>After five hours of testimony,</i> <i>the next steps were still unclear.</i> - At a hearing on the same issue in 2017, you said, “We do believe that segregation is an issue that needs to be addressed.” Needs to be addressed is a passive voice. Addressed by whom? Let me put my skills from English class to use. We, the D.O.E. do believe that segregation in New York City is an urgent issue that we, the D.O.E. need to address. I’ve heard a lot of adults say how much they love hearing from the student voice, how much they value us. I agree, I agree. The student voice is great. But you know what I prefer? Adult action. So until you start backing up your words, I don’t want to hear your compliments. Thank you. [applause] - Throw it down. - The New York City school system will be boycotted when February 3rd arrives. <i>We are mobilizing just as swiftly as we can...</i> <i>DODAI: A decade after Brown v. Board,</i> <i>New York’s civil rights leaders</i> <i>were fed up with the city’s segregated schools.</i> <i>460,000 black and Puerto Rican children</i> <i>boycotted school for one day.</i> <i>It was the largest civil right demonstration</i> <i>in the city’s history.</i> <i>So school officials responded with an integration plan.</i> <i>- The plan to transfer white students by bus</i> <i>to predominantly negro schools,</i> <i>some of them in ghetto areas.</i> <i>DODAI: Thousands came out in protest.</i> [all singing] <i>- Are you against equality?</i> - We are not. We want quality and equality for all children in the city of New York, but forced cross busing will not do it. ALL: No busing! No busing! <i>DODAI: Busing became the codeword</i> <i>to oppose integration.</i> <i>That resistance would break</i> <i>the integration campaign in New York,</i> <i>which leaves us where we are today.</i> <i>- Out of the 895 students</i> <i>admitted to Stuyvesant for next fall,</i> <i>just seven are African American.</i> <i>DODAI: Stuyvesant is one of the highest performing</i> <i>public high schools in the city.</i> <i>In fact, in the nation.</i> <i>It’s one of eight specialized public high schools</i> <i>in New York that requires students to ace a test</i> <i>called the SHSAT.</i> <i>It’s a test that tends to favor families</i> <i>who can afford or access test prep,</i> <i>and the pipeline of students comes from a small number</i> <i>of elite public middle schools.</i> <i>The specialized schools</i> <i>are roughly 10% black and Latino.</i> - The test has to go! <i>DODAI: Under pressure, Carranza and Mayor de Blasio</i> <i>came up with a plan—</i> <i>drop the test and open enrollment</i> <i>to the top students in all middle schools.</i> <i>They might’ve been able to implement it,</i> <i>at least in some of the schools themselves.</i> <i>But instead, they asked the state legislature</i> <i>to vote on it as a plan for all specialized high schools.</i> - Will result in specialized schools in which 45% of all students will be black and Latino. - Join the movement. Be on the right side of history. ALL: Racist Carranza! Racist Carranza! <i>DODAI: The reaction from some parents was fierce.</i> <i>Lower income Asian American families and white families</i> <i>are over represented in the specialized schools.</i> <i>Asian students would lose seats under this new proposal,</i> <i>but white students would retain about the same number.</i> - We’re raising our voices today against the city’s attempt to pit children against each other by race. [cheers] - I have heard from parents over the last many months what a negative impact this proposal will have on their children. <i>DODAI: Maud Maron is a public defender,</i> <i>and is part of the parent’s council</i> <i>for one of the wealthiest districts in the city.</i> - It is 100% clear that we need to do better in terms of having more integrated schools, but we also need to do better in meeting the educational needs of all of our kids, um, including high achieving kids. <i>DODAI: She says many people feel this proposal</i> <i>would bring in kids who aren’t ready</i> <i>for the demanding curriculum.</i> <i>That’s something the city refutes.</i> ALL: Save the school! - I think that’s a reasonable point of view to listen to. You can agree with it or disagree with it, but to be called racist to advance that point of view or to be suspected of just trying to keep black kids out of the school seems, to me, really unfortunate because it shuts down the conversation all the time. - What desegregation efforts then would you support? - To have really integrated schools, we need to start at, um, a really young age. - Right, so, you would support rezoning schools for integration? - Um, yes, with a caveat, and the caveat is you have to do that in the exact opposite way than Chancellor Carranza did the specialized high school program, which is that you have to have community buy-in. When people say, “I’m nervous that this, um, is gonna result in my kid getting a less good education,” you have to take that concern, um, as a valid concern even if you think it’s racist and it may be, but you still have to take it as a valid concern because we live in a choice system, right? <i>DODAI: What Maude’s referring to is the fact</i> <i>that wealthier families</i> <i>can opt to leave the public school system.</i> <i>It’s a threat that looms over city officials,</i> <i>and it’s likely part of the reason</i> <i>that large scale integration has never happened.</i> - Integration is not just about some PC variety of diversity. It’s about justice. What are you willing to give up? What are advantaged parents willing to give up for equality? - You’re dividing people into buckets and saying, “You folks, you have to give up some. “You have to make do with less so that we can advantage these other people.” That’s a loser of an argument politically. - I clearly know that the argument I’m making is probably a losing argument, but what I’m saying is that, uh, I don’t think you can then claim to have it both ways. You can’t say you believe in equality while at the same time trying to sustain a system that is advantaging the same kids who already have advantage. - I would like to see more integrated schools, right? But I think if you go about it by positing it as some people are gonna have to give things up, um, you’re not gonna get any closer to integrated schools. MAN: When I say integrate, you say now. Integrate. ALL: Now! - Integrate. ALL: Now! - Integrate. ALL: Now! - Integrate. ALL: Now! - Integrate. ALL: Now! - Integrate. ALL: Now! - Integrate. ALL: Now! - Today, we are here to create that tension to prove that we the students will not stop fighting fiercely for our right to an integrated education. <i>DODAI: In June, Teens Take Charge</i> <i>led hundreds of students in a demonstration</i> <i>aimed directly at Mayor de Blasio and Carranza.</i> - We see that eight specialized high schools who have most majority of Asian and white students who have most the resources, whereas schools in the south Bronx barely have computers, laptops, teachers, paper! Paper! [cheers] So I ask you today, will you stand for this any longer? ALL: No! - Will you stand for this any longer? ALL: No! [cheers] <i>- You have been talking about segregation now for a year.</i> When can we expect to see something, and what can you tell us that we’re going to see? - Well, in one year, I’ve done more around this issue than the whole education policy work that’s been done for years. Uh, I think no one can deny that. - But when will we see a plan come... - When it’s the appropriate time. - Or a policy coming out of the Chancellor’s office. - We are continuing to push, even politically, we’re continuing to push the questions of the systems and structures that keep kids out of certain schools. Um, we are pushing that. <i>DODAI: But over the summer, Carranza and the Mayor’s</i> <i>specialized high school plan failed.</i> <i>The state legislature didn’t even bring it up for a vote.</i> <i>But then on August 27th,</i> <i>just a week before the new school year began,</i> <i>the school advisory board announced its recommendations.</i> <i>REPORTER: A panel is now recommending big changes</i> <i>to gifted programs in city schools.</i> <i>DODAI: Eliminate the gifted and talented program</i> <i>and most screens,</i> <i>the two selective methods that heavily contribute</i> <i>to segregation.</i> <i>It was a radical proposal.</i> - The changes coming could really be seismic. <i>DODAI: So would the mayor and Carranza implement it?</i> - Buenos dias! Good morning. I hope you’re as excited as we are to start the school year. - First day of school is amazing. It’s a time of renewal and endless possibilities. - Can each of you say whether you anticipate approving any of the proposals in this wide reaching plan? - Again, I—we have to make sense of the recommendations very carefully, particularly on the issue of gifted and talented, we’ve said we are—we know we’re going to take the whole school year for deep stakeholder engagement, really think it through. - I want to thank, uh, the School Diversity Advisory Committee for their hard work for over two years. Uh, their work, uh, was not in vain. But again, we owe them the respect to really take a deep dive in what they’ve recommended, and then have a public conversation about what’s the path forward, and that’s currently where we are. <i>DODAI: Ultimately, the response is,</i> <i>“We need more time.”</i> - This is not what our school system should look like. So how much longer will it take? <i>DODAI: New York City will have to wait another year.</i> ALL: Now much longer will it take? <i>DODAI: Another year of uncertainty.</i> <i>Another year of debate.</i> <i>- I don’t think people are afraid to send their kids</i> <i>to school with kids of a different color.</i> I think they feel like it’s the job as a parent to get their kids the kind of education that will help them get ahead in the world. ALL: Now much longer will it take? <i>REPORTER: May 17th, 1954 was a Monday.</i> <i>The court said</i> <i>separate educational facilities</i> <i>are inherently unequal.</i> - We are going to do five minutes of silence right now. <i>[somber music]</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>CARRANZA: There’s a lot of work that’s happening.</i> <i>We’re enlisting people, we’re building capacity,</i> <i>we’re building the village.</i> <i>Politically, we’re continuing to push the questions.</i> <i>So this is a process.</i> <i>SOKHNADIARRA: It’s like every second that goes by</i> with them not doing anything, that’s a child’s future that is being put on the line. - I feel like we’re not gonna make anymore progression until we get people who are willing to rock the boat, and willing to give up their positions and fight for what they believe in. Fight for our justice. <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>[uplifting music]</i> <i>♪ ♪</i>