Perhaps in a sign of that division, one of the city’s most influential black leaders, Rev. Al Sharpton, has so far declined to weigh in on the matter. | AP Photo/Richard Drew Fight over specialized schools reveals rift among black leaders

The fight over whether to scrap a single admissions test at the city’s eight specialized high schools has sown division among New York’s ethnic communities — rallies, public meetings and town halls have been divided largely along racial lines.

But in recent weeks, the conflict over the test — a symbol for more pervasive segregation throughout the city school system — has opened a rift among prominent black leaders as well, despite the de Blasio administration's stated goal of admitting more black and Hispanic students to the elite schools.


One of the city’s most influential black leaders, Rev. Al Sharpton, has so far declined to weigh in on the matter. But his long-time ally, Kirsten John Foy, recently kicked off a campaign to preserve the test and has won the support of some influential, and wealthy backers.

Foy, president and CEO of the Arc of Justice Foundation and a graduate of Brooklyn Technical High School, said it’s not so much a “division per se among black leadership” but different perspectives on the best approach.

Others disagree.

“He's dead wrong,” said Assemblyman Charles Barron, who is sponsoring legislation that would kill the test. “[Foy] honestly doesn't care about really doing the proper research, especially if he's not even going to talk to the sponsor of the bill who you have a longstanding relationship with."

Foy claimed he has “greater moral authority” to speak on the issue since he is a Brooklyn Tech alum and that Barron, “calling someone else an attention seeker is indeed the pot calling the kettle black."

Mayor Bill de Blasio’s plan, announced in June 2018, would scrap the admissions test and instead admit the top 7 percent of students from the city’s middle schools to the eight elite high schools: The Bronx High School of Science, Brooklyn Latin School, Brooklyn Technical High School, High School for Math, Science and Engineering at City College, the High School of American Studies at Lehman College, Queens High School for the Sciences at York College, Staten Island Technical High School, and Stuyvesant High School. (La Guardia High School is among the specialized set, but requires an audition).

Critics say the mayor’s plan would dilute the academic quality of the eight schools and would be unfair to students — specifically in the Asian community — who come from low-income families but manage to make up a healthy population of the schools, due in large part to their performance on the test. Black and Hispanic students who don’t perform well on the test, critics argue, would be unprepared for the rigor of the elite schools and would hold other students back.

“I think everyone can agree black and Latino people didn’t all of a sudden stop being smart in the past 20 years,” said Christina Greer, Fordham University political science professor. “We can all agree that something is wrong. And so then what has changed? Let’s figure out what these variables are. Is it that middle schools and elementary schools are not doing what they’re supposed to do to prepare students? Has the test been the same over time?"

She said a three-hour test alone does not measure a student’s ability and pointed to inequities in middle schools.

"I feel like no one's articulating the problem,” Greer continued. “I would argue that white families ... fundamentally don’t want school integration and it starts at elementary and middle school levels which creates those inequities based on race and class."

Foy’s group, the Education Equity Campaign — which has the backing of billionaire Ronald Lauder, a graduate of the Bronx High School of Science, and former Time Warner chairman and CEO Dick Parsons — argues the focus of reforms should be on fixing the inequities that cause poor test performance among black and Hispanic students.

Through ad campaigns on TV and online, the group has begun pushing policy proposals such as creating two new specialized high schools in every borough and expanded access to gifted and talented programs.

“What the mayor's plan advances is the principle that the optics of a lack of diversity is more egregious than the lack of equity systemwide,” Foy, a former aide to de Blasio when he served as public advocate, said in an interview. “I just reject that premise.”

He added, “The question is how do we get there and I think the debate lies in the how, not in the what, not in the who."

Other prominent black leaders have endorsed the mayor’s plan as the best way to ensure equity for all students in the schools.

Rev. Jacques DeGraff of Canaan Baptist Church in Harlem served as Sharpton’s campaign manager during the 1997 mayoral race. He told POLITICO that he and others like him — including Hazel Dukes, president of the NAACP New York State Conference, and Arva Rice, president and CEO of New York Urban League — have been “on the front lines on this issue.”

He chastised “sideline critics” who support keeping the test.

“Black leaders who speak on behalf of the black community who are advocating for the best for the African American community and have a record in this area are the voices we should listen to,” DeGraff said, adding that “unpreparedness” is an unsatisfactory answer for why there’s a low number of black students in the schools.

The insinuation that black and Hispanic students would compromise the academic quality has resurrected racial sentiments that have undergirded city education politics for decades.

"It's very offensive to hear all the racial coding that African Americans are not good enough, if more of us are accepted into the schools, it's going to bring down the standards," said Mary Alice Miller, an African American graduate of Stuyvesant High School in the 1970s, during a recent forum hosted by state Sen. John Liu (D-Queens). "Don't act like the specialized schools belong to one race."

State Assemblyman Michael Blake (D-Bronx) — a Congressional candidate for the seat that will be vacated by U.S. Rep. José Serrano — also supports scrapping the test. He, like others, criticized the mayor’s rollout of the plan, but said he supported the substance.

“Other than the rollout, I have not heard of very strong continual arguments for opposition to the plan,” said Blake.

Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, a Brooklyn Tech alum, opposes the mayor's plan and chided his rollout.

"Had the mayor reached out to all of us earlier we could have all sat down and really figured this thing out," he said in an interview, praising Foy for taking on the issue.

Freddi Goldstein, the mayor's press secretary, pointed to comments de Blasio made in March regarding the rollout of the plan when he said he wished he "had done it better," and wants to have a dialogue with Asian community leaders.

“There’s only one person trying to shout down voices in this debate: Ron Lauder," Goldstein said, referring to the heir of the Estée Lauder fortune who is backing Foy's campaign. "He’s the one bankrolling a campaign to shut promising black and Latino kids out of his alma mater.”

Opponents of the mayor's plan argue it’s a band-aid solution that ignores systemic inequities throughout the public school system.

“Having black faces fill black seats is not the goal,” Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams said. “Being able to stay in those seats and achieve these seats are the goal.”

But Adams supported scrapping the test before he opposed it, leading some to question his motives.

Barron said Adams “got in a tiffy” as soon as “his Asian money was being threatened.”

Adams told POLITICO he was “surprised” that Barron accused him of having financial motivations.

Status has also become a focal point in the divide.

“What is surprising is that people who have achieved a degree of success would fight to maintain a testing process that may have served them well but disserves countless others with equal if not more promise,” said Janai Nelson, a Brooklyn Tech alumna and associate director-counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.

Dukes, a prominent voice in city politics, questioned the sudden interest of people like Foy and Parsons when they have not participated in the city’s official diversity workshops thus far.

“I didn't see these people, but they've got money,” she said in an interview. “We have voices that [are] saying, ‘We want equity and excellent education for every child’ ... we're not fighting the Asians.”

Still, Dukes said that she has no issue with Foy and that she might agree with some of his group's methodologies “when they put forth what they mean and what they're saying.”

David Kirkland, professor of urban education and executive director of the NYU Metro Center, said it is not the first time Foy, the National Action Network and Sharpton have adopted more conservative approaches to education policy. He noted that Sharpton was among leaders who pushed “zero tolerance” and “no excuses” approaches to schooling.

“[Sharpton and NAN have] been right on some issues as it relates to Black Lives Matter but I also know that the black conservative tradition is alive within the community and I know that Rev. Sharpton has espoused some of those black conservative viewpoints, chiefly the viewpoints of meritocracy,” Kirkland said.

Foy argued that “when you require systemic reforms, you’re not being conservative, you’re being progressive.”

“I take it as a compliment that people are perplexed that a broke activist who's been marching and going to jail and advancing progressive ideals for two decades has the reach and the expertise to mount a sophisticated progressive campaign for educational reform and equity,” Foy said, adding he can “connect billionaires to kids in Bed-Stuy and Brownsville who have restricted educational opportunities.”

Sharpton declined to comment through his adviser Rachel Noerdlinger, who said he will seek guidance on the issue from his New York chapter leadership.

Foy declined to comment on his conversations with Sharpton but said the reverend’s current priorities include working to “reclaim our democracy from Donald Trump.”

So far, the divisions have not been irreparable. Leaders on both sides say they are happy a debate has emerged.

Richard Buery — chief of policy and public affairs of the KIPP charter network, a former de Blasio official and a graduate of Stuyvesant High School — supports the mayor’s plan but welcomed the variety of perspectives.

“I have not heard any of them say that the current system is working fine the way it is,” Buery said.

During the initial rollout of Foy’s Education Equity Campaign, Buery took to Twitter to chide the effort.

“I don’t understand why these folks would spend their time and energy to exclude Black and Latinx students from the specialized high schools,” he wrote. “I just don’t get it.”

In an interview with POLITICO, he was more welcoming of the challenge.

"Somebody like Kirsten has been a fierce advocate for education equity,” he said. ‘I've known him for decades. I'm happy to have ... a debate with people like that."