New York’s highest court has thrown out a years-long legal challenge to selective admissions at the city’s gifted programs and specialized high schools as discriminatory against Black and Latino students.
The New York Court of Appeals on Thursday dismissed the case, 5-2, because the students shut out of the elite schools and programs had not adequately pled they were denied a basic education as required by the state’s constitution.
The majority also said allegations the disparate impact of the city’s admissions policies were “foreseeable” were not enough to argue “discriminatory intent.”
“We share the concerns of the lower courts and the parties over the issues raised by plaintiffs’ complaint,” Judge Michael Garcia wrote in the majority opinion. “Our role, however, is — as it has always been — to determine whether plaintiffs have presented a legally sufficient claim for resolution by the courts.”
“Here,” the opinion continued, “plaintiffs have not done so, and we must dismiss.”
Less than a third of students in gifted programs tend to be Black or Latino, compared to about two-thirds who are white or Asian American. The racial breakdown for specialized high school admissions was 53.5% Asian, 25.9% white, 6.9% Hispanic, and 3% Black during the most recent application cycle.
In a dissent, Judge Jenny Rivera said the majority erred by tossing the case, partly because statewide standards for a basic education “cannot be satisfied by an educational system that functions as a racialized pipeline excluding students of color from schools.”
“Plaintiffs’ claims are more than ‘troubling,’” Rivera wrote. “They implicate discriminatory governmental practices and policies antithetical to an open, civilized, and diverse democracy.”
Filed in 2021, the lawsuit accused the city’s public schools of functioning as a pipeline that tracks Black and Latino students into lesser schools and second-rate programs, starting with gifted programs where incoming kindergarteners from some families have a leg up over their peers. By the time they’re competing for specialized and screened high schools, the suit claims, the odds are stacked against them — and the students are denied access to as good of an education or their nicer facilities.
The case was first dismissed by a trial court judge, before a mid-level appeals court allowed it to move forward. Thursday’s decision overturned the lower appellate panel’s ruling.
A lawyer for the plaintiffs did not immediately return a request for comment. Nicholas Paolucci, a spokesman for the Law Department, said city government was pleased with the court’s ruling while “committed to providing a sound education for every student.”
The dismissal comes as gifted programs have emerged as a hot-button issue in the mayor’s race, with front-runner and Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani promising to push back when students are admitted. Both Andrew Cuomo, the former governor and independent candidate, and GOP nominee Curtis Sliwa have campaigned on gifted program expansions.
But Mamdani — once a fierce critic of the SHSAT, despite being a specialized high school graduate himself — has since moderated his stance on the single entrance exam to eight schools, including Stuyvesant High School, Brooklyn Tech, and Bronx Science.
The group Parent Leaders for Accelerated Curriculum and Education called the court’s decision “a win for parents and students who believe in rewarding hard work and nurturing potential.”
“This ruling sends a clear message that New York will continue to prioritize student achievement and provide opportunities for accelerated learners,” Yiatin Chu, the co-president of PLACE, said Thursday night.
