Branding him a “dangerous” anti-Asian racist, a group of some 80 protesters gathered Wednesday outside the Department of Education headquarters in Manhattan to call for Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza’s ouster.
Chanting, marching and waving signs, the mostly Asian American parents accused Carranza of pushing diversification plans that would reduce the number of their kids at top city schools.
“These parents are very, very, angry,” said organizer Linda Lam. “They are here today to fight for the rights of our kids, for them not to be discriminated against because of their ethnicity or their race.”
Along with Mayor Bill de Blasio, Carranza wants to remake admissions to the city’s eight specialized high schools.
The DOE has acknowledged that the plan would cull Asian American enrollment — currently about 60% — by half.
“We have heard very little from him about educating our children,” the group said in a statement Wednesday. “What we have heard from him is plenty about his obsession with so-called ‘equity’ and ad nauseum proselytizing on race. Instead of attempting to devise strategies to improve education, he has instead taken every opportunity to push racial division.
“He has pushed policies and rhetoric which are harmful and demeaning to Asians,” the statement said.
Proponents of City Hall’s plan argue that the current single-test admission system is an arbitrarily narrow measure of talent that has artificially suppressed black and Latino enrollment.
The test, they contend, favors kids with the time and resources for thorough preparation. Carranza has flatly called the 1971 law that enacted the single-test system “racist.”
City Hall’s plan would instead use multiple measures of assessment and guarantee spots for top finishers at all middle schools.
Carranza, who was touring schools Wednesday on the last day of classes, has not backed down from his platform in recent weeks and has redoubled his promise to pursue “equity” as long as he remains chancellor.
Carranza has argued that black and Latino kids are unfairly barricaded from quality educations by forces beyond their control – and that it’s his mission to remove those cordons.
He has responded to the allegations by saying he was targeted for criticism because he is a “man of color.” De Blasio has defended his chancellor, who started the job in April 2018.
Lam rejects the notion that there is anti-Hispanic bias at play. “That has nothing to do with it. We have had Hispanic and black chancellors before and we had no problem with them. That’s because they were focused on education, not just race.
“There are parents all over this city who are concerned that the schools under this chancellor are so focused on race instead of just giving kids a good education. They are worried if they can stay in this city and know that their kids won’t be discriminated against.”
Backers of the current specialized high school admissions structure say the exam rewards raw diligence and has created schools that are considered among the nation’s best.
They also note that many Asians kids who earn spots at the specialized schools have poor-immigrant origins.
Despite 11th-hour Albany lobbying by Carranza last week, City Hall’s proposal failed to gain traction among state lawmakers this session.
Several of the protesters said Carranza and de Blasio had mistakenly calculated that Asian Americans — long considered politically quiescent — would remain so.
By creating an atmosphere where “ethnicity is everything,” the group argued, Carranza has attempted to “cover up his failing schools.”
Another parent complained that top DOE administrators and executives send their own kids to academically screened and sorted schools while denouncing those systems in public.
“New York is a multicultural city,” the group said. “We need a unifying educator, not a divisive, race-obsessed chancellor.”
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