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Zohran Mamdani wants to eliminate a gifted and talented track for kindergartners in the public school system, his campaign said Thursday, a proposal that immediately renewed debate about the coveted yet intensely segregated program.
Mamdani, the Democratic nominee and frontrunner to be New York City’s next mayor, indicated that the current model unfairly separates students by perceived ability at the start of their education.
“Identifying academic giftedness at age 4 is hard to do objectively by any assessment, whether through testing or teacher nominations,” Dora Pekec, campaign spokesperson, wrote in a statement. Mamdani’s “agenda for our schools will ensure that every New York City public school student receives a high-quality early education that enables them to be challenged and fulfilled.”
Mamdani’s proposal, which was first revealed in response to a New York Times questionnaire, is notable because he has said little about how he would manage the nation’s largest school system. He has also not shared many details about how he would encourage school integration, one of his campaign pledges. Discussion about reshaping the city’s gifted programs, often a major flashpoint, has faded in recent years.
Andrew Cuomo, who is running as an independent, and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa immediately criticized Mamdani’s proposal. Both said they would expand gifted programs.
New York City’s school system, which largely enrolls students from economically disadvantaged families and is 62% Black or Latino, is unusual in the degree to which programs may admit students based on their academic records. Gifted programs are widely seen as a method for keeping middle class and white families in public schools. Many Asian American families and other families of color also see them as a pathway into higher-performing schools that may be in short supply in their neighborhoods.
But the programs are starkly segregated. Fewer than one quarter of students in gifted programs were Black or Latino during the 2023-24 school year, according to the most recent Education Department data. About 70% of students in gifted classrooms were white or Asian American, though they comprise about 35% of the student body. The programs enroll few students with disabilities or children who are learning English.
Under Mamdani’s plan, kindergartners would no longer be eligible for separate gifted programs, which typically use the same curriculums as traditional classrooms but may move at a faster pace. Fewer than 4% of all kindergartners, or about 2,100 students, enrolled in gifted programs during the 2023-24 school year.
Asked whether the proposal would affect a handful of citywide schools that only enroll students who are considered gifted or eliminate a separate onramp to gifted programs in third grade, Pekec indicated the proposal is focused on eliminating gifted programs that begin in kindergarten.
Cuomo has attacked Mamdani for lack of K-12 agenda
Some observers said Mamdani’s proposal could be an attempt to counter Cuomo’s criticism in recent weeks that the Queens assemblyman doesn’t have a clear K-12 education agenda. Last week, Cuomo said gifted programs should be expanded during a town hall organized by Parent Leaders for Accelerated Curriculum and Education, known as PLACE, a group that supports screening students based on academic ability.
“It’s hard not to see this as a direct response to the political coalition Cuomo is trying to form,” said Jonathan Collins, a professor of political science and education at Columbia University Teachers College.
Cuomo quickly seized on Mamdani’s proposal, pointing to an Education Department survey that found many parents who left the city’s schools from September 2022 to the end of 2023 wanted more rigorous instruction.
“The answer isn’t to say good riddance to those families,” Cuomo said in a statement. “Eliminating opportunities for excellence doesn’t help underserved kids, it perpetuates the problem.”
Mamdani’s plan echoes a proposal by former Mayor Bill de Blasio to completely phase out elementary school gifted programs. Those efforts, announced in the final months of de Blasio’s final term, were scrapped by the Adams administration, which expanded gifted seats and focused on programs that start in third grade.
Under de Blasio, the city abandoned a controversial exam administered to 4-year-olds that determined their eligibility for gifted seats. Now, those decisions are based on teacher nominations and a lottery system, as there are thousands more eligible students than available seats.
After the Education Department began relying on teacher nominations, a greater share of Black and Latino kindergartners enrolled. During the 2023-24 school year, 14% of kindergartners in gifted programs were Black, up from 4% three years earlier. The share of Latino kindergartners in gifted programs doubled from 8% to 16% over that same period, Education Department officials said during a City Council hearing in June.
Under New York City’s system of mayoral control, Mamdani would have the authority to alter school admissions policies. Yet he has also proposed changing the governance structure in favor of giving parents and educators more input. Some observers pointed out the tension between Mamdani’s proposed changes to gifted programs and his pledge to make decisions more democratically.
The campaign appeared on Thursday to back away from a separate proposal to address racial segregation at the city’s eight specialized high schools that admit students based on a single exam, known as the SHSAT. (Mamdani attended the Bronx High School of Science, a specialized school.)
The schools are widely celebrated as among the strongest public schools in the country but admit few Black and Latino students. The Mamdani campaign previously indicated he would order a study of racial and gender bias in the admissions test. In a separate 2022 questionnaire before he ran for mayor, Mamdani said the test should be abolished.
On Thursday, Pekec wrote that “Zohran has said on multiple occasions he will keep the SHSAT.”
Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex atazimmerman@chalkbeat.org.
