Many parents are wondering what is happening with the G&T. Given DOE likes to keep families together, this is a nightmare for many who have one child in the gifted program and have a 2 or 3 year old at home who may have to go to a separate school. It is a resource and a logistics nightmare. If implemented, this would be the biggest mistake the DOE could make with the exception of doing away with the NYC Gifted and Talented program altogether.
There is one school in Brooklyn, PS 9, that decided to eliminate their gifted and talented program next year. The school said they are moving to end the program to expand “enrichment” for all students which is a highly subjective term to begin with.
We do not think the G&T is going anywhere yet and G&T schools are currently looking at offering quotas to underserved students. Several had pilot programs last year; we expect to see more of this in the coming seasons. Here are some other reasons why:
Schools that have G&T programs score significantly higher on ELA and math common core testing done in the spring. This helps the overall score for the school since the scores are combined with the general ed students hence the funding of the school.
Gifted and talented students mostly have parents who have more disposable income to donate to the PTA at the school. Schools greatly benefit from this as they are able to spend more on enrichment programs as well as music and art.
The G&T program offers a viable alternative to paying $55,000/year for kindergarten at a NYC private school and While many families can afford to spend $2000 for prepping, they can not afford to spend 110K per year for private school tuition. If the G&T program goes away then thousands of NYC parents will seriously consider private school or moving to the suburbs. The reason the G&T Program was put in place in the city was to keep the middle class and upper middle class from fleeing to the suburbs.
De Blasio has too much on his plate and his term is coming to an end; we do not think he will repeat the failure he had with trying to do away with SHSAT Programs.
Since the recommendation from the task force appointed by DeBlasio last August, not much has happened. We think the compromise will be increasing diversity quotas across all programs and yes that is the right thing to do.
No, G&T is not going anywhere soon.
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