Poorer black and Hispanic students in New York City and across the state are being prevented from attending the best public elementary schools thanks to “racist’’ zoning, a new study has found.
New York’s current public-school zones are nearly identical to the infamous government “redlining” used a century ago to discriminate against minority neighborhoods when it came to housing — a system that was eventually deemed unconstitutional, according to the report by the nonpartisan watchdog Available to All.
“These attendance zone lines are official policy, and they separate the haves from the have-nots,” group founder and President Tim DeRoche said of New York’s student-placement system.
A new report claims that New York City’s public-school zones are keeping poorer minority children out of the best schools — like The Emily Warren Roebling School in Brooklyn (pictured) where only 13% of students are black or Latino. Google maps“Government policy makers call it residential assignment. We call it educational redlining,” he said.
“Attendance zones in the five boroughs and across New York state are doing the same work of the racist redlining maps in the 1930s, denying crucial government services — this time high-quality education — to kids based on where their parents can afford to live.’’
The report said New York has one of the strictest student assignment systems based on address in the country — a “power driver of inequality” that is a “tragic irony for a state that prides itself on fighting for equity, fairness and opportunity for historically oppressed populations.
“A child may have the option of attending several public schools, such as his or her assigned school, a magnet school, or a charter school,” the study said.
“But this does not eliminate the injustice of their being categorically excluded from a high-performing public school that is near their home, based solely on their address.
“Often, New York families have many choices within the universe of mediocre or struggling schools. But the high-performing schools often enforce the zones very strictly and will remain out of reach for families who can’t afford to move within the zone.”
City kids are able to apply outside their zone when it comes to public middle and high schools.
New York City meanwhile has the highest per-pupil spending among the nation’s 50 largest school districts.
Staten Island’s PS 35 Clove Valley School (pictured) has 27% black and Hispanic attendance. Google mapsThe city’s Department of Education budget is $42.8 billion for the current school year, for an expenditure of $34,717 per student.
That’s up from $33.6 billion, or $25,810 per student, in 2018-2019 school year, before the COVID pandemic.
One alternative for students in poor neighborhoods is often a higher-performing charter school.
There are currently 285 publicly funded charter schools in the city, serving 150,500 or more than 15% of public school students.
Eighty three percent of charter school students are considered economically disadvantaged or low-income, and 89% are Black or Latino.
But New York City has reached the maximum number of charters allowed to open under a cap set in state law.
An education expert who read the new report said it compellingly makes the case for giving parents more school choice for their child.
The Upper East Side’s Lillie D. Blake School (pictured) has 14% minority attendance, while 88% of students at Robert Roberto Clemente PS 38 a half-mile away are black or Latino. Google maps“They do have a valid point. It’s an argument for school choice,” said Danyela Souza, an education researcher with the right-leaning Manhattan Institute.
“There are students stuck in schools that do not provide a high-quality education. Students should have other options, including access to schools outside their neighborhood,” she said
Souza said she supports publicly funded vouchers allowing lower-income parents to afford to enroll their kids in schools other than the one assigned to them.
“The money should follow the student,” she said.
The new study highlighted examples of what it called discriminatory “redlining” in the city’s public school system:
- Manhattan: Lillie D. Blake PS 6 on East 81st Street on the posh Upper East Side has only 14% black or Hispanic students, and 90% are proficient in reading on state English exams. Meanwhile, at Robert Roberto Clemente PS 38 a half-mile away on East 102nd Street, 88% of students are black and Latino, while only 41% are proficient in reading.
- Brooklyn: At the Emily Warren Roebling PS 8 on Hicks Street in Brooklyn Heights, 90% of students are proficient in reading, 13% of those enrolled are black and Latino, and 12% are low-income. Just 11 blocks away, at Daniel Hale Williams PS 307, 28% of students are proficient in reading, 84% are black and Latino, and 90% are low-income.
- Staten Island: At Clove Valley PS 35 in Richmondtown, 98% of students read proficiently. Of the students enrolled there, 27% are black and Hispanic, and 42% are low income. By comparison, 30% of students at the PS 78 Stapleton Lighthouse Community School to the east are reading proficiently. Of the students enrolled, 91% are black or Latino, and 94% were low income.
The report gives similar education red-lining examples in Albany, Buffalo, Jamestown and Niagra Falls.
The findings should be a siren call for new Big Apple democratic socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani, other elected leaders, education officials and the teachers’ unions to limit or end educational redlining, the report said.
The study included a quote from Mamdani last year saying, “We have the most segregated public school system in America.”
But “Mamdani has not yet addressed the elephant in the room: elementary school zones that sort kids into winners and losers when they are just five years old,” said the report, titled “And Stay Out! How New York’s educational redlining blocks middle-class and lower-income kids from accessing the best public schools in their own backyards.”
The report recommends requiring every public school to reserve at least 15% of seats for students living outside the zone or district and giving equal enrollment opportunity to any child living within three miles of a school.
The study is the first-ever comparison of New York school district attendance zones and the racist “redlines” created by the feds in the 1930s and finally outlawed by the Fair Housing Act of 1968.
It showed how public-school attendance zones overlap with the maps the infamous federal Homeowners’ Loan Corporation used for those same neighborhoods in the 1930s.
HOLC drew maps of hundreds of American cities, designating certain neighborhoods as “desirable,” “best,” “declining,” or “hazardous.’’
Areas with black residents were shaded red or yellow on these maps and were ineligible for government housing assistance, private loans or mortgages.
A prior 2014 UCLA study by researchers claimed Big Apple schoolswere the most segregated in the country.
A rep for city Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels and the city DOE issued a statement Monday saying expanding school choice and integration are “key priorities” of the Mamdani administration.
“New York City Public Schools remains dedicated to making sure that every student, in every ZIP code, has access to a high-quality education. Advancing true integration and expanding opportunity across our system are key priorities,” the statement said.
“Today, students and families can choose from a wide range of programs and pathways designed to promote equity, expand opportunity, and support student success.
“In recent years, New York City Public Schools has introduced greater flexibility in the admissions process and can now list any New York City public middle school on their application, as has always been the case for high school and kindergarten applications. We will continue working with state leaders, communities, and educators to strengthen equitable access to great schools while investing in the success of every neighborhood school.”
