Juan Gonzalez, New York Daily News, May 15, 2009
The Beacon School, a high performing public high school on Manhattan’s West Side, counts the children of some powerful city figures among its students.
{snip}
Several teachers and parents at the school have begun to question whether Beacon’s admission policy is skewed to benefit upper income and white students.
“We are very disturbed by the small—and shrinking—number of black and Latino students at Beacon,” the critics said in a letter last week to Schools Chancellor Joel Klein and members of the City Council.
Department of Education statistics show the percentage of African-American students at the school has declined in the past four years, from 19.1% to 14.9%; Latino enrollment has dropped from 24% to 21%.
In the same period, there has been a steady decline in the small percentages of low-income pupils (currently 17%) and English Language Learners (less than 1%).
Those numbers have shocked education activists who recall the great promises of racial diversity made when Beacon was founded in the late 1990s.
“The idea then was that Beacon would be a rigorous school with one-third black, one-third Hispanic and one-third white students,” said Jon Moscow, whose son was a part of Beacon’s first class.
As the school’s reputation for high achievement grew, upper income parents began clamoring to get their children in.
Five years ago, the Department of Education accommodated that demand by changing Beacon’s admissions policy. Instead of a school that gave priority to children in Manhattan’s Community School District 3, it became a “screened school.”
That meant students from across the city competed to get in. Top grades, student portfolios and interviews were required.
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“I’m worried that black and brown children are being increasingly left out of the top schools in Manhattan,” said Ernest Leif Boyd, who has a relative at Beacon and is one of the authors of the letter to Klein.
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“Race is not a criteria for admission to Beacon or any other public school,” said DOE spokesman Andrew Jacob. “Beacon remains one of the most diverse of the selective schools in the city.”
The decrease in black and Hispanic students at the school, Jacob said, merely “mirrors some demographic trends in Manhattan,” where the population of white public school pupils has increased slightly.
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Original article
Email
Juan Gonzalez
at jgonzalez@nydailynews.com .
(Posted on May 15, 2009)
Comments
Schools like this are often just social experiments. I went to a school similar to this except that it was designed to be 50% black and 50% everyone else. I had 2 coats, a necklace and other items stolen and was mercilessly harassed by blacks. And this was in a school that was touted as being in the top 100 of high schools in the nation. I left after my freshman year but the rest of my high school years were tainted by the experiance.
If the admission policy includes a written test and a look at past school record’s guess who is going to get in and be left out. NY City opened a new High School in Brooklyn two or three year’s ago called Brooklyn Latin H.S. This school is open to all student’s on a City wide basis but is granted only by passing a tough admission test. The school is similar to Boston Latin H.S. with strict discipline and a heavy academic work load. One big problem with this school however is that is located in one of the worst neigborhood’s possible. So most parent’s of kids who might be interested in this school will think long and hard before sending them there. The school probably has not graduated it’s first class yet so it is hard to tell it’s sucess or failure. You can be sure though that you will hear all of the familiar cries and excuses when these fact’s are known.
In my private, Christian High School there was only 1 black that I can recall. He was there b/c the school needed a super star mulit-sport athlete to keep their winning record up. That particular black, just about the only one in the whole school, caught me alone one day and violently assulted me. It just about ruined me and is the most disturbing of my memories. A few days ago, a very good friend of mine was attacked by three blacks in a home invasion. He didn’t have any money for them so they choked and beat him mercilessly. He is now permanently blind in his left eye. He told me “I told them I didn’t have any money, but they just kept beating me”. My friend just couldn’t possibly grasp as to why they didn’t stop beating him.
I have said for years that American education does a great job teaching folks who don`t need it. In my racially diverse, culturally diverse Eden, 90 % of kids are forced to swim in a sewer of violence, sexual harrassment, and low expectations.
The title of this article is pretty ridiculous.
With blacks at 14.9% and Latinos at 21%, it is still at least 35.6% minority. This isn’t good enough to live up to “the great promises of racial diversity”??
Too bad the Beacon School does not have a historian among its’ teachers. Decades of research shows that black scores rise until the black population reaches 12-15% of a school’s total enrollment. That is the tipping point. When the percentage rises above 15% the black students’ scores plummet.
blueyedevil, sorry about your friend, but there’s no excuse for being the victim of a home invasion by Blacks. Your friend should never have opened the door to Blacks, and should have had a gun if they broke in. Nobody has any trouble ignoring Jehovah’s Witnesses at the door, why treat unknown Blacks with more courtesy? When strangers come to my door, if I respond at all, I say “Do I know you?” Most door-to-door types will leave, and if they try to talk, I say “I’m busy.” End of story. Even if they were planning some crime, they’re looking for someone more trusting than me.
This is a good reason to get your kids out of public schools NOW! If you are investigating a private school there are websites where you can check out the racial makeup of the school, if it is more than about 5-8% black or Hispanic then look elsewhere. Even if your child is just beginning kindergarten remember that the cute little black kid will grow up to be a bully unless he has great guidance at home which is possible but not likely. Since many private schools are k-12 it is possible that the kids your child starts kindergarten with will be with them until high school. The person who told of the assault is a good example of this- even a kid who is a standout athlete can become violent without provocation. The best thing would be to homeschool your child if at all possible. If you cannot then you should teach them to avoid empty hallways, large groups of black or hispanic students and bathrooms if they can possibly help it. Keeping at least an arm’s length from blacks, especially if they are in a large group is a good idea for anyone, not just school kids. How many stories do you hear where someone was not expecting it and passed a large group of blacks and was sucker punched and eventually beaten?
Many schools established for the “gifted and talented” in black areas are no different in their essentials from a run of the mill ghetto school. The level of violence in such publicly funded academies is so high that the claim that strong discipline is present is laughable.
A friend who taught AP math at one such academy said that the blacks in her class could not add two digit numbers without a calculator. The blacks were so far behind what an average high schooler is expected to know that she spent her time teaching 4th grade level math to the “scholars.” The few non-black kids met with her at lunchtime to learn what they should be learning in the regular AP class. This, of course, was interpreted as favoritism by the black administrators of the school, and she left at the end of the second year.
The choice for white parents is this. Option 1: Do you want your kids to be racially targeted by blacks and browns in a public school? Their identity as whites will be foisted on them every day by blacks and browns. Downside is that they will get a second class formal education and might fall in with black or brown kids and their second class ways. Even then, they will find out the hard way what race they are.
Option 2: you want your kids to be insulated with white and Asian students in a high price private school? You will make an immense financial sacrifice to pay the tuition (money they is lost and cannot go to college education), and your kids will get a higher quality education with less experience of violence. Downside is that they will graduate filled with fluffy liberal ideals about race and maybe even contribute to the destruction of Anglo Saxon civilization in America. If they are successful, they will socialize with the same insulated liberals but at least they will be white.
Not an enviable choice. I don’t blame blacks and browns for fighting for their people to advance in this country. It is their prerogative and duty, in fact. The real problem is destructive liberal whites who are working hard to dismantle our civilization. Most of these liberal whites come from protected all white environments and have no idea what black and brown people are like among their own kind.
Fools rush in where angels fear to tread, and white parents have produced two generations of insulated fools who are destroying our country.
“We are very disturbed by the small—and shrinking—number of black and Latino students at Beacon,”
How about:
“We are very disturbed by the small—and shrinking—number of WHITE students at School ‘X’,”
Funny how we never hear that - because it’s verboten.
A school can have high standards or it can have “diversity”. We have seen time and time again that it can’t have both. (Yes, there are plenty of smart Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans, but they don’t get counted towards the “diversity”. Blacks and Hispanics do.)
“We are very disturbed by the small—and shrinking—number of black and Latino students at Beacon,”
How about:
“We are very disturbed by the small—and shrinking—number of WHITE students at School ‘X’,”
Funny how we never hear that - because it’s verboten.
Posted by Anonymous at 12:45 PM on May 17
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The glass is always half empty with this media people. Put me in as Editor and instead of headlines like “Manhattan Beacon School’s racial hope dims” we had headlines like “Manhattan Beacon School’s white Students exceed expectations!”, we’d toss in a few anecdotes by jubilant white parents about how well their gifted children is doing.
He is now permanently blind in his left eye. He told me “I told them I didn’t have any money, but they just kept beating me”. My friend just couldn’t possibly grasp as to why they didn’t stop beating him.
Sorry for being so blunt to the obvious suffering of your friend,
Usual story.
There are literally dozens of all-black high schools in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles etc. but try to get an all-white high school in one of those cities.
The non-white “students” will be lined up outside the door trying to get in.
Anonymous: The choice for white parents is this. Option 1: Do you want your kids to be racially targeted by blacks and browns in a public school? Their identity as whites will be foisted on them every day by blacks and browns. Downside is that they will get a second class formal education and might fall in with black or brown kids and their second class ways. Even then, they will find out the hard way what race they are.
Option 2: you want your kids to be insulated with white and Asian students in a high price private school? You will make an immense financial sacrifice to pay the tuition (money they is lost and cannot go to college education), and your kids will get a higher quality education with less experience of violence. Downside is that they will graduate filled with fluffy liberal ideals about race and maybe even contribute to the destruction of Anglo Saxon civilization in America. If they are successful, they will socialize with the same insulated liberals but at least they will be white.
Not an enviable choice.
Don’t forget Option 3 — home school your kids.
