Posted on 06/25/2007 7:27:12 AM PDT by Maceman
June 25, 2007 -- A Brooklyn mother and father got the shock of their lives when school officials informed them their brilliant 11-year-old girl was denied admission to an elite public school - solely because she's of Indian descent. "I feel bad because I would have gotten in if I was white," Nikita Rau lamented over her failed bid to attend the Mark Twain School, IS 239, in Coney Island, a magnet school for gifted students.
It turns out Mark Twain - unlike all but one other city public school - admits students according to racial quotas established in 1974 by a federal judge who ordered the school's desegregation.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
nuff sed!
So are they saying they don’t have enough “white kids” enrolled?
So....if?
If she claimed to be white, as those light tan people who claim to be black, instead of a minority she would have gotten in?
Why can’t we all just be people?
They probably have a “national origin” system for classifying them. IIRC, NY had about 30 different categories (Samoan, Indian, Hispanic white, non-Hispanic white, etc.).
As usual, groups that do well are restricted. Asians are limited in the University of California system, for example.
Seems highly unfair and even unconstitutional to me, but that’s American law-by-judiciary for you.
I feel for the family but now people can at least see how qualified white kids get screwed over in favor of less qualified minorities in other instances. The ironic issue here is that whites now are getting the benefits of the curve.
These quotas are insane. They should all go.
“The ironic issue here is that whites now are getting the benefits of the curve.”
I’m sure that will be recognized and “fixed” quickly.
All my great-grandparents spoke English as a second language.
“The Raus’ lawyer, Rosemarie Arnold, last week wrote school officials, urging them to reconsider their rejection of Nikita, calling Mark Twain’s quota system “antiquated,” and saying, “The unconstitutional rejection of my client constitutes discrimination.”
Discrimination? Of course it is! Affirmative action programs and quotas have always discriminated, by definition.
ACLU, call your office........
It was probably set up that way because the neighborhood or at any rate the area from which the magnet school drew its kids was mostly white in 1974, and the court wanted to make sure there weren’t “too many” whites. That has no doubt changed in the 30+ years since the court decision and it’s probably getting hard to come up with the “quota” of whites.
Every time I read about this racial and ethnic tinkering, it makes me mad. It’s completely wrong and does no good at all for the kids.
NYC is a minority-majority town. As a whole, whites make up 44% of the population. In Brooklyn, whites comprise just over 41%. This according to the 2000 census as reported by Wikipedia.
How sad that we have to restrict the groups that do well. How embarrasing to be from a group that might have gotten in only because someone else got held back and kept out.
The girl is Indian - isn’t that considered “white”?
1974, brought to you by Judge Arthur Garrity. Destroying America’s youth, one generation at a time.
ping
Translation: "...because we don't want to fork over our own money for private school tuition. If she can't get into the public school's gifted program, tough luck for her!"
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There shouldn't be government-run schools. If all education were sold on the free market, there would be more options available to everyone.
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