Gifted, Talented and Zohran Mamdani
His call to slow down accelerated learning is an opening for Andrew Cuomo.
Zohran Mamdani said late last week he wants to end the gifted and talented program for kindergartners in New York’s public schools. News reports say he’d allow this accelerated instruction only beginning in grade 3, with a campaign spokesman arguing 5-year-olds shouldn’t be “subjected” to a policy that “unfairly separates them right at the beginning of their public school education.”
Socialism in a nutshell: A persistent fear that somebody, somewhere, might be getting ahead and ought to be yanked back. Is this the political opening Andrew Cuomo has been waiting for? “That program is the one program that allows extraordinary students to actually excel,” Mr. Cuomo said in response. “You take away gifted and talented,” he added, “the one possibility that your child might get a really first-class education in public schools goes with it.”
Former Mayor Bill de Blasio also wanted to phase out the city’s current accelerated offering, though his successor, Mayor Eric Adams, had a different view. “The Gifted & Talented program gave thousands of Black and Brown kids a real shot to excel,” Mr. Adams wrote on social media last week. “That’s progress we should be building on, not tearing down.”
Parents whose children are currently in the program—and those hoping to join soon—presumably agree. Perhaps Mr. Cuomo can rally them, while raising the question of what else Mr. Mamdani has planned for New York schools.
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