Three city lawmakers introduced a package of legislation that they say will ensure the New York City public school system, among the most segregated in the country, increases diversity.  

The package includes a bill sponsored by Councilman Brad Lander that mandates the city’s Department of Education publish annual reports about its efforts and progress made to diversify public, charter and specialized high schools. The reports will also provide demographic data by school, by district and citywide.

“New York City’s diversity is our greatest strength,” Lander said at a press conference last week. “But unfortunately, that is not reflected in our public school system. It is a shameful fact, so that is why we’re here to do something about it.”

The other two measures are resolutions. One, sponsored by Councilman Ritchie Torres, calls on the DOE to officially recognize the importance of diversity when making decisions about admissions. The freshman lawmaker said the city prides itself on diversity and progressive values, but he asked, “How can we have the most segregated schools in the country?

“That is a profound moral contradiction,” said Torres. “We have lost our sense of diversity as a genuine public good that benefits all of us. We have to start wrestling about it and acknowledging that it’s a problem. This legislative package is the beginning of that acknowledgement.”

The other resolution, sponsored by Councilwoman Inez Barron, a former public school teacher, supports a proposed state law that urges specialized high schools Stuyvesant, Bronx Science and Brooklyn Tech to use multiple measures for admissions instead of giving students a single standardized test. She argues that the current enrollment policy significantly affects Black and Latino students, especially those in poor neighborhoods with schools that have limited resources.

“There should not be one test given on one day which determines whether or not students are admitted to these specialized elite high schools,” said Barron. “Other elite schools do not depend on one standardized test for admission to their programs. Multiple measures can be used. And historically, the tests are not culturally appropriate and reflective of the students that are being tested.”

The resolution and the proposed state law recommends that specialized schools use measures such as grades from tests that are given throughout the year, teacher recommendations and attendance. Barron’s resolution has been supported by Mayor Bill de Blasio and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and Latino Justice. In 2012, the NAACP filed a complaint challenging the admissions practice.  

According to Barron, only 12 percent of students enrolled this year in specialized schools were Black and Latino. She said this is a result of the former administrations, which failed to provide schools in poor districts with the proper resources students need.

Barron remain positive that the council will support her resolution. She has yet to hear from Sheldon Silver, speaker of the New York Assembly, who controls the legislative process in the Assembly.

The United Federation of Teachers, a union that represents city public school teachers, announced their support at the press conference last week. The president of the union, Michael Mulgrew, said diversity should be a top priority in the public school system and “should be embraced.”

“I am here in full support, and I say thank you for taking these first steps to say to the children of New York City. All the work you do can now be valued if we, the adults, get the policies right,” said Mulgrew.

The move to ensure that public, charter and specialized high schools reflect the diversity of the city came after a University of California Civil Rights Projects report concluded that New York City has one the country’s most segregated public school systems. The report, published in March, said that of the 32 school districts, 19 had 10 percent or less white students in 2010. It calls the 73 charter schools in the city “apartheid schools” because three out of four of them have less than 1 percent white students. Ninety percent were intensely segregated, the report said. 

DOE spokeswoman Devora Kaye said in a statement last week that the city recognizes “the critical value” of a diversity in public schools.

“We are exploring additional ways to reflect this diversity in every ZIP code and look forward to reviewing the package of legislation,” she said.

Lander said the council’s Committee on Education will hold a public hearing on the proposed measures next month.