EDUCATION COUNCIL CONSORTIUM DENOUNCES NYC SCHOOLS CHANCELLOR BANKS’ COMMENT

At a meeting of business leaders, David Banks, the Chancellor of the nation’s largest public school system, spoke about the admissions policies to middle and high schools.  He justified the discriminatory practice of screening 13-year-old children by saying children who “work really hard” should be given access to high schools over students “you have to throw water on their face to get them to go to school every day”  The Chancellor also said: “It’s critically important that if you’re working hard and making good grades, you should not be thrown into a lottery with just everybody.” 

His comment dehumanizes children and shifts the blame for the school system’s failure on children  instead of the adults in charge. The comment perpetuates the myths of meritocracy and deficit narratives thrust upon Black and Latinx children, students living in poverty, students with disabilities, English Language Learners, and students in temporary housing. The Chancellor justified the maintenance of a two-tiered, segregated public school system in a public event after already making disparaging remarks against our disability community. Last month, the Chancellor stated families with students with disabilities were “gaming the system” by using the special education process to provide their children with support and services.  This is unacceptable for a Chancellor who is responsible for educating all of his one million students.

We call upon the Chancellor to examine his biases and assumptions about the majority of the students in the system under his care.  Some children don't have the luxury of having their own bed or getting a good night's sleep, and others may be dealing with the effects of trauma at school or home.  Some schools are so unable to provide additional educational resources to support a child who needs it, the child has tapped out. Instead of devaluing a child who may require extreme measures to go to school, he should be asking why a child hesitates or refuses to go to school in the first place. Instead of defining hard work in the narrowest sense, he should open his eyes to the hard work of our children who remain in a school system that does not prioritize their needs or worse, criminalizes them. We call upon him to find compassion, and provide the same educational opportunities for students who, for a variety of reasons beyond their control, may find that 98 average just out of reach.