Metro

Eric Adams: Expand opportunities for gifted learners, not cut them

Democratic mayoral nominee Eric Adams distanced himself Tuesday from Mayor Bill de Blasio’s controversial decision to scrap schools’ Gifted and Talented program — saying he wants to actually increase opportunities for accelerated learners while also helping other students. 

“I don’t believe what [the mayor] did speaks for me,” Adams told reporters after a campaign event in Brooklyn.

“We need to expand opportunities for accelerated learners, but at the same time, we must expand opportunities for those children that learn differently,” Adams said, citing kids with learning disabilities such as dyslexia. 

Adams said he’d talk to parents, teachers and advocates to come up with his own plan — but stressed that it would be all about “expansion” for the city’s brightest students. 

“We had too many districts where you did not have a Gifted and Talented program,” he said, citing the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood where he lives. 

Democratic mayoral candidate Eric Adams said, “We expand opportunities for accelerated learners” and “expand opportunities for those children that learn differently.” Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

“The system — as it stands now, without improvement — was segregated. We did not give opportunities to black and brown students, to immigrant students,” Adams said.  

Adams, a former NYPD captain, is the heavy favorite in the general election Nov. 2, when he faces Guardian Angels founder and former radio-show host Sliwa, who said Saturday that he would not only reverse de Blasio’s proposal but expand admissions into the Gifted and Talented program.

The current Gifted and Talented program for public elementary schools in the five boroughs was instituted under Mayor Michael Bloomberg. It offers accelerated classes and a specialized advanced curriculum for students who qualify through a test taken at 4 years old.

The students remain in the program — based on that early test — through eighth grade, either in separate classrooms or entire  schools.

While popular with families with children enrolled in the program, it has come under criticism from those who claim it promotes segregation and disproportionately serves well-off, white and Asian kindergarten students.

Under de Blasio’s plan, current G&T students can stay in their separate schools and classrooms till they finish eighth grade. But there will be no new additions.

The mayor says the current program will be replaced by something called Brilliant NYC, which will offer kids ages 8 and older the chance at advanced learning while they stay in their regular classrooms with other students. Teachers will select the kids for the program.

The new program is being rolled out in December, during the second-term mayor’s last month in office.

Mayor Bill de Blasio scrapped the program in the final months of his term, saying he did it in a move to make New York schooling more equal. Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images
Eric Adams said the Gifted and Talented program, “as it stands now, without improvement — was segregated.” Sarah Silbiger/UPI/Bloomberg via Getty Images

On Friday, New York City parents blasted de Blasio’s “extremely disappointing” and “abominable” plan to get rid of the Gifted and Talented program.

“It is abominable that de Blasio is, in his final months in office, dismantling one of the few successful education programs in New York City, adversely impacting a swath of children,” fumed an Upper West Side mother.