
Prominent liberal foundations and Obama administration alums have formed Brown’s Promise to push for legislation that will make public schools more welcoming to students of all backgrounds.
Brown’s Promise was established in July by the Southern Education Foundation. Its primary goal is to increase racial diversity in public schools via litigation and research. Prominent left-wing charitable organizations such as the New Venture Fund, Gates Foundation, Ford Foundation, and Tides Foundation have recently given the group hundreds of millions of dollars. Brown’s Promise intends to support racial integration cases to further “racial balance” in Minnesota’s and New Jersey’s public schools.
The eight specialized high schools in the city are run by the Brooklyn Democratic Party and New York State assemblywoman Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn, who criticized them in an op-ed piece in the Daily News. Admission to these schools is based on a single standardized test, and the student bodies are disproportionately Asian. Public specialized high schools in New York City are supposedly highly sought after because they provide a stepping stone to equality, but in actuality, they are severely divided because of the Specialized High School Admissions Test (SHSAT).
Stuyvesant had 72 percent Asian American students, Bronx High School of Science had 63 percent, and Brooklyn Tech had 60 percent Asian American students during the 2021-22 school year. Findings from prior years reveal a consistent pattern. The assemblywoman advocated a paradigm shift to eliminate high school segregation, including scrapping the present exam and revising New York City’s legislation.
On the other hand, her idea was seen by many in Gotham’s Asian American community as implicitly anti-Asian. Several local Chinese publications featured the assemblywoman’s picture and remarks about the elite schools on their top pages the day after the Daily News op-ed. Yiatin Chu, who started the Asian Wave Alliance political group in New York City, said on Twitter that by attacking admittance to NYC Specialized High Schools due to the demise of AA, AM Bichotte revives anti-Asian prejudice.
Several state representatives have issued comments endorsing the SHSAT and other specialized high schools, which their Asian constituents see as stepping stones to better opportunities for their children.