Education experts warn Mamdani plan could gut NYC gifted programs, hurt low-income students

Socialist New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has outlined plans to scale back the city's Gifted and Talented program, prompting some education experts to warn that doing so could deprive high-achieving students, particularly those from low-income families, of critical academic opportunities.

Recent media reports indicate that Mamdani, who took office in January, intends to end the city's Gifted and Talented program for kindergarten students and delay entry until third grade, a move critics argue would amount to a major weakening of accelerated learning options in the nation's largest school district.

The plan is drawing sharp criticism from Defending Education, a national education watchdog group that previously fought, and won, a years-long legal battle to preserve New York's gifted programs after it was argued that the admissions system had discriminatory effects and reinforced racial inequities in education. 

"The Court of Appeals rightly concluded that the role of the judiciary is not to make education policy," Sarah Parshall Perry, vice president and legal fellow at Defending Education, told Fox News Digital, adding that the program complied with state education law and equal protection requirements.

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But Perry warned that Mamdani's policy agenda could undo what the courts upheld.

"As we suspected he might, newly minted democratic socialist mayor Zohran Mamdani - himself, a product of expensive private schools - has pledged to shut down the gifted and talented program, despite the fact that it has helped countless students from humble backgrounds achieve their full academic potential," Perry told Fox News Digital. 

"Depriving kids of much-needed advanced learning opportunities is not only foolhardy, but it's also the height of hypocrisy coming from someone who was born into affluence and attended costly private schools. Apparently, Mamdani believes only the privileged should have access to various educational opportunities."

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Mamdani has argued that early gifted testing contributes to inequities in the school system, though critics counter that dismantling selective programs does little to improve outcomes for struggling students while actively harming high performers.

Paul Runko, senior director of strategic initiatives for K-12 programs at Defending Education, echoed Perry's concerns, emphasizing the impact such changes could have on working-class families.

"On behalf of parents who simply want the best possible education for their children, Defending Education spent years in court fighting to preserve New York City's gifted and talented programs against efforts to use the courts to inject race into every aspect of the school system," Runko said.

"Those efforts may succeed if Mayor Zohran Mamdani moves forward with eliminating these accelerated learning opportunities," he warned. "Students, particularly those from lower-income families who benefit from NYC's gifted and talented programs, deserve opportunities for academic excellence, not a one-size-fits-all approach that could weaken learning for all students."

Mamdani's office pushed back on Defending Education's characterization, telling Fox News Digital that the administration opposes testing five-year-olds for gifted and talented programs but is not eliminating advanced learning opportunities across all grade levels. 

Mamdani's office said the focus is instead on reshaping the public school system to provide "rigorous" instruction for all students, rather than separating children at an early age.

Mamdani faced heated criticism from his opponents in the mayoral race regarding his plans to change the program, as well as from the Washington Post editorial board in October.

"Who could have guessed that Zohran Mamdani (D), the leading candidate to become the next New York mayor, would provoke a firestorm by announcing this week that he intends to phase out the city's early elementary school programs for gifted students in the name of equity? Parents of bright children want access to schooling that meets their needs?" The Post wrote. "Shocking."