A New York appellate court has ruled in a 5-2 decision that racial balancing in NYC's K-12 talented and gifted programs has no constitutional authority, reports Washington Examiner.
Paul Runko is the senior director of strategic initiatives, K-12 programs, at Defending Education. He explains what the ruling does.
"Basically, that means that they want students to be admitted based on merit and not on race," Runko tells AFN.
The case, IntegrateNYC v. City of New York, began in 2021 when Defending Education, on behalf of parents and students, intervened in a lawsuit in New York City.
"This group, IntegrateNYC, sued the City of New York to say that, because there was a lower amount of a certain race of students, it was a racist program and that the gifted and talented program needed to admit more students of a particular race for racial balancing," says Runko.
Luckily, Defending Education’s press release says that the court of appeals ruled that no state or federal law permits the judiciary the role to make education policy.
"We intervened on behalf of the City of New York and some other New York government officials to keep the program and the New York Appellate Court agreed with us, saying that these programs don't need to be radically balanced and that they're based on merit and should stay based on merit," states Runko.
At a time when he said "activists are pushing to inject race into every corner of education," Runko adds that parents and other states should take note.
"The New York court rightly reminded everyone that education policy decisions belong to lawmakers, parents, and teachers, not judges or education bureaucrats," says Runko. "So, this is a huge victory and parents should celebrate it."
