State to fund school diversity initiative

Attention low-performing NYC schools: you could be the city’s next magnet schools. 

At the end of December, the state Education Department announced an initiative to boost socioeconomic diversity, along with achievement, at its “priority and focus schools” by providing eight city schools $1.25 million each to implement programs that will attract students from higher-income families. 

Funding dual language programs, arts programs or programs focused on specialized subjects like computer science and coding could “magnetize” schools by enticing higher income students interested in programs at the “magnet” schools not offered by their local schools.

The city has until Friday, Feb. 13 to select schools to apply for the grant. By September, some of selected schools may already start to benefit from grant-funded programs.

“These grants represent a great opportunity for our priority and focus schools,” said city Department of Education spokesman Harry Hartfield. “We look forward to applying and working with the state to promote socioeconomic integration and improve academic achievement in our schools.” 

Grants were available only to school districts in New York State with at least ten schools in the district and with a poverty rate of at least 60 percent. 

For educators and parents in the northwest Bronx, the state’s initiative opens up possibilities for many schools in the city struggling with performance, along with issues of diversity and segregation. 

A report released by UCLA’s Civil Rights Project in March found that New York City schools were the most segregated in the nation by race. These segregated schools, the authors found, also divided socioeconomically by extension, provided fewer educational opportunities for their students.

Lehman College School of Education Dean Harriet Fayne said she was enthused about the state’s initiative.