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Some city “gifted and talented” students are more equal than others — and that’s OK, a Manhattan judge has ruled.
Outraged parents yesterday said they were planning to send their kids to private school — or even move out of the city — after the ruling that the Department of Education can continue giving preferential treatment to the younger siblings of current “gifted and talented” students when deciding which 4-year-olds get admitted to the hyper-competitive program.
Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Alice Schlesinger tossed a suit by parents of some of the extra smart kids who got edged out by the sibling rule. The suit claimed that the special advantage violates the state Constitution by discriminating against kids “based on lineage” — because they don’t have older brothers or sisters in the program.
“That classification refers to a party’s racial or national background, and not to a child’s status as a sibling,” the judge wrote.
Schlesinger also said there’s a “rational basis” for the policy because it’s intended to make it easier on families by not forcing their kids to attend different schools.
In addition, Schlesinger noted that the law only guarantees “a right to a ‘sound basic education’ and not to a particular type of educational program.”
The admissions process for the gifted-and-talented program requires that kids take two entrance exams that are used to rank them by percentile.
Eligible students with older siblings already in the program get first dibs on seats in five special citywide schools or special classes in district schools, with a lottery determining which of the remaining applicants get in.
“The most popular G&T programs fill with children who score at the 99th percentile before all students scoring in the 99th percentile can be placed,” notes a handbook posted on the DOE Web site.
Furious dad Alexey Kuptsov, an NYU professor who’s a plaintiff in the case, blasted the percentile-ranking method, which the suit sought to replace with straight “composite scoring” of the exams.
Kuptsov said he and his wife are likely to send daughter Sofia, 4, to private school after she was denied a gifted-and-talented seat despite scoring “the absolute maximum.”
Another piqued pop, lawyer Michael Krigsfeld, of Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, called Schlesinger’s decision “absurd.”
“Our goal now is to leave New York. My kid’s education is first and foremost and I’d have to commute to get to work but he’d get a good education,” said Krigsfeld, whose son Aiden, 5, scored in the 99th percentile but didn’t get into the program.
Lawyer Stewart Lee Karlin vowed to appeal.
DOE spokeswoman Devon Puglia said, “Our gifted-and-talented policies are balanced, allowing fairness and equality of opportunity for families. The decision recognizes that.”