On the eve of Juneteenth, leaders of New York City’s public education system pushed back against questioning by the City Council over stalled efforts to address school segregation.
Currently, roughly 1 in 5 schools enroll students among whom 75% or more are of a single race or ethnicity, according to data shared at a committee hearing on Wednesday. The Adams administration has yet to make meaningful progress on recent plans to integrate the schools, sparking concern among some councilmembers.
“In 1954, the Supreme Court issued its unanimous decision in Brown v. Board of Education, declaring that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. More than 70 years later, the intent of Brown remains unmet, especially here in New York City,” said Councilwoman Rita Joseph (D-Brooklyn), chair of the education committee.
While acknowledging there is more work to be done, both schools chancellors under Mayor Adams — Melissa Aviles-Ramos and her predecessor David Banks — have largely resisted calls from progressives to implement large-scale integration policies. Instead, the administration has opted for district- and school-driven efforts and opening new programs in historically overlooked neighborhoods.
“School integration is often portrayed in the media in Black and white terms — literally,” Aviles-Ramos told the Council. “But that one-dimensional portrayal simply doesn’t reflect the demographics of our city in 2025. And with it comes an inaccurate and dangerous implication that if we just put students of color in desks next to white students, then achievement will automatically rise. I reject that premise entirely.”
Joseph pressed the chancellor and her deputies on school integration goals under former Mayor Bill de Blasio, such as boosting enrollment at schools with racial makeups that match the city, or reducing economically stratified schools by 10%. The officials conceded they had met neither target, but suggested the goalposts may have changed.
“There’s a lot of different ways to define diversity. I think the traditional way has been: Are Black and Hispanic students going to school with white students?” said First Deputy Chancellor Dan Weisberg. “We have to lean on all the different types of diversity.”
Since taking office in 2022, the Adams administration has increased the number of Gifted & Talented programs in elementary schools and reinstated selective admissions policies in middle schools.
“The largest concern is that there has been zero, seemingly zero, effort to do anything in six years related to the goals that Chair Joseph outlined,” said Matt Gonzales, a former member of de Blasio’s School Diversity Advisory Group and co-author of a recent report on the lack of progress.
“In fact, there have been policies that have been reinstated … that have perpetuated and that have re-segregated the system,” he continued. “The idea that the administration wants to do nothing — that’s a choice. But they have actually done something to make the problem worse.”
