At a time when 50% of NYC public school parents report their kids have had to _miss meals_, @QueensChronicle gives precious editorial space to parents who insist that 15,000 48-month-olds must sit for the “gifted” test. Pandemic what pandemic? 1/ https://www.qchron.com/opinion/columns/preserve-and-expand-nyc-s-successful-g-t-programs/article_fb58e34c-5227-5070-9101-c3fa2d8819f9.html

These 48-month-old children don’t know how to fill in bubbles on a test form legibly, so they sit well within 6 feet of a proctor/teacher, who dutifully fills in their answers. What could possibly go wrong!

But wait, the editorial is about to get way worse 2/

We should expose kids and teachers to risk for this because G&T parents want their child to learn from kids of different backgrounds, is the claim 3/

The K-5 student population in Queens County is 16.0% Black, 38.7% Latino, 6.1% homeless, 18.3 SWDs, 18.7% ELLs, and 71.3% poor

The K-5 student population of Queens “G&T” programs is 5.8% Black, 9.3% Latino, 0.3% homeless, 0.9% SWDs, 1.1% ELLs, and 39.6% poor 4/

9 out of 31 Queens K-5 G&T programs have a suppressible—0 to 5 children—number of Latino students.

**22 out of 31 programs have 0 to 5 Black students 5/

If a Queens parent cares one whit for diversity in their child’s classroom, “G&T” should be their very last choice. To imply these programs are diverse rather than extremely stratifying is the height of dishonesty, and another fact-checking failure from the op-ed pages /end