Tensions rise during town hall in Sunset over controversial SHSAT plan
Tensions were high in Sunset Park as New York City Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza attended a District 15 town hall meeting inside a packed auditorium of parents and students at P.S. 24, 427 38th Street, on Wednesday, June 13.
Although Carranza answered an hour’s worth of questions, the topic of the evening was the controversial proposal to drop the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test. The plan has been designed by Mayor Bill de Blasio in an attempt to increase enrollment of low income and disadvantaged students in the eight specialized high schools as only 10 percent of students at them are Black or Latino, though they make up nearly 70 percent of the student body citywide.
Dozens of parents, a large number of them Asian-Americans, held up signs as soon as Carranza took the stage to show their displeasure with the proposal. Many of them had to exit the auditorium due to full capacity.