SHSAT Sunset

Tag: follow the money

  • Big Money Enters Debate Over Race and Admissions at Stuyvesant

    Follow the money they typically say.

    Ronald S. Lauder, the billionaire cosmetics heir, and Richard D. Parsons, the former chairman of Citigroup, have for decades had their hands in New York City affairs. Mr. Lauder ran a failed bid for mayor and successfully led a campaign for term limits for local elected officials. Mr. Parsons has been a prominent adviser to two mayors.


    Now, they are teaming up to try to influence one of the city’s most intractable and divisive debates: how to address the lack of black and Hispanic students at Stuyvesant High School, Bronx High School of Science and the other elite public high schools that use a test to determine admission.


    Mr. Lauder this week announced that he was financing a multimillion-dollar lobbying, public relations and advertising effort called the Education Equity Campaign, whose immediate goal is to ensure that Mayor Bill de Blasio’s plan to eliminate the entrance exam does not pass the State Legislature, people involved in the effort said.

    […]

    Tusk Strategies, a political strategy firm with close ties to Mr. Bloomberg, said it was orchestrating the effort for a fee of between $50,000 and $150,000 a month.


    Also on the payroll are Albany lobbying firms, including Patrick B. Jenkins & Associates and Bolton St.-Johns, known for their connections to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s administration and the State Legislature, respectively.


    The group’s board of advisers, who are also being compensated, includes education experts who have supported Mr. Bloomberg’s accountability-driven brand of education reform.


    The public face of the campaign, the Rev. Kirsten John Foy, whose civil rights organization is receiving a contribution for its involvement, is a prominent minister and a Sharpton ally. The campaign is planning to spend at least $1 million on advertisements alone. Neither the website nor the ads bear any mention of Mr. Lauder or Mr. Parsons.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/27/nyregion/specialized-high-schools-lobbying.html

  • Billionaire joins push to stop de Blasio’s high school admissions test plan

    Powerful specialized high school alumni have now promised to put MILLIONS into lobbying against replacing the embattled 114 multiple-choice exam as the sole admissions criteria for these schools.

    Cosmetics tycoon Ron Lauder is bankrolling a multimillion-dollar effort to stop Mayor Bill de Blasio from eliminating the admissions test to the city’s top high schools, sources told The Post on Monday.


    The billionaire Clinique chairman — a 1961 graduate of the Bronx High School of Science— is prepared to spend at least “seven figures” of his personal fortune on TV commercials and other efforts to block de Blasio’s controversial proposal, sources said.


    The campaign will target Albany lawmakers, whom the mayor needs to amend a 1971 state law that created the Specialized High School Admission Test — and may even include attack ads against de Blasio, one source said.


    In an email sent to his friends Monday morning — and obtained by The Post — Lauder said he was “joining a new effort called the Education Equity Campaign to achieve the goal of creating new Specialized High Schools” and “will be helping this campaign however I can.”

    https://nypost.com/2019/04/22/billionaire-joins-push-to-stop-de-blasios-high-school-admissions-test-plan/

    These millions are on top of the hundreds of thousands alumni already report in lobbying.

  • High-Stakes Standardized Testing Supporter: Eric Adams

    Brooklyn Eric Adams
    Brooklyn President Eric Adams in a “Keep the SHSAT” test t-shirt

    Name: Eric Adams
    Ballotpedia: https://ballotpedia.org/Eric_Adams_(New_York)
    Phone: 718-802-3700

    Brooklyn President Eric Adams now advocates for keeping the SHSAT exam as the sole admission’s criteria in New York City specialized high schools.

    Mr. Eric Adams is running for mayor in 2021 and is currently funding raising for this purpose.

    At first, Mr. Adams was AGAINST the SHSAT high-stakes test for many years. And he participated in the NYC mayor’s SHSAT reform press launch.

    Media:

    Eric Adams at the Mayor’s SHSAT launch

    Media: https://www.cityandstateny.com/articles/opinion/commentary/eric-adams-has-faced-less-scrutiny-he-deserves.html

    Also, consider Adams’ about-face regarding the Specialized High School Admissions Test, or SHSAT. In June 2017, Adams and Bronx Borough President Rubén Díaz Jr. announced that their task force on gifted and talented education recommended that “a single test not be the only source of admission” to the city’s coveted high schools because it had resulted in very low percentages of blacks and Latinos at the schools.


    In June, Adams similarly backed de Blasio’s push for changes, saying, “We must replace the admissions model that has SHSAT scores as its sole admissions criterion.”


    Two weeks later, though, the New York Post reported that Adams had changed his position “after Chinese-American donors pulled out of upcoming fundraisers.” Though Adams denied that, writing in a New York Amsterdam News op-ed that “the voices of concerned parents and educators … have moved me, not financial considerations as baseless tabloid rumors suggested.” His reversal smacked of politics, not principle.


    “Eric Adams has faced less scrutiny than he deserves” CityAndState
    Eric Adams being protested by Pro-High-Stakes Testing activists after declaring his support for the Mayor’s reform proposal, but before his public reversal ( PTA President and Plaintiff in McAuliffe Discovery lawsuit against NYC seats in the front row )

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/parents-at-sunset-park-meeting-call-for-keeping-high-school-admission-test-1528331822

    The media continued with reports on “changes” to Mr. Adam’s fundraising efforts…

    Media: https://nypost.com/2018/06/18/brooklyn-president-turns-on-school-testing-plan-after-donor-backlash/

    Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams quietly reversed his support for eliminating the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test after Chinese-American donors pulled out of upcoming fundraisers, The Post has learned.


    Two sources told The Post that a June 21 fundraiser planned with Chinese hotel workers in Manhattan was canceled, while other donors from the Chinese community had begun backing out of a separate event.
    Adams has been fundraising hard this year for an expected mayoral run in 2021.


    “Nothing [moves] faster than when it hits your wallet,” a leader in the Brooklyn Chinese community said of Adams’ change of heart.
    The Brooklyn BP was among the first public officials to back Mayor Bill de Blasio’s bid to eliminate the entrance exams, which for years have yielded relatively few black and Hispanic students at the city’s top eight public high schools.

    “Brooklyn president turns on school testing plan after donor backlash” NyPost

    It’s very disappointing to see this about-face happen even as the evidence clearly shows NY state should not use a single 114 multiple-choice test as the SOLE measure of a child’s academic ability.

    I can only hope that NYC voters will reject Mr. Adams and his disappointing position on education equity.