On Saturday, New York City councilmember Lincoln Restler took to X to attack the latest admissions figures for Stuyvesant High School. As in most years, black admissions to Stuyvesant, the most selective of New York City’s specialized high schools, were low—three among roughly 800 incoming freshmen. In response, Restler called to change the single-test admissions process in use since 1971: “A single test should never be the only factor deciding who gets in and who doesn’t.”
When most of city schools are underperforming, some legislators prefer deflection. Rather than address the far greater problem—the vast majority of schools failing to educate their predominantly black and Hispanic students—Restler went after the admissions process for eight high-performing specialized high schools accounting for only 1.5 percent–2 percent of city students. His complaint was familiar: when identity groups don’t see their participation rates mirroring their population percentages, there’s a problem—regardless of the relevant task or qualifications.
Finally, a reason to check your email.
Sign up for our free newsletter today.
His solution was familiar, too: if you don’t like the weight, blame the scale. The Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT), though, is one of New York’s best instruments—an objective, competitive exam open to every eighth-grader. For generations, it has identified talent without regard to race, wealth, or connections, producing Nobel laureates and major prize winners and leaders in every field. The city should be reinforcing its commitment to the SHSAT and the specialized high schools, not trying to drown them in more equity mandates.
Introducing additional criteria—like class grades, extracurricular activities, or interviews—to the specialized high school admissions process would inject subjectivity and bias and favor those with economic privileges. Polished interviews, hired essay coaches, and attractive extracurriculars often reflect parents’ wealth more than students’ academic merit.
Of course, there’s nothing wrong with wealth and success of the sort that helped Restler rise to his position. Restler’s father founded a private equity fund that invested $1.6 billion; his mother was a managing director at JP Morgan. He attended Packer Collegiate Institute, an elite private school, where tuition and fees now exceed $65,000 per year.
The specialized public high schools—Stuyvesant, Bronx Science, Brooklyn Tech, and five others—offer comparable rigor for free to any student who earns admission through merit. Shouldn’t Restler defend, not undermine, the merit-based ladder of opportunity these schools offer students lacking his advantages?
Abandoning the SHSAT as sole criterion would not uplift struggling students. But it would erode the excellence that defines the specialized high schools. The data tell a consistent story. Year after year, the SHSAT rewards ability, preparation, and commitment.
It does so without regard to race or class. In recent decades, Asian-American students, often from poor immigrant families—Asians are poorer than blacks in the city—earned the most offers. Decades before, Jewish students led at Stuyvesant and Bronx Science. Black and Hispanic students were the majority of Brooklyn Technical High School in the 1970s to 1990s.
Previous attempts to bypass the test, such as expansions of the Discovery Program, have produced predictable failure. The specialized high schools struggled with diluted academics, mismatched placements, resentment among families who played by the rules, and even legal challenges.
Lowering standards at the high school level papers over earlier failures while punishing students ready for advanced work. Past attacks on the city’s Gifted and Talented programs, for example, have deprived some students of preparation for the rigors of the SHSAT and specialized high schools.
New York City’s students would be far better served by improved elementary instruction, expanded high-quality charters, honest grading, and an unapologetic culture of excellence. The city should grow, not gut, the specialized high schools, adding more seats to meet ever-rising demand. And it should not only protect the SHSAT but also create more schools that use it.
New York thrived when it bet on talent and effort. It will falter if it trades that inheritance for engineered identity outcomes. Rather than discard merit for “equity,” Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels, and other New York City leaders need to pursue a strategy of abundance, rigor, merit—and accountability.