There is a massive crowd here at the District 2 CEC meeting, where the DOE will present its proposal on admissions to specialized high schools. 
Attendance: well over 300. A couple folks said this is going to get heated — and they used that as the polite term.
As we get into this part of the proposal — the phase-out — parents are starting to speak up and a couple booing in the crowd. Asked to reserve questions until the end.
We should pause for a moment so you can read up on exactly what this is all about: chalkbeat.org/posts/ny/2018/…
Here we go: first speaker says this presentation is "fake news." Says the schools are already incredibly diverse and the mayor/chancellor are trying to implement a racial quota system.
Speaker ~7 or so, Jon Haidt, a parent and NYU professor, described the plan as one with good intentions that will backfire. "Put yourself in the place of the black and Hispanic kids," he says, who will gain admission "because of counting methods."
Another NYU professor, Alan Siegel: "You people are proposing a grand experiment on our children."
Deputy Chancellor Josh Wallack says, "We all share the same goals, and no one, of course, is trying to create a plan that will set students up to fail." A parent shouts right after he finishes, "Everyone takes the test fairly!"
A parent who is speaking just asked this 300+ person crowd to raise their hands if they oppose this plan; saw majority of hands go up. He asked for people to raise hands if they support it; didn't see a single hand (@lesliebrody may have). Crowd started laughing and cheering.
Parents yelled "everyone takes the test. That’s how you figure it out! liar! and "liar!" as Wallack tried to respond to some of the parent outrage.
Important to note that not every parent here is saying the specialized high schools are "incredibly diverse." But the ones who are have not really acknowledged this: 10% specialized HS students are black or Hispanic, compared to almost 70 percent of all students citywide.
Parents asking Wallack to address their concern that this will create a "snake pit" in middle schools — basically, making them almost viciously competitive. Wallack didn't directly answer that, but said there will be many issues the city will iron out as they roll it out.
Wallack again said they're all sharing the same goals, which parents just straight-up booed en masse. Also says, "A great many incredible high school options across NYC aside from the eight specialized high schools."
The CEC has been debating this proposal for a while now. Vice President Maud Maron has proposed a resolution that, in part, would ask the DOE to pull its support of the plan and allow more community engagement. The resolution is pretty critical of the mayor's plan.
Support for this is a bit split. Member Eric Goldberg got a lot of boos when he spoke against it. Goldberg said the statements were “insane obsessions with selection and assessment," and he didn’t want to vote for something that “denies...we have a segregated school system.”
Here’s an extremely passionate parent who took on what can only be described as the hype-man rap stance.
Here’s our final story tonight about this eventful — at times raucous — meeting over the city’s proposal to eliminate the specialized high schools admissions test: chalkbeat.org/posts/ny/2018/…
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