“There should be no discriminatory admissions policies, period,” Wiley, the mayor’s former in-house counsel and a civil-rights activist, stated.
Though as a mother, Wiley took advantage of particular programs.
Now running for mayor, Wiley sent her oldest daughter to Mark Twain Intermediate School for the Gifted and Talented in Brooklyn, a coveted middle school that cherry-picks high-performing students. It’s additionally one of the city’s most racially disproportionate — with 51 percent white kids.
The teen then went to Humanities Preparatory Academy in Manhattan, a public high school with 83 percent Hispanic and black students, though one that selected incoming 9th-graders for good grades in core subjects, among other measures.
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Wiley’s younger daughter spent grades 6 to 12 at Brooklyn Friends, a private school that currently charges $51,000 a year in tuition. Wiley and her husband Harlan Mandel, CEO of Media Development Investment Fund, are likewise contributors to the school.
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It took weeks of calls and reminders for Wiley’s spokesman to eventually disclose her personal educational choices. At a Jan. 26 candidates’ forum sponsored by the city principals’ union, Wiley called herself "a parent who spent a total of 15 years” in the city school system, without revealing the schools she picked for her daughters.
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Her spokesman later announced one daughter spent 10 years in NYC public schools, and the other five years.
Specialists are not shocked. “When options are available, parents will take advantage of their privileges,” remarked David Bloomfield, a Brooklyn College, and CUNY Grad Center education professor. “But those privileges are the problem, and should be eliminated.”
Mayor de Blasio’s two kids attended selective Brooklyn middle schools. His son went on to Brooklyn Tech, a specialized high school, and his daughter to choose Beacon HS in Manhattan. Though Hizzoner has long attempted to dismantle the specialized high school entry exam.
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Other mayoral candidates have put their own kids in praised public programs or pricey private schools.
NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer has made it obvious his two children, ages 7 and 9, are thriving in a city Gifted & Talented program in Manhattan.
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“As a parent, it’s my job to figure out what’s best for my kids. But it’s the mayor’s job to look out for all kids,” Stringer told The Post. “I recognize that what the City is giving to my kids is not what it is providing to many others — particularly children of color.
“As mayor, I’ll end the discriminatory status quo, where there are four times as many kids in gifted programs in District 2 in Manhattan as in District 12 in the Bronx.”