Some parents at Stuyvesant High School were outraged when they received emails last week urging them to lobby against Mayor Bill de Blasio’s proposal intended to diversity the school's student body.
The email, sent to subscribers of the association's weekly newsletter, went much further than stating the group's opposition to the mayor's approach, which they had outlined in December. The message, sent as state legislators were considering a bill that would implement de Blasio's strategy, listed the phone numbers and email addresses for 14 assembly members.
"We must stay vigilant in calling the assembly members," the email said. "Here is a short list to call tonight and tomorrow. Leave messages."
The email even included a call script which parents were supposed to follow, stating that they support diversity but that the bill "is deeply flawed and has created racial tension and divisions in New York City and the entire state."
I am offended that the only emails I have received from contactpa@stuy-pa.org have been to encourage me to oppose change, and do nothing about strengthening diversity and inclusion in NYC schools
— Marina spindler (@MarinaSpindler) June 20, 2019
In 1971, state law prescribed that students' results on the Specialized High School Admissions Test would be used as the sole criterion for admitting them to Stuyvesant, Bronx Science and Brooklyn Tech. (The city has since established five other specialized schools that also use the test but are not required to under state law.) At first, the test was seen as the fairest and most objective measure of a student's aptitude. But last yeary, given the paucity of blacks and Latinos admitted to the specialized schools, Mayor de Blasio last year attacked the test as "a roadblock to justice" and proposed a different admissions system based largely on students' rankings in middle schools.
Parents and activists who have reacted to the Stuyvesant email say the parents' association is going too far.
“I shouldn’t be told how to vote and who to ask," Marina Spindler, a parent of a Stuyvesant freshman, told WNYC. "That’s where I think there’s a line being crossed, that it’s not their place,”
The city’s regulations governing parents associations don’t explicitly forbid lobbying elected officials. But they do state that the parents associations should only send emails pertinent to the group's purpose and that they cannot endorse political candidates.
“By sending out that email, the leader of that association is projecting that they represent all parents of the school,” said Akil Bello, an education consultant who has gotten involved in the debate over the SHSAT. “What portion of the parents does it actually represent?”
The bill failed in Albany last week because of lack of support.
The Stuyvesant Parents' Association did not respond to requests for comment.