Small School Sports Teams Sidelined?

In a complaint filed with the US Department of Education Office of Civil Rights, Small Schools Athletic League founder David Garcia-Rosen argues that the way NYC funds high schools sports shortchanges the small high schools, which also happen to enroll more non-white students. He tells Brian, "It’s either malfeasance or mismanagement…The reality is that students of color and English language learners have way less access to high school sports in New York City than their white counterparts." He acknowledges that the roots of the problem go to the policy of breaking up historically big high schools in favor of smaller more manageable schools without changing the PSAL funding policies, but questions why DOE thought it was more important for some schools to get table tennis and badminton teams, “than for schools in the Mott Haven section of The Bronx to get their very first team.”

He’s joined by Stanley Hernandez a former student, now assistant baseball coach who shares his first-hand experience with how the atmosphere at the school improved when the SSAL brought team sports to his school in his senior year. Garcia-Rosen turned down a job with PSAL and is seeking dedicated funding from the next city budget.