Destroying the education system

‘Free pass’ furor at city's top schools

By YOAV GONEN Education Reporter

The Department of Education has placed hordes of special-needs and other students who didn't meet all the eligibility requirements at the city’s most competitive high schools, The Post has learned.

The move has parents and staffers up in arms over the screening end-around — which the DOE says is an attempt to widen the pool of kids admitted to the city’s best schools.

Overall, the city assigned nearly 1,300 students to 71 of the top academic and performing arts high schools under a revised screening policy that was expanded this year.

“We all would like to know who made the decision that it was OK to water down these arts programs and place unqualified students in these audition schools,” said Dmytro Fedkowskyj, the Queens representative to the DOE’s Panel for Educational Policy.

“It isn’t fair to the student or the school community when the DOE . . . establishes entrance rules and then circumvents these same rules at their leisure,” he added. “This action does a disservice to the current students and to the students who were placed there.”

Nearly one-third of students admitted to Talent Unlimited HS in Manhattan — the 43 kids assigned by the city — didn’t audition, according to the borough’s PEP rep.

This was despite the fact that the school had 1,500 auditioning kids from which it had wanted to choose.

Principal Donna Finn said 51 students — including 26 special-education kids — were assigned by the city to Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in Astoria, Queens, despite having no or poor auditions.

“I’m infuriated,” Finn told insideschools.org blog, which first reported on the policy. “To call schools ‘audition’ and put kids in who did not audition is a travesty. It’s just despicable.”

Finn referred questions from The Post to the DOE press office.

Officials there said all the admitted students met academic requirements and had expressed strong interest in the schools.

They said many of the schools have left seats unfilled in recent years.

“It’s about equity and access,” said Marc Sternberg, a senior deputy chancellor.

“You’re going to hear the complaints. What you’re not going to hear is the . . . gratitude from families who for too long have been shut out of these schools,” he added. “Our obligation is to make sure that families across the spectrum have a fair shot at every manner of school we have.”

About 960 general-ed kids and 300 special-ed students were assigned to the 71 schools under the second year of the policy.

Nine specialized high schools — including Stuyvesant and La Guardia high schools — were exempt because their admissions are governed by state law.