Bill Would Require NYC Schools to Submit Annual Diversity Report

A new bill would require New York City schools to report demographics information on an annual basis.

According to the New York Observer, the bill came to be after a 2014 report put together by UCLA's Civil Rights Project concluded that New York City's public school system was one of the most segregated in the country.

"It is shameful to have a school system that is among the most segregated in the country," Councilman Brad Lander told the Observer.

A Democrat from Brooklyn, Lander was the bill's lead sponsor. "With the detailed data and strategic reporting that this bill will provide, New York City will have a meaningful framework to promote inclusion and advance diversity."

According to the UCLA data, 19 of the city's 32 public school districts had 10 percent or fewer white students in 2010. Also, 73 percent of the city's charter schools were given "apartheid" status for having fewer than 1 percent of white students.

The law would mandate that New York City's Department of Education file an annual report on demographics within the school system.

According to the Observer, Mayor Bill de Blasio is expected to sign the bill into law.

With the UCLA's data and the annual demographics report in hand, it is not entirely clear what the city will do to even out the demographics at its schools, reports the Observer.

Earlier this year, de Blasio was slammed by Eva Moskowitz — the founder and CEO of Success Academy Charter Schools — for his proposed updates to the city's public schools disciplinary code.

Success Academy operates 32 schools in four of New York City's boroughs.

"Mayor de Blasio's proposed disciplinary code is a step in the wrong direction," Moskowitz said. "Lax discipline won't strike a blow for civil rights. Instead it will perpetuate the real civil-rights violation — the woeful failure to educate the vast majority of the city's minority children and prepare them for life's challenges. In New York City, 143,000 children, 96 percent of them minorities, are trapped in failing schools where less than one in 10 students passes state exams.

"Anyone who wants students to succeed in life should focus on better education, not on more lax discipline."

A Quinnipiac University poll in March gave New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo failing grades on the state's public education system.

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