An arts school in Brooklyn can no longer audition potential students because it would violate the district’s new diversity plan.  That’s right.  Talent doesn’t matter for an arts school, only “diversity.” 

Mayor Bill de Blasio approved a plan to do away with admissions standards at all middle schools in District 15, which will essentially invalidate the purposes of schools like New Voices School of Academic and Creative Arts in Sunset Park. Though the school used to base admissions on a careful screening of talent and interviews, admissions will now be based on lottery: 50% of the admission slots will be reserved for low-income, homeless and English-language-learning applicants.

Most parents weren’t happy.  For example, Eddie Rosario, 57, mother of a seventh-grader at the school, thinks this is absurd… especially since her daughter hopes to attend the school next year.  “I had no idea this was happening. I’m going to have to go to a meeting, call someone. My other daughter wants to go here, too. If they’re doing away with auditions … I’m going to have to talk to someone. What’s next? Are they changing the process at the arts high schools, too?”

Andrea James, whose daughter attends the school explained that it was “a huge leap” for her family.“They should be holding auditions, no question. Some of the kids, that’s the only reason that they get accepted.”

However, government bureaucrats want to “improve diversity” at schools.  So, let’s look at the numbers.  New Voices has 600 current students.  Of these students, 52 percent are white, 33 percent are Hispanic, 7 percent are black and 5 percent are Asian.

But you can never be “diverse enough” for politicians who specialize in identity politics. Regrettably, I think government officials will get their wish.  The school will soon be “diverse,” in that it will be full of both talented and untalented people… which students could’ve achieved by attended any school on any block.

Hat Tip: New York Post

Image Credit: MaxPexel

About The Author

Mark was a co-founder of the Tea Party Patriots, and served as the national coordinator. He left the organization to work more broadly on expanding the self-governance movement beyond the partisan divide. Mark appears regularly on television in outlets as diverse as MSNBC, ABC, NBC, Fox News, CNN, Bloomberg, Fox Business and the BBC. He’s highly sought after for the tea party perspective from print and electronic media outlets, from the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, L.A. Times, Washington Examiner, Politico and the The Hill. Mark blogs at MarkMeckler.com, and his opinion editorials regularly run in many of the leading political newspapers both on and offline. Mark has a BA in English from San Diego State University and graduated with honors from University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law in 1988. He practiced real estate and business law for almost a decade. For the last eleven years of his legal career he specialized in Internet advertising law. When not fighting for the future of our nation, Mark is an avid horseman, and lives in rural northern California with his wife Patty and two children.

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