New York, NY – Last week, Khan’s Tutorial leaders rallied with community organizers and elected officials at Queens Borough Hall in support of the SHSAT. As the Mayor plans to change the current admissions criteria to the Specialized High Schools, many are calling for the Department of Education to increase seats at the schools in order to increase opportunities for minority students. Additionally, education advocates have called for greater New York Bangladeshi involvement in support of the current admissions criteria.
Speakers and Special Guests at the rally include:
Assemblyman Ron Kim
Assemblyman David Weprin
David Lee, Coalition EDU
Tahseen Chowdhury, former Stuyvesant Student Union President.
Wai Wah Chin, Chinese American Citizens Alliance of Greater New York
Mazeda Uddin, South Asian Fund for Education Scholarship and Training
Kenneth Chiu, Coalition of Asian Americans for Civil Rights
Ashook Ramsaran, Indian Diaspora Council
Rokeya Akhter, New American Voters Association
Darrell Suhkdeo, Resident of Richmond Hill/ Indo-Caribbean community leader
“We are excited to see South Asians showing up to support the community around Specialized High Schools. I’ve been to countless rallies lead by Chinese and Korean American New Yorkers and many elected officials have come to me directly asking for more greater South Asian Bangladeshi turn out for this cause. We really look forward to uniting with the rest of the New York Bangladeshi community leaders so that our collective voice is heard as a single community,” said Dr. Ivan Khan, CEO & President.
“The systemic failure within the Department of Education is the root cause of the lack of diversity at Specialized High Schools and throughout the entire public school system in New York City. The DOE fails 59% of our K-8 students annually, and that number is even higher for our Black and Hispanic communities where over 75% of our K-8 student to reach Common Core standards. The Mayor attempts to resolve a city-wide lack of diversity by blaming an exam, but without properly fixing our K-8 schools, we will never reach a truly diverse and educational school system,” said Tahseen Chowdhury, former Stuyvesant Student Union President.
With 11 locations in the outer boroughs of New York City, Brooklyn, the Bronx, and in the Jackson Heights, Jamaica, Astoria, Sunnyside, Ozone Park, and Floral Park neighborhoods of Queens, Khan’s Tutorial primarily serves in assisting families in low-income, new immigrant neighborhoods. Since 1994, Khan’s Tutorial has helped 2,986 students gain admission to New York City’s Specialized High Schools.