Last week, when mayoral candidate Zohran Mandani disclosed plans to phase out Gifted & Talented programs in New York City’s public schools, he committed to finishing a job former Mayor Bill de Blasio started.

That is, to dismantling the city’s only tuition-free opportunity — apart from charter schools — for low- and middle-income parents to secure advanced education for their kids.

New York City has a large number of high-performing students, but cannot offer advanced seats to all of them.

Prior to 2021, when the city used a standardized test to screen for its G&T programs, 3,500 kindergarteners a year were deemed gifted.

Since then, the city has identified nearly 10,000 children as gifted each year, based on teacher referrals.

But only 2,500 G&T seats are available for kinderga

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