New Rochelle Public Schools Offer “Minority-Only” Math Program: WHITES NEED NOT APPLY!

Written By: Robert Cox

NEW ROCHELLE, NY — New Rochelle High School is offering a scholarship-based summer math program in partnership with a local college that appears to illegally discriminate against White students.

In a letter to students sent on April 14th, New Rochelle High School Mathematics Department Chair Xiomara Gonzalez exhorted teachers to encourage students to apply but made clear that applicants must be minority students.

Her boss, Interim Superintendent of Schools Dr. Alex Marrero did not respond to questions.

In her email, Gonzalez is quoting directly from an email sent by Karin Sansaricq. PT Project Administrator at Mercy College on behalf of the Program Director, Dr. Nagaraj Rao.

Dr. Rao did not respond to an email requesting information about the program. Mercy College Media Relation did not respond either.

The Mathematical Modeling at Mercy College (M3C) Young Scholars will take place from July 12 – August 7, 2021.

Successful applicants will be paid $600 to take the 3-week course and receive a TI-84+ calculator valued at over $100. To be eligible, students must have completed 11th grade including courses in algebra and geometry, and they cannot be White.

Students may receive a free lunch each day

On June 15, an announcement will be made as to whether the 2021 program will take place on Zoom or in person at the Mercy College Dobbs Ferry campus. If on campus, lunch will be provided.

The Program Sponsors are the U.S. Department of Education, The Tensor Foundation and Mercy College. Corporate Sponsors are Philips Laboratories, IBM, and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.

We reached out to the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights press office. They intend to review the emails seen by Talk of the Sound and respond to our inquiry next week on the legality of using DOE funds to offer scholarships to programs that discriminate based on race. We will update this story with their assessment.

According to the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights website, the OCR “enforces several Federal civil rights laws that prohibit discrimination in programs or activities that receive Federal funds from the Department of Education. These laws prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, color, and national origin, sex, disability, and on the basis of age. These laws extend to all state education agencies, elementary and secondary school systems, colleges and universities, vocational schools, proprietary schools, state vocational rehabilitation agencies, libraries, and museums that receive U.S. Department of Education funds.”

A scholarship program, using taxpayer funds, that screens out applicants based on race, is illegal, according to two experts who asked not to be identified.

8 thoughts on “New Rochelle Public Schools Offer “Minority-Only” Math Program: WHITES NEED NOT APPLY!”

    1. To OK and Um Okay,

      There is nothing wrong with offering a program that aspires to help minorities or women or LGBTQ or whatever.

      Look at the Mercy College website for the program:

      https://www.mercy.edu/student-support/college-opportunity-programs/m3c-young-scholars-program

      “In existence since 1994, the M3C program (Mathematical Modeling at Mercy) provides academically gifted, economically disadvantaged high school students the opportunity to take part in a summer long high-level mathematical modeling program.

      The goal of M3C is to attract capable students – including women and minorities – into mathematics and science by engaging them as participants in a series of activities designed to highlight mathematics and science as exciting, challenging, productive and rewarding fields of study.”

      That language is fine. It is legal. It does not exclude anyone but expresses goals like helping economically disadvantaged youngsters or minority students or women.

      What is not fine and is illegal is to state “MUST BE a minority student”.

      Mercy College and New Rochelle High School both take money from US DOE so are required to abide by their anti-discrimination policy.

      Further, the program is using US DOE funds to provide scholarships.

      There is also state law.

      There is simply no way around the fact that prohibiting non-minority (White) students from accessing the program is illegal just as it would be illegal to have a program that prohibited minority students.

      I fully expect this to be unwound. I have calls into US DOE, Mercy College and Interim Superintendent Dr. Alex Marrero.

    1. I asked the program director for a definition of “minority student” and “economically disadvantaged”.

      Among other questions was whether “minority” means Black and Hispanic or Asian /AAPI or other or just non-white.

  1. It’s not about not being white, It’s about being a minority student. Stop trying to make this seem like isn’t something against white students. This opportunity is to help minority students. There has been a huge problem with equity in new Rochelle high school between the white students and minority student. Stop trying to make this seem like it’s something that it’s not. And stop trying to take away from rare opportunities that are beneficial for minority students.

    1. It is about using taxpayer money to fund a scholarship-based education program that violated federal and state anti-discrimination policy.

      You cannot offer programs that discriminate based on race.

      I guess your idea is that so long as white students are being discriminated against its OK.

      It’s not.

      Look at the Mercy College website linked in the article, the language there is fine, it’s aspirational.

      The emails are exclusionary. Big difference. One is legal one is illegal

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