In the heated run-up to New York City’s mayoral election, a new battleground has emerged: the future of the city’s gifted-and-talented program for kindergarteners. On October 23, 2025, Zohran Mamdani, a state assemblyman and leading mayoral contender, unveiled a proposal to scale back the city’s coveted early-entry gifted program. The move instantly set off a firestorm in America’s largest school district, igniting debates that reach far beyond the five boroughs.
The city’s gifted-and-talented program, known for enrolling about 4% of kindergartners, has long been a source of both pride and controversy. These programs offer accelerated learning to select 4- and 5-year-olds, many of whom go on to attend New York’s most prestigious high schools. Admission is highly competitive: children need a recommendation from a preschool teacher or must excel in a private interview, after which they are entered into a lottery for a limited number of seats.
For parents like Patiwat Panurach, the program represents a golden ticket. Panurach and his wife had their sights set on Anderson, an Upper West Side public school renowned for nurturing “superior intellectual potential.” The couple’s dream was suddenly thrown into doubt by Mamdani’s announcement. “He’s taking opportunities for a better education away from New York’s kids,” Panurach told The Wall Street Journal. “I would find it very frustrating to vote for Mamdani when one of his policies is going to reduce opportunities for my child.”
But Mamdani’s campaign maintains that change is overdue. “Zohran knows that five-year-olds should not be subjected to a singular assessment that unfairly separates them right at the beginning of their public school education,” a campaign spokeswoman told The Wall Street Journal. The candidate’s proposal would end kindergarten entry into the gifted program, thrusting the issue to the center of the city’s political debate and reigniting long-standing tensions over educational equity, opportunity, and merit.
This is hardly the first time the fate of gifted programs has sparked controversy in New York. According to The Wall Street Journal, the subject has inspired task forces, activist groups, social-media skirmishes, and even a protest on the steps of City Hall. The debate has pitted those who see the programs as engines of opportunity against critics who argue they reinforce inequities based on race and class.
“The reaction to Mamdani’s proposal on kindergarteners represents a larger fear,” said Richard Kahlenberg, a researcher who advised former Mayor Bill de Blasio on gifted education policy. “The socialist ethos applied to education is alarming to people who believe in merit.”
Supporters of the gifted program argue that scrapping it would leave high-achieving students bored and unstimulated in general-education classrooms. Dina Brulles, gifted program coordinator at Arizona State University’s teachers’ college, told The Wall Street Journal, “What are you going to do? Come and have them learn their letter sounds again?”
Yet, critics—including Mamdani and a host of progressive groups—say the program segregates students from an early age and perpetuates social divides. Nationally, white and Asian students occupy nearly two-thirds of gifted and talented seats, even though they make up only about half of public school enrollment, according to U.S. Department of Education data cited by The Wall Street Journal. Johanna Miller, director of the New York Civil Liberties Union’s education policy center, pointed to research showing that talented Black students are less likely to be identified as gifted by their teachers. Miller argued that “doubling down on the program would hurt the city’s minority population.”
The debate is not unique to New York. Across the country, nearly three million students were enrolled in gifted-and-talented programs in 2021, according to federal data. Seattle, for example, recently tried to phase out its own gifted program, only to delay the move after fierce protests. What sets New York apart is its practice of placing children as young as four into accelerated tracks—a rarity in U.S. public education, where most districts wait until second or third grade.
José Luis Vilson, a sociologist, former teacher, and father of a New York middle-schooler, welcomed Mamdani’s plans. Vilson chose not to pursue the gifted track for his son, preferring he socialize with a diverse group of peers. Reflecting on his teaching experience, Vilson said, “The notion that our children have to start competing with each other very early on in order to make or break their lives is a struggle point for so many of us. Why are we doing that at such a tender, young age?”
The city’s political establishment is deeply divided. Former Governor Andrew Cuomo, a vocal supporter of the gifted programs, dismissed Mamdani’s proposal as “a political stunt.” Cuomo argued, “Eliminating opportunities for excellence doesn’t help underserved kids. It perpetuates the problem. It creates a false equality, by eliminating any opportunity to excel.” Cuomo has instead pledged to expand the city’s network of specialized high schools—a separate but equally contentious issue.
The battle lines are drawn not just among politicians but also among parents. Yiatin Chu, an immigrant and founder of the volunteer group Place NYC, became an activist after her daughter failed to win a spot in the gifted program. Chu has joined forces with other parents to defend the program, insisting it provides vital opportunities for thousands of children. On the other side, parents like Panurach—who otherwise support Mamdani’s vision for universal child care—find themselves torn by the prospect of losing access to a program they see as essential for their children’s future.
New York’s gifted program has also been the subject of legal battles. In 2019, a task force commissioned by then-Mayor de Blasio recommended scrapping the program altogether. De Blasio adopted the recommendation in 2021, but his successor, Eric Adams, quickly reversed course, promising to add more seats. Meanwhile, a lawsuit filed by public-school students seeking to eliminate the program was dismissed by a state Supreme Court judge, only to be revived by an appellate court.
Despite the intensity of the debate, education policy remains a surprisingly muted topic on the campaign trail. “It gets completely relegated in the campaigns,” Miller told The Wall Street Journal. “The candidates often, I think, don’t even really understand the magnitude of the school system that they’re going to be leading.” With more than a million students, New York’s public school system is the largest in the nation—and the outcome of this debate could shape its future for years to come.
As the city’s political season heats up, the question of who gets access to accelerated learning—and at what age—has become a litmus test for candidates, parents, and educators alike. For now, the fate of New York’s youngest gifted learners hangs in the balance, with no easy answers in sight.