In March 2021, Parents Defending Education (PDE) asked the New York Supreme Court, the state’s trial-level court, for permission to join, or “intervene” in, a newly filed case against the city and state. The lawsuit claims New York City’s public schools have copied and worsened racial inequality by sorting children into different academic tracks as early as kindergarten, denying many of the city’s roughly one million students their right to a sound, basic education. The New York Times reported that the lawsuit “seeks to establish the right to an antiracist education.”
PDE asked to join on the defendants’ side to share a view the court would not otherwise hear: that of families with children in city schools who would be affected by the changes the plaintiffs want. PDE’s members believe their children should be judged on their own merit, not treated as members of a racial group or blamed for the wrongs of others. PDE argues the best path to equality is to treat children equally, regardless of skin color, and to fix what is broken in city schools without breaking what works. Most importantly, PDE argues that what the plaintiffs are asking for would violate the Equal Protection Clauses of both the New York and U.S. Constitutions.
Read the motion below:
