Gifted, talented
education
lacking in NY
Continued from Page 12
dents are just as capable as anyone
else. Their talent must be nurtured at
a young age. The DOE must ensure
that every single student has access to
gifted education as early as kindergarten,
regardless of where they live. Every
student should be required to sit for the
test, as well. If more students take the
test more students will qualify for the
programs, and the DOE will be unable
to ignore these numbers.
Opportunities for gifted and talented
education have been sorely lacking
in many underserved communities,
despite rhetoric about desegregating
our school system and the clear
evidence that such programs are a
pathway to specialized high school
admissions and academic success.
If we are going to close the achievement
gap and make our specialized
high schools more representative
of the city, we must nurture gifted
minority students at the earliest ages
and provide them with the accelerated
learning options they deserve
in the neighborhoods in which they
live.
Anyone who is for real educational
opportunity should be embarrassed
by these numbers, and by the administration’s
continued failure to deliver
for minority public school students.
The integrity of our public school
system as a democratic ideal rests on
addressing this issue. A chief responsibility
of any elected official is to
ensure that city services and programs
are working equitably to the
benefit of everyone.
Mayor de Blasio can make changes
immediately to provide all students
with equity at the earliest grades.
Caribbean L 14 ife, May 3–9, 2019 BQ
Lasting effects of storms
Continued from Page 12
permanent losses accumulate, causing
annual average growth rates to
be 1-7.5 percentage points lower than
simulations of “cyclone-free” counterfactuals.”
Thus, developing resilience to the
repeated shocks faced by countries in
the Caribbean is critical for ensuring
their ability to pursue long-term
growth. As the World Development
Report 2017 argues “long-term growth
is less about how fast one grows than
about how often you trip along the
way.”The damage caused by extreme
weather events can also lead to longterm
consequences at the householdlevel.
Using data on typhoons in the
Philippines, a recent study found that
in addition to the loss of durable assets,
household income was reduced which
is passed on through decisions to spend
less on items such medicine, education,
and high nutrient foods — decisions
which may have long term consequences
for the development of human
capital.
In order to mitigate the serious consequences
of shocks on development,
we need to focus on strengthening resilience.
The capacity of the countries in
the region to strengthen the resilience
of households will depend on the processes
that allow households to make
decisions that help them build their
adaptation mechanisms.
Efficient, effective and flexible social
protection systems to incorporate victims;
early warning systems for disasters;
investment in mitigation of environmental
risks; and impact-resilient
social services and infrastructure, are
some of the ways through which governments
in the region could build and
strengthen resilience.
Moreover, in order to effectively
strengthen resilience, we need to
rethink how we evaluate it. Traditionally,
economists have approached this
notion from a perspective of ‘flows’ —
such as GDP, consumption or income.
However, if we rely solely on this type
of approach, efforts to strengthen resilience
could take place at the expense
of the depletion of the ‘stock’ of assets.
For example, the recovery of GDP at the
expense of natural capital.
Thus, if we truly believe that ‘sustainability
is a constitutive element of
development’, we need to move from
an evaluation space defined by ‘flows’
to one that also includes a measure of
‘stocks.’ We need to think more broadly
about the ‘wealth of nations’ by valuing
not only their GDP but also their stock
of natural, physical, human and social
capital.
* Note: The sample is restricted to
countries and years for which both
storm data and GDP data are available.
Bronx Borough President Ruben
Diaz Jr.
PATIENTS’
CHOICE
RATED & AWARDED BY PATIENTS
SM