NY scraps race-based STEM program after Asians claim discrimination: ‘Progress!’

State education officials have scrapped New York’s race-based admissions policy for advanced STEM classes for middle- and high-school students after a lawsuit by Asian parents, The Post has learned.

The state-funded Science and Technology Entry Program (STEP) admits 11,000 seventh- to 12th-grade students a year for classes at 56 participating colleges and medical schools statewide, with a related College Science and Technology Entry Program (CSTEP).

The pre-college enrichment program aims to “increase the number of historically underrepresented and economically disadvantaged students prepared to enter college and improve their participation rate” in math, science, tech and health fields, according to its website.

But while black, Hispanic and Native American students could apply regardless of family wealth, Asian and white schoolkids needed to meet certain income criteria — indicating they are economically challenged — or be excluded.

A federal lawsuit filed in January accused New York of engaging in blatant discrimination against Asian and white students under the program.

“Progress!” crowed Yiatin Chu — a co-founder of the Asian Wave alliance who said her daughter was one of the students discriminated against because of the race-based policy — to The Post.

Chu said her then-seventh-grade daughter was “able and ready” to apply for admission to the summer 2024 STEP program at New York University but couldn’t “because her race makes her ineligible.

“It was unfair and racist for my daughter to be subjected to a low-income requirement just because she is Asian when her black and Hispanic classmates weren’t,” Chu said Sunday. “I’m glad that my lawsuit instigated revisiting these decades long, race-based standards.”

Another Asian parent said her daughter was enrolled in 11th grade abd had an overall grade-point average above 80 in math, science, and English but was “unable to complete an application for admission” to CUNY’s Baruch College “because she was required to satisfy a family income threshold.

“I instead paid thousands of dollars to enroll her in an alternative summer science program,” said the parent, who asked not to be identified.

A top state education official, noting the still-pending litigation over the program, has already urged directors and administrators of STEP and CSTEP to stop using race or “historically underrepresented minority status” to determine admissions and instead use only family income as admission criteria.

“As many of you are aware, the New York State Education Department (NYSED) is currently
engaged in active litigation concerning the eligibility criteria for participation in the Science and
Technology Entry Program (STEP),” wrote Anael Alston, the education department’s assistant commissioner of the Office of Access, said in a July 8 memo to directors and administrators.

“The litigation challenges certain aspects of our longstanding eligibility guidelines related to student race and ethnicity,” Alston said.

“While NYSED remains committed to defending the STEP and CSTEP programs and their historic mission to increase access and opportunity for historically underrepresented students in the scientific, technical, and health-related professions, we recognize the need to provide clarity and support to the field during this period of legal uncertainty.”

The new guidance from Alston said “effective immediately and until further notice, STEP and CSTEP grantees may determine student eligibility without regard to historically underrepresented minority status, race, or ethnicity.”

“Instead, grantees are encouraged to base eligibility decisions solely on indicators of economic disadvantage, in alignment with applicable state and federal guidelines,” Alston wrote.

“Recruitment, selection, and enrollment of new students may proceed using economic-based
eligibility criteria only. Collection or use of race, ethnicity, or minority status data is not required for eligibility.”

But Alston also appeared to defend the mandatory race-based admission policy she just eliminated.

“NYSED will continue to vigorously defend the mission and intent of STEP and CSTEP in court,” the official said.

The lawyers for the opposing Asian parents said state officials capitulated because they know the race-based policy is illegal. But the parents’ reps complained that state officials still left wiggle room to continue discriminating against students by using words such as “may” and “encouraged.”

“The state of New York has raised the white flag of surrender in our lawsuit, but not high enough,” said
William Jacobson, founder of EqualProtect.org.

“Word games are not acceptable,” Jacobson said. “The state must do away with the racially discriminatory eligibility requirements completely and permanently, or we will ask the court to order it.”

Erin Wilcox, a senior lawyer at Pacific Legal Foundation, said, “The state should be requiring all schools to stop this illegal discrimination immediately, not giving them the option to continue.”

In 1985, New York lawmakers passed legislation aimed at boosting interest in STEM and healthcare among low-income and underrepresented minority students.

But racial-preference programs — aimed at correcting historic injustices or underrepresentation of blacks and other minorities — have come under the microscope after the US Supreme Court last year struck down college affirmative action programs aimed at boosting minority representation as discriminatory.