POLITICS: Mamdani’s Gifted & Talented plan: Letters

The Issue: Zohran Mamdani’s plan to phase out the Gifted & Talented program at the kindergarten level.

Children are born with varying capacities to learn, and the role of a strong education system is to help each child develop to their fullest potential (“Grinch Zo on Gifted program,” Oct. 3).

I’ve spent 30 years teaching accounting at a community college with an open-enrollment policy. Some of my students have been brilliant and eager to be challenged; others have struggled with basic arithmetic or reading. As a result, I was constantly teaching too slowly for some and too quickly for others.

This is exactly why Zohran Mamdani’s proposal to eliminate early Gifted & Talented programs is misguided. For many inner-city families, gifted programs are the only opportunity their children have to reach their full academic potential.

The notion that placing gifted students in classrooms with those who are struggling will somehow benefit the latter is not supported by educational outcomes.

André Montero

Brooklyn

Mamdani wants to take away educational opportunities for poor children to excel.

He doesn’t want bright, talented students to reach their potential and become doctors or scientists. He wants everyone equally uneducated.

Carol Meltzer

Manhattan

Education officials have a very long history of antagonizing parents.

Mamdani, who has never taught a class, thinks it’s best to eliminate the Gifted & Talented program for kindergartners. It’s nice to see that there will be continuity if Mamdani becomes mayor.

Tom Cutrofello

Queens

This man of privilege will turn New York City into an economic and social hellhole.

How many more stories do Mamdani’s supporters have to read before realizing he is the worst thing that could happen to New York?

Do we really want the decriminalization of pro­s­titution, housing subsidies for illegal immigrants, more supervised injection sites and the axing of the Gifted & Talented programs in New York City public schools? All this while increasing our taxes!

Voters must not be fooled. Mamdani would be a disaster as mayor.

Joseph Paino

Manhattan

So, now Mamdani wants to remove the Gifted & Talented programs for younger children in public schools. This after announcing that he will give members of the Civilian Complaint Review Board full control in cases of complaints against police officers.

We cannot give him the chance to accomplish this insanity.

Tony Anastasio

Staten Island

The Issue: Sean “Diddy” Combs’ sentence of four years in prison on a prostitution charge.

Once again, we are seeing a high-profile celebrity skating away from serious jail time as Sean Combs gets a limp slap-on-the-wrist sentence (“A prison break for Diddy,” Oct. 4).

In 1991, nine people died in a stampede at a basketball game because Combs sold more tickets than there were available seats. Yet he walked away from that incident unscathed.

Learning nothing from this mass tragedy, Combs continued to abuse the system. Now he only has to serve four years for violently abusing those who were closest to him.

Ron Spurga

Manhattan

Combs was so confident he was going to be released, he booked speaking engagements in Miami for next week.

His defense team said he was a changed man and regrets everything he did. But let’s be real — a leopard can’t change its spots.

If Combs was released, there would’ve been another “freak-off” party in Miami.

Bill McCreary

Levittown

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