In a recent announcement by the New York State Department of Education, the long-standing STEM pre-college programs STEP and CSTEP, which have been based on race, will be reformed to solely consider family economic conditions. This decision comes as a response to a federal lawsuit filed by Asian parents.
STEP (Science and Technology Entry Program) and CSTEP (Collegiate Science and Technology Entry Program) are state-funded pre-college tutoring programs that annually serve over 11,000 students in grades seven through twelve statewide, aiming to encourage underprivileged students to engage in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and medicine.
However, the lawsuit pointed out that the STEP program previously allowed Black, Latinx, and Native American students to apply regardless of their family income, while Asian and White students had to meet low-income standards to participate.
In January of this year, several Asian parents filed a lawsuit in federal court, alleging that the state’s admission policies violated equal protection principles and amounted to racial discrimination against Asian and White students.
Yiatin Chu, co-founder of the Asian advocacy group “Asian Waves,” one of the plaintiffs, told the newspaper that her daughter was unable to apply for the 2024 STEP summer program at New York University because she did not meet the low-income criteria. Chu believes it is unfair and discriminatory that her daughter had to meet low-income standards solely based on her race to be admitted.
In response to the lawsuit and controversy, Anael Alston, the Assistant Commissioner of the New York State Department of Education, issued a memorandum on the 8th of this month, directing the STEP and CSTEP programs to “immediately cease using race or minority status as admission criteria” and to base future admissions solely on family economic conditions.
Regarding the New York State Education Department’s response, the Chinese-American Citizens Alliance of Greater New York (CACAGNY) released a statement on July 14th, expressing that while the administrative guidance seems to move in a legal direction, it is still “far from sufficient.”
In a statement provided to the newspaper by CACAGNY, it was noted that Alston’s memorandum only mentions “no longer considering race for admissions,” without “explicitly banning” the use of race as a selection criterion, leaving room for potentially using standards that have a “racially neutral appearance but effective racial substitution.” CACAGNY believes that for discrimination to be ended completely, policy language should clearly stipulate that “admissions must not consider race or any proxies for it.”
CACAGNY also criticized the term “underrepresented minority,” stating that it facilitates illegal racial balancing and should not appear in any educational policy.
Furthermore, CACAGNY pointed out that administrative guidelines are essentially non-binding and can be revoked at any time. The statement highlighted an example where New York Governor Kathy Hochul suspended toll collection before the election but reinstated it within nine days after the general election, serving as a warning that a similar situation could reoccur.
The issue of equality has garnered significant attention in the United States in recent years. Following a Supreme Court ruling last year that deemed affirmative action in university admissions unconstitutional, similar race-based preference programs have faced legal challenges, with the New York STEP case being one example.