Why John Liu's stance to change the SHSAT will hurt families in Queens:
1) Queens is currently short 7,700 high school seats in 5 of the 7 local school districts.
2) Bayside High School, Cardozo, Francis Lewis, Flushing and other high schools are running double and triple sessions with trailers in the school yard.
3) Of the annual 5,100 citywide specialized high school seats - 1,900 offers go to Queens junior high school kids (36%).
4) Four junior high schools in District 26 - covered by John Liu and Tony Avella - are among the top junior high school feeders to Stuy and Bronx Science.
5) Any changes to the current SHSAT will definitely take high school seats away from families in Queens. As a result, these students will have to commute to other boroughs to go to high school.
Tony Avella has offered to do what he can to support our opposition towards the bill to change the SHSAT.
John Liu has already stated many times that he is supporting the bill to eliminate the SHSAT as the sole criterion.
Today (Tuesday, August 19) at 6:30 PM, John Liu will appear at a public forum at the Sheraton Hotel in Flushing to discuss public issues.
Please attend and ask Mr. Liu to explain why he is supporting a bill that will make it harder for Queens students to make it into Stuyvesant, Bronx Science, and Brooklyn Tech.