I'm really tired of having this argument, so here's my rant to @TeensTakeCharge, @WalterTMosley, @DOEChancellor, @PositiveSubway, @ChalkbeatNY and all the other folks clamoring to get rid of the SHSAT.

I'm a proud product of good NYC public schools. I went to PS 243 in Bed-Stuy, PS 137 in the L.E.S., Hunter College HS, JHS 104, and Brooklyn Tech. So when folks go "you don't know what you're talking about..". I say BS. I was educated in the system.

People scream "oh it's the test prep!". You know what? There has ALWAYS been test prep. On Saturdays, when I was playing little league football and baseball, my Asian friends were all in Chinese school. Chinatown Y. Transfiguration. All getting some kid of academic preparation.

And you know what? We still got into Tech, Science, and Stuyvesant. Me of us without test prep. Hell, I took the Hunter test with no test prep. So please save me the racist test argument. So, what has changed? How are there more specialized high schools and the amount of Black

and Hispanic kids have plummeted? It's K-8! In Black & Hispanic neighborhoods the schools have gone to crap. And yet all of these folks arguing about a racist test seem to have no concerns about the root issues. PS 137 doesn't exist anymore. It was made a charter school

that no kids in the neighborhood even attend. A Chinese language charter school that the Chinese kids in the neighborhood don't even attend. WTF? Leaving two elementary school populations crowded into PS 134. How do kids learn in that environment?!?

PS 137 had a band (Ms White was a saint). We had an art teacher, Mr Guskin. All that was cut. Now, those programs only exist at certain schools. (Again, that resource issue I like to talk about..)

Yes, we need more Black teachers, specifically Black males. But you know what? From K-8 I only had 3 Black male teachers. I turned out just fine. What we need are teachers that care. Period. Be they white, Black, blue.

Now, the efforts about culturally responsive education? I'm all in. One of the advantage s that we had aOS 137 was Mr Karl Walkes. He was the Ethnic Studies teacher. At an elementary school. I learned about peoples of color throughout history and all over the world. So when I

got to Hunter, and a white teacher told me that I shouldn't think of engineering, I was able to counter with all the Black inventors and scientists that I had learned about from Mr. Walkes. So that makes complete sense.

Getting rid of G/T education is a really dumb idea. Some kids are smarter than others. But some of you will go "What if that student is gifted in arts?" Well, that person would get identified if they returned arts programs to the elementary schools? I had a kid in my 6th

grade class that had serious trouble reading. But he was the drummer in our school band (I played trombone). Damn good. He plays in a very famous band now. Identified early. Went to LaGuardia. Which brings me to my next problem: guidance counselors.

Not too long about, I was engaged in a Twitter debate with a lady who said "Well my daughter was an artist. She was gifted, what about her?" I asked "Did she audition for LaGuardia?" She said no. Why not? Her crappy guidance counselor never told her about it.

So, let's get some guidance counselor who actually care about guiding kids to be their best, and not just be concerned when a kid gets in trouble. Some who care. Hell, my guidance counselor at JHS104 tried to convince me to go to a vocational school. How many potential SHSAT

candidates were told the same thing?!? @PositiveSubway there's your answer. A math teacher friend of mine at a so-called science magnet in the LES said only 1 of her 8th graders signed up to take it. That's BS.

I keep hearing about racist screens. Screens aren't racist. The sad excuse for an education that too many children of color are receiving is racist. I come home at least 6-7 times a year to talk to kids at various schools where friends of mine teach. I'm the guy who works at NASA

It sickens me to no end how I can talk to a group of kids in Battery Park about things and then go uptown to kids in the same grade and have to really dumb things down. So, why isn't the kid in the South Bronx learning the same things as the kid in Bed Stuy or Cobble Hill?

And please save me the argument about the external factors. I was living in the LES when it was Dodge City, and my moms was working 2 jobs and going to school. Now, what we did have was stuff like Grand Street and Henry Street Settlement Houses. So, if you want to have a

discussion about external factors, let's talk about funding some of the external entities that stood in the gap for me when I was a kid. Stuff like the Jackie Robinson Center in Bed Stuy. Or the various community centers that used to exist in the projects (Rutgers Houses baby!!)

If you keep fighting to lower admissions standards, I, and many of the SHSAT alumni will fight you tooth and nail. Meanwhile, I'll keep supporting efforts like CAS Prep, run by my high school teammate Sam Adewumi, trying to help the kids in the hood overcome the substandard

education that so many are getting. Brooklyn Tech has its own JHS enrichment program, funded by many of the Black alumni. There are so many other things that need to be addressed. Believe me, the test isn't one of them. Why is it whenever I ask why are Black/Hispanic kids

are not scoring high on the exam, I get the same "it's racist" answer. Nobody wants to talk about the root issues. Let's talk about those and work to find real solutions, not politically expediant ones. I'm here.