We’re excited to be back kicking off Season 4! We’ve got a lot of exciting episodes in store this season. Stay tuned for updates over the coming weeks.
Today’s disagreement is on Selective Public High Schools and DEI.
Selective Public High Schools, also known as “Exam Schools”, are elite publicly funded high schools that have historically relied on a single entrance exam to determine admission. You’ve likely heard of many of them:
In Boston, you have Boston Latin, the oldest public high school in the country! Alums include Ben Franklin and Sam Adams. Not too bad.
In New York, you’ve got Stuyvesant, whose alums include U.S. Attorney General, Eric Holder, and, of course, Timothy Chalamet. New York also has The Bronx High School of Science, whose alums have more Nobel prizes (9) than any other high school in the world.
And in Northern Virginia, you have Thomas Jefferson (or TJ), established in 1985 and one of the newest selective high schools. It has spent many years rated the #1 High School in the Country by U.S. News and World Report.
The Questions
What is the purpose of these schools?
Should they exist?
Are standardized entrance exams the best path to meritocratic admissions?
The Guests
Ian Rowe is the CEO and cofounder of Vertex Partnership Academies, a virtues-based International Baccalaureate high school in the Bronx. He is also a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. His most recent books is “Agency: The Four Point Plan (F.R.E.E.) for ALL Children to Overcome the Victimhood Narrative and Discover Their Pathway to Power.”
Stefan Redding Lollinger is the Executive Director of Next100, a multi-issue, progressive policy think tank. He’s a Scholar in Residence at American University and the first Director of a Century Foundation initiative to advance diversity and integration in schools and neighborhoods.
A special thank you…
We are ramping up to launch our first ever Sponsorship Program. We want to thank The Fund in Honor of Julia Breen Miller, for becoming our first sponsor. Julia Breen Miller was passionate about our environment and the natural world. The fund, established by her family, is now a Founding Sponsor of The Disagreement and will be driving creation of episodes on climate and the environment. Thank you so much to the Miller Family for supporting our work.
Questions or comments about this episode? Email us at podcast@thedisagreement.com or find us on X and Instagram @thedisagreementhq.
