Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels, who has a history of dismantling gifted and talented programs, sent his son to an elite Upper East Side private school.
Samuels son, now 17, attended the posh Browning School on Park Avenue from 2014 to 2020, when tuition was $54,150 a year, journalist Susan Edelman reported on her Substack.
The chancellor’s son attended the prestigious all-boys academy from kindergarten through fifth grade. He now attends a screened public high school in Manhattan, Edelman reported.
Samuels, a father of three, would have sent his other children to private school had he not been gunning for the chancellor’s position, a Department of Education insider told Edelman.
“He would have done the same for his younger ones, but has been planning to become chancellor for some time now,” the source said.
“He said it’s not the responsibility of middle-class black families to resolve school integration issues. It’s not their burden to improve those schools via socioeconomic integration. He can do what’s best for his own kids,” the source added.
Samuels has never previously disclosed that his son attended the elite private school, which offers kindergarteners the opportunity to learn advanced concepts in a “Kinderfirst” program.
His boss, socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani, campaigned on phasing out gifted and talented programs in public schools for kindergarteners.
Samuels himself has a history of dismantling gifted and talented programs and replacing them with the International Baccalaureate program, a high school curriculum that offers its own tests that could be used in place of the Regents, while he served as superintendent at Brooklyn’s District 13.
He’s also bashed G&T on social media.
“What a pleasant surprise! Removing G&T gives us an opportunity to recreate and reimagine,” he wrote on X in October 2021.
Critics noted the disconnect.
“NYC public schools would be better run and do a better job educating if the people on their payroll sent their kids to them,” former Community Education Council President and Republican candidate for Manhattan District Attorney Maud Maron told The Post.
Browning was founded in 1888 by educator John A. Browning for the purpose of instructing John D. Rockefeller and his brother Percy. Other famous alumni include Howard Dean and Jamie Dimon.
The DOE declined to comment.
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