Former Governor Andrew Cuomo, campaigning for New York City mayor, unveiled plans to establish a second specialized high school in Queens, aiming to expand access to advanced educational opportunities across the borough. He made the announcement alongside leaders from Parent Leaders for Accelerated Curriculum and Education (PLACE NYC).
Cuomo highlighted that Queens currently has only one specialized high school, Queens High School for the Sciences, which enrolls about 130 students annually. Other boroughs offer significantly more seats, including Bronx Science with 720, Stuyvesant with 800, Brooklyn Tech with 1,400, and Staten Island Tech with 360. The new school would raise Queens’ total specialized seats to roughly 1,000, putting it on par with other boroughs.
The plan is part of a broader citywide initiative to double the number of specialized high schools from nine to eighteen, expand Gifted and Talented programs, and replace underperforming schools with higher-performing charter or specialty schools. Cuomo framed the proposal as a way to ensure that students’ potential is not determined by ZIP code or background.
PLACE NYC co-president Yiatin Chu described Cuomo’s proposal as “about basic fairness,” emphasizing that Queens families “deserve the same opportunities for excellence that exist elsewhere in New York City” and that his leadership brings “long-overdue parity” to the school system.
Cuomo contrasted his plan with his opponent, Zohran Mamdani, criticizing proposals to eliminate Gifted and Talented programs and reduce mayoral control of schools. He highlighted his record in statewide education initiatives, including universal pre-K, early college and P-TECH programs, and the Excelsior Scholarship, presenting his mayoral proposal as a continuation of results-driven policies to combine equity and excellence citywide.
