The Wall Street Journal - 13.09.2019

A9A| Friday, September 13, 2019 ** THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

A council of parent leaders

has called for Mayor Bill de Bla-

sio to add a broader mix of

viewpoints to an advisory

group that recently proposed

phasing out New York City’s

current form of gifted programs

and selective middle schools.

The Community Education

Council of Manhattan’s District

2, which includes the Upper

East Side and Tribeca, passed

a resolution Wednesday asking

the mayor to reconstitute his

School Diversity Advisory

Group. That group of mayoral

appointees just spent two

years developing recommenda-

tions that have stirred debate

about access to opportunities.

The council’s resolution,

which passed 7 to 4, said the

advisory group of roughly 40

members lacked representa-

tion from advocates of gifted

programs and didn’t give par-

ents a meaningful voice in de-

veloping its proposals.

Opponents of the resolution

called it a stalling tactic seek-

ing to delay deeper discussion

and action. District 2 has cov-

eted screened schools and its

families are among the top us-

ersofgiftedprograms.

Maud Maron, president of

District 2’s Community Educa-

tion Council, who also is run-

ning for City Council, said a

reconstituted group should fo-

cus on improving academic in-

struction and diversity. She

said the mayor’s group re-

leased recommendations that

would hurt the students who

need help most, poor children

of color who can’t afford to

leave the city system if they

are assigned to failing schools.

Gifted programs offer a

great option, she said, and peo-

ple who want to eliminate them

often suggest “that if you’re

not as woke as the next person

as far as prioritizing integra-

tion, then it’s a moral failure.”

The council’s move comes

at a time of intense debate

about how to create fairer ac-

cess to sought-after schools,

while fostering academic ex-

cellence.

The mayor’s diversity group

found that “exclusionary ad-

missions practices” unfairly

segregate students by race and

socioeconomic status. Sup-

porters of gifted programs and

selective schools say they of-

fer accelerated instruction to

advanced learners who need

extra challenges.

A spokeswoman for the

mayor said he is committed to

a yearlong public engagement

process to hear from a

broader group of New Yorkers,

including families in gifted

and talented programs, as he

considers changes.

NeQuan McClean, a member

of the mayor’s diversity group,

said its report aimed to serve

as a springboard for commu-

nity discussions, and that it

held several town halls to get

input. Critics of the process,

however, said advertisements

for these forums didn’t specify

the group might push major

changes to admissions and

gifted programs, which would

have drawn more attendance.

About one-fifth of all mid-

dle and high schools in the

city use selective-admissions

criteria, an unusually high

share.

BYLESLIEBRODY

Parents

Seek More

Input on

Changes

They want more

advocates of gifted

programs to weigh

in on potential cuts.

psychological or spiritual

means. It is banned in 18

states and Washington, D.C.,

according to the National Cen-

ter for Lesbian Rights.

“The advice of every major

LGBT legal, civil rights organi-

zation asking us to do this,

that’s what drove us to make

this decision,” Mr. Johnson

said at a news conference on

Thursday.

Roger Brooks, lead council

for the Alliance Defending

Freedom, said repealing the

ban would make it difficult for

the organization’s lawsuit to

move forward.

The citywide ban imposed

fines of up to $10,000 for any-

one who offered to provide

services seeking to change an

individual’s sexual orientation

or gender identity for a fee.

Mr. Johnson said the City

Council’s lack of authority to

regulate medical licenses

forced it to craft the ban from

a consumer-protection stand-

point.

Conversion therapy can in-

clude aversion treatments

such as inducing vomiting or

paralysis when a person is

aroused by same-sex erotic

images, and is associated with

negative mental-health out-

comes such as suicide, accord-

ing to the Williams Institute,

based at the University of Cal-

ifornia, Los Angeles, School of

Law. About 698,000 adults in

the U.S. have received conver-

sion therapy, according to the

institute, which focuses on

gender-identity issues.

A New York state law regu-

lating conversion therapy,

which was passed in Albany

earlier this year, applies only

to licensed health-care profes-

sionals, and designates con-

version therapy to minors as

professional misconduct.

The passage of the state

law makes the citywide ban

redundant, especially with a

legal challenge, Mr. Johnson

said. The City Council must

approve the repeal and then it

would go to Mayor Bill de Bla-

sio for his signature.

Mr. Brooks said he is

awaiting a judge’s ruling on a

request to temporarily block

the citywide ban.

According to court docu-

ments, the plaintiff in the law-

suit is an Orthodox Jewish

psychotherapist who said

some people turn to him to

overcome same-sex attraction

so they can live in accordance

with their faith, and the ban

limits their religious freedom.

“His right, and his patients’

right to have the conversa-

tions they want to have in pri-

vate is at the heart of free

speech,” Mr. Brooks said.

The Trevor Project, a non-

profit organization focused on

suicide prevention for LGBT

youth, praised Mr. Johnson for

his decision to repeal the city-

wide ban.

“Legislation like New York’s

existing statewide protections

are the national gold standard

for protecting youth from this

dangerous and discredited

practice,” said Amit Paley,

chief executive of the Trevor

Project. “The City Council’s ac-

tion will stop unnecessary liti-

gation after the passage of

statewide protections.”

City Council Speaker Corey

Johnson introduced legislation

to repeal a citywide ban on

conversion therapy, in a move

designed as a legal tactic to

protect such bans elsewhere.

New York City faces a law-

suit filed in January by the Alli-

ance Defending Freedom, chal-

lenging the constitutionality of

the law that was passed in 2017.

The religious-freedom advocacy

group is based in Arizona.

Mr. Johnson, who is openly

gay, called a repeal of the ban

“painful,” but said he is ac-

commodating leading LGBT

rights organizations that are

worried the lawsuit could un-

dermine efforts to ban conver-

sion therapy in other states.

Conversion therapy at-

tempts to change a person’s

sexual orientation through

BYTYLERBLINT-WELSH

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New York City Moves to Repeal Conversion-Therapy Ban

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to update prepaid commuter

debit cards with contactless

technology or compatibility

with mobile wallets used on

smartphones. The commuter-

debit cards allow workers to

contribute pretax dollars to

their commuting costs.

David Laster, a product

manager at a technology firm,

said he is frustrated at his in-

ability to use his WageWorks

benefits card to commute.

Mr. Laster has given up on

the card. Instead, he uses a con-

tactless bank card. “It’s ex-

tremely inconvenient that Wage-

Works is the last credit card in

my wallet to not support tap-to-

pay on the subway,” he said.

GREATER NEW YORK

A spokeswoman for Wage-

Works, which recently was ac-

quired by HealthEquity Inc., said

the company will launch a pilot

contactless commuter debit card

in early 2020. She said details of

the pilot are still being worked

out. (WageWorks administers

the commuter benefits program

for Dow Jones & Co., publisher

of The Wall Street Journal.)

The WageWorks spokes-

woman said it is too early to

tell whether its card would be

compatible with mobile wallets.

Benefit Resource says it will

release its Beniversal contactless

prepaid card to new clients be-

fore the end of 2019. Existing us-

ers will have to wait longer. “The

transition of the technology to

existing clients is under evalua-

tion,” a spokeswoman said.

Jason Hall, the company’s

chief executive, said the new

card won’t be compatible with

mobile wallets. The company

is reviewing whether to add

digital wallet functionality in

2020, he said.

Most private New York City

employers with 20 or more

full-time workers must pro-

vide a commuter-benefits pro-

gram, according to state law.

Employees can make pretax

contributions of up to $265 a

month for commuting costs.

Many workers opt to use

their benefits program to re-

ceive a MetroCard in the mail.

But they can choose the pre-

paid debit card from benefit

providers, which can be used

to pay for other forms of mass

transit and to buy or top up

pay-per-ride MetroCards.

This past May, MetroCard

vending machines processed

440,000 transactions with

commuter cards, according to

the latest data provided by the

MTA. Since OMNY launched,

about 80% of taps came via a

smart device, the MTA said.

OMNY is available on the 4,

5 and 6 lines between Grand

Central-42nd Street, in Man-

hattan, and Atlantic Avenue-

Barclays Center, in Brooklyn.

An MTA spokesman said at

least 15 subway stations are

expected to go live by the end

of this year.

The New York Metropolitan

Transportation Authority’s

new fare-payment system is

supposed to make paying for

transit rides quicker and eas-

ier—with a tap of a bank card

or a smartphone.

But technology delays at

third-party administrators of

commuter-benefits programs

mean thousands of riders will

continue to swipe their Metro-

Cards to enter subways and

buses and not switch to the

new system soon.

The MTA’s new pay system,

called OMNY, went live at 16

subway stations and on Staten

Island buses in May. Riders

pay by tapping a smart device

or a contactless bank card on

special readers. The MTA says

it is averaging 25,000 taps

each weekday.

Many major banks have re-

leased contactless cards. But

some of the biggest benefit-

administration companies such

as WageWorks Inc. and Benefit

Resource Inc. have been slow

BYPAULBERGER

Cards Lag Behind New MTA System

A customer uses a phone for contactless payment on the subway.

BRENDAN MCDERMID/REUTERS

Mets Blast a Team-Record Six Home Runs in 11-1 Takedown of the Diamondbacks

BRINGING IT HOME: Juan Lagares, right, celebrated with J.D. Davis after hitting a grand slam in the third inning at Citi Field on Thursday, completing afour-game sweep.

MARY ALTAFFER/ASSOCIATED PRESS

NY