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DON'T BLAME FDNY

Don't Blame FDNY

To the Editor:

I wonder if the Vulcan Society is really concerned about minority representation among the ranks of the FDNY or if there is another hidden agenda.

I can understand the frustration with the small number of firefighters who are classified as minorities in relation to their overall representation of the city's population. But if they really believe that African-Americans cannot compete with their white counterparts when it comes to taking a civil service test, they should be asking the City Council why a whole generation of students is so unprepared.

We are not talking about an exam to be a nuclear physicist; we are talking about passing an entry-level civil service test. If a person can't compete after graduating high school and completing 60 college credits, there is something so structurally wrong with the educational system that claiming the Fire Department is to blame is ignorant misinformation at the least. If a public school education is so bad that a city resident can't equal his suburban counterpart even with a five-point head start, how can New York City graduates hope to compete in a global economy? To argue that the Fire Department and the Department of Personnel deliberately put together a discriminatory test doesn't seem rational. If there is a cultural bias in the least, which I don't agree with, shouldn't a high school graduate with 60 college credits be able to overcome that? There are other motives behind the attacks on the racial and gender backgrounds of the Fire Department, and it has to do with people advancing their own careers and self-interests.

It isn't right that minority representation is so low in the Fire Department. Civil service has long been a stepping-stone to the middle class, and with middle-class jobs disappearing, civil service will be even more important in the future.

But the Fire Department isn't responsible for the disparity. Put the blame where it belongs. For too long, the educational system has been failing to educate in return for some elusive utopian self-realization program. Everyone, black and white, should be outraged that children are graduating without the skills and knowledge they need to succeed.

ED HUBERTS, FDNY (Retired)