OPENING UP THE FDNY

Opening Up the FDNY

Mayor Bloomberg wasn't coy about the reasoning behind the city's decision to essentially eliminate the college requirement for Firefighter jobs, saying he hoped it would help attract more minority candidates.

In talking about developing a firefighting force that better reflects the city it serves than the current, 93-percent white male contingent, the Mayor acknowledged the pressure he is facing from the U.S. Justice Department on that score.

The sheer magnitude of the racial imbalance in the department poses an obstacle in attracting minority candidates. Any perception that those of color might have that they would not be welcomed in some firehouses based strictly on those numbers gets cemented any time there is an incident with racial overtones involving members of the department. Sadly, some signs of bigotry remain, most notably in the case eight years ago when two firefighters joined a cop in taking part in a racist parade float in Queens that among various moronic moments played for cheap laughs featured one of them re-enacting the dragging death of a black man in Texas by white racists.

Mayor Giuliani ordered all three clowns fired, and after an initial reversal in the courts their dismissals were upheld on appeal. The NYPD is well-integrated enough that minority candidates are unlikely to expect a climate of racial hostility if they are assigned to the wrong precinct; those considering firefighter jobs might not feel as secure, given their low representation on the current force.

For the past decade, new Firefighters had to have 30 college credits or military service in order to be hired. They now need just 15 credits - essentially a single semester of college - and not even that if they have six months of full-time paid work experience or military service with an honorable discharge. The FDNY plans to extend the training for probationary Firefighters beyond the current three-month regimen to ensure that lowering the education requirement will not lead to a cadre of new firefighters who are less well-equipped to do the job.

The move, and the Mayor's decision to announce it in the heavily minority neighborhood of Brownsville, could well spur greater interest in the job among persons of color. It is no guarantee, however, that a significant percentage of them will score well enough on the written exam to greatly improve the number of minorities being hired. To make real progress there, the Mayor may have to rely on improvements that are only now taking hold in the public school system to allow more minority students here to hold their own with those from more affluent neighborhoods.