Earlier this year, more than a few New Yorkers were confused and upset why the 2010 Census form didn't offer a racial category for Hispanic or Latino (the Census offer a Hispanic question for ethnicity). Now, NY1 reports that NYC Schools Chancellor Joel Klein sent an email to U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan saying that NYC school officials don't really want to classify students by race, per federal law, "[It] may well be problematic and confusing for many of our community members, particularly Hispanics, and could create a difficult public debate about the collection of this information."
A Census spokesman previously explained, "If we were to try to provide a space for every different consideration of race ... the form would be 100 pages long. Focus groups were used to make decisions on which [races] were used," but Deputy Schools Chancellor Santiago Taveras said, "Latinos like to identify themselves as Dominicanos [Dominicans], Puertorriqueños [Puerto Rican], Guatemaltecos [Guatemalans], and this form actually overlooks all of that. So it was frustrating on a personal level and I can understand how parents would feel at home and I'd like them to understand it's a mandate."
In spite of the NYC Department of Education's concerns, NYC school officials are collecting the information since the feds are demanding it. Schools are required to assign a student a race if he/she didn't mark one, which makes things a little dicey.
