NEW YORK: The Department of Education, New York City has decided to end race-based quotas in a specialty school following a class action suit by an Indian couple.

Dr Anjan Rau and his wife, Kanchan Katapadi filed a suit in Brooklyn federal court when their 11-year old daughter Nikita was refused admission to the Mark Twain School in Coney Island — a public school that caters to gifted students.

The school has been following an ancient post-civil war policy of 6-4 white-to-minority ratio to comply with the 1974 federal desegregation ruling. By virtue of that ruling, ethnic students needed to score 84.4 on their admission test to qualify, while White students had to score only 77.

Nikita had scored a 79 on her music admission test. According to the New York Post, within hours of the suit challenging the racial quotas being filed on Jan 14, the Department of Education announced that it would seek to end the quotas. Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, the paper said, would ask a judge to lift an order requiring the Mark Twain School to maintain the 6-4 white-to-minority ratio.

The paper quoted a DoE spokesperson, "The chancellor has said consistently that he believes the desegregation order in District 21 is no longer necessary." The spokesman, however, reportedly said Nikita will not be allowed to enter the school until the quotas are actually lifted.

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