Essay 4773

From The New York Daily News…

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The FDNY’s new face

Here is excellent news that has been a long time in coming: City Hall has taken a major stride toward increasing the number of minorities who work for the Fire Department, while upholding strict merit standards.

The FDNY’s firefighting ranks are overwhelmingly white, and repeated efforts to boost diversity came to naught—until this week, with the results of the department’s most recent qualifying exam.

This time around, the number of blacks and Hispanics taking and passing the exam leaped, as did, even more importantly, the number scoring in the top 4,000—those most likely to be hired.

In 2002, when the last test was given, the top 4,000 scorers were 81% white, 4% black and 9% Latino. This year, the breakdown was 65% white, 12% black and 18% Latino. The percentages signal that over the next few years, the city could add at least 600 minority firefighters to the 11,000-member force.

The achievement began with a $1.4 million recruitment drive. The FDNY talked up the entrance exam at churches, schools and street fairs in neighborhoods where the department has rarely been considered a career option. Officials also offered test preparation courses in communities that have been underrepresented in the department.

At the same time, the city reworked the written and physical aspects of the test. The process was done against a backdrop of charges that previous questions had been biased against minorities and worries that the new exam would lower standards.

The stats from the test suggest those concerns were groundless. Virtually the same number of whites took and passed this test as in 2002. If the questions had been easier, the white passing rate would have risen along with the minority passing rate. It didn’t.

As for why more minorities aced this test, the biggest factor seems to have been simply that more took the exam. And that’s wonderful.

The results should give great pause to the Justice Department, which had sued the city, alleging discrimination. The feds would be well advised to withdraw the legal action rather than seek a court-ordered remedy for a problem that’s being solved the correct way—by applying rigorous standards evenhandedly.