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Last month, New York City Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza proclaimed that too many students were being labeled gifted and talented. Except he not only got the actual number of those who qualify for G&T programming wrong, he also displayed a rather . (Insert your own 鈥渉e鈥檚 neither gifted nor talented鈥� joke here.)

Carranza鈥檚 comments weren鈥檛 a surprise to those of us who鈥檝e been following his rhetoric ever since the former head of schools in San Francisco and Houston assumed the top Department of Education spot in NYC almost .

Carranza had barely unpacked his bags before announcing his plans to to New York City鈥檚 , expressing confusion as to why any family would opt for a screened school (despite his doing so in San Francisco). Then, after who objected to Manhattan鈥檚 District 3 in high-performing middle schools for kids who score either a 1 or a 2 on their state tests by suggesting she was specifically objecting to the presence of black students, he promptly turned his attention to elementary school gifted and talented programs.

Carranza told : 鈥淲e probably should be really clear about what we mean about truly gifted. The student that is doing algebra in the third grade, that鈥檚 a gifted kid.鈥�

Funny story:

Earlier, a commentator took exception with one of my posts, . I had written about how even the top G&T programs weren鈥檛 all that accelerated. , which admit students from all five boroughs but accept only a fraction of those who score above the 97th percentile, and which teach NYC鈥檚 standard curriculum one year ahead, still only introduce algebra starting in middle school 鈥� whereas in Europe and Asia, all kids begin studying it around fourth grade.

The commentator countered: 鈥淚n NYC we learned Algebra in 5th grade not 7th and I went to a regular non-gifted school. The kids I teach are in a regular public school and with Common Core now Algebra is being included in their 3rd grade math curriculum.鈥�

I directed him to this post: .

But how hilarious would it be if NYC鈥檚 general ed curriculum did include algebra in third grade 鈥� but our own chancellor thought that was something only truly gifted kids could do?

Carranza also told Chalkbeat: 鈥淭here is no body of knowledge that I know of that has pointed to the fact that you can give a test to a 4-year-old or a 5-year-old and determine if they鈥檙e gifted. Those tests 鈥� and it鈥檚 pretty clear 鈥� are more a measure of the privilege of a child鈥檚 home than true giftedness.鈥�

Carranza is absolutely right. On the Upper West Side, the Upper East Side, and Brownstone Brooklyn, . Even those kids who score in the 99th percentile ( in district gifted programs begins at the 90th) are merely of college-educated parents who have been read to (and, quite often, ).

But the chancellor is absolutely wrong when he assumes that the majority of NYC children in all neighborhoods couldn鈥檛 possibly do algebra in third grade.

The reason we need 鈥済ifted鈥� programs in NYC schools is that our educational bar is . According to NPR, in some classes around the country, .

Parents get their kids prepped for G&T testing, then fight tooth and nail to get them and into their first-choice schools, because G&T may not be all that 鈥� but it鈥檚 still better than the painfully dumbed-down general ed curriculum, which is literally .

Last year, Bronx鈥檚 District 8 decided to . Test scores went up.

I have three kids of my own. I understand that not all children can move through (which puts me ahead of NYC鈥檚 gifted programs, which presume precisely that).

That鈥檚 why my modest proposal for improving schools, ending the de facto segregation of and ones, and even solving the problem of fall babies being before , has always been to unshackle education from age and grade, and allow . It would even save the city money!

In my experience working with hundreds of families to help them for their children, I know that, save a few outliers, most parents don鈥檛 genuinely believe their kids are off-the-charts brilliant (the most advanced boy I ever worked with 鈥� doing algebra at age, not grade, 3 鈥� had a mom who kept insisting he was average). They are merely unhappy with what鈥檚 available in a general ed classroom and see G&T as their one shot at getting something a tiny bit better.

But what if we could do a lot better? For all kids?

What if Richard Carranza is wrong even as he鈥檚 right?

What if we improved the quality of education for all children, not by a little, but by a whole, whole lot?

Alina Adams is a New York Times best-selling romance and mystery writer, the author of Getting Into NYC Kindergarten and Getting Into NYC High School, a blogger at New York School Talk and mother of three. She believes you can’t have true school choice until all parents know all their school choices 鈥� and how to get them. Visit her website, . A version of this essay appeared on the blog.

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