In the current New York Magazine article “Five-Year-Olds at the Gate,” Andrew Beveridge comments on the glut of kindergarteners in the New York City School System.

Writer Jeff Coplon examines the conflict between the increase in the number of New York City’s toddlers with the lack of kindergarten seats: “Why are Manhattan’s elementary schools turning away kindergartners? How the Bloomberg administration missed the baby boom it helped create.”  Beveridge reacted to the city’s handling of over-filled kindergartens, “They knew this was coming,” Beveridge said. “But they’re acting like, ‘Oh, Jesus, this is a surprise.’ ”

The article also highlights findings from Beveridge’s research:

In a 2007 study of 2005 census data, demographer Andrew Beveridge found three transformative facts:

First, Manhattan’s under-5 set had shot up by 32 percent in five years, compared to roughly 4 percent for the population overall.

Second, most of the growth came from white toddlers, up a stunning 40 percent. They outnumbered their black and Latino peers for the first time since Lyndon Johnson ruled the White House.

Third, those 35,000 white toddlers were exceedingly fortunate. Compared with New Yorkers in general, their parents were older (mostly thirtysomethings) and better educated and with a median income of $284,208—89 percent more than the next richest group of white-toddler households, in San Francisco.

Professor Beveridge’s analysis was previously reported on by Sam Robert for the New York Times, In Surge in Manhattan Toddlers, Rich White Families Lead Way.