Admission to New York City’s elite high schools is determined by one test and one test only. As a result of this policy, few black or Hispanic students are admitted to these schools. Diversity has dropped sharply in the past several years.

Civil rights groups are suing the city.

Consider these startling facts:

“Although 70 percent of the city’s public school students are black and Hispanic, a far smaller percentage have scored high enough to receive offers from one of the schools. According to the complaint, 733 of the 12,525 black and Hispanic students who took the exam were offered seats this year. For whites, 1,253 of the 4,101 test takers were offered seats. Of 7,119 Asian students who took the test, 2,490 were offered seats. At Stuyvesant High School, the most sought-after school, 19 blacks were offered seats in a freshman class of 967.”

Imagine that: Only 19 black students in a class of 967.

At a news conference, Mayor Bloomberg said that the exam schools are “designed for the best and the brightest” and he saw no reason to change the policy or state law that permits it.