FDNY Burning Lots of Cash For New Firemen’s Test
The Fire Department of New York is paying 3.3 million dollars for the creation of their brand spanking new civil service exam. They also plan to spend another 5 million in staffing and advertising the test.
The last fireman exam created in 2007 was ruled by a Brooklyn judge to be discriminatory against minorities. According to the Daily News, “The requirement to hire an expensive outside consultant has sent costs soaring, City Hall insiders grumbled.”
These grumbling insiders are really the ones to blame here.
Steven Thrasher from The Village Voice wrote in last years cover story, “FDNY’S Black Firefighter Problem”, that even the minorities that did well on the “racially biased test” didn’t end up getting hired by the city.
Thrasher spoke to a black applicant who said:
“They blatantly say that the test is the problem. It’s not rocket science. It doesn’t require a higher degree of education,” he says. “There are hypothetical situations, and they give you information, and you have to regurgitate that information. You don’t need to already be a firefighter to understand it.”
The test that’s mostly based on what Thrasher calls “logic questions” isn’t to blame here — it’s obviously the city’s methods for hiring and recruitment. (Photo: bitchcakes)
Editor-in-Chief:
I am African American woman and I believe that the fire exam is just like any other civil service exam. Has anybody consider that some minorities do not want to take this test because they are not interested in being a a firefighter. Why does color always have to be an issue? I want to gain my employment through my experience and education, not by color. I attend John Jay College, I met several firefighters in my class from different parts of New York and New Jersey. They seem to be ok with minorities. So what is the big problem. The exam should remain the same, its common sense and there after you must work hard. Which I believe in. Leave race out of this.