Ms. Archer is obviously super bright and well informed BUT, Jonathan, as a parent of a NYC public school kid who is finishing up the high school process, she has some incorrect information about the process. For example, while technically, you can go to any high school in NYC regardless of borough, MANY of the school do not choose children outside of their district or borough. There are schools in Queens, Brooklyn and Staten Island that don't take kids from Manhattan. There are schools in District 2 - Manhattan, that only give priority to District 2 kids. There is work being done to have schools opt into 60% free lunch kids before accepting kids who are above that economic line - which is it's own kind of racism to assume that all kids who get free lunch are children of color and you are going to get a more equitable classroom if you do that. I think you should get curious about how the NYC public school system middle and high school process. It's quite the ride for the 1million families that participate in it!
No doubt NYC has the most segregated system - no argument there - just need to go deeper than we aren't going to give a test or submit a portfolio for high school acceptance. These types of things high light talent and allow children to get into schools that will be right for them.