The city’s AI school has been terminated.

Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels pulled the plug on a Manhattan high school focused on artificial intelligence after backlash from woke activists who claimed its merit-based admissions policy would exacerbate racial inequality.

Fierce opposition to the the proposed Next Generation Technology High School included concerns over its focus on AI, but the head of the Panel for Educational Policy said he opposed the school because of its planned “screened” admissions policy.

“While I support the concept of a school dedicated to advanced technology and appreciate the academic rigor of this model, I will unfortunately not be voting to approve the Next Generation proposal,” PEP Chairman Greg Faulkner said in a notice to parents.

He claimed screened schools do not promote “equity and equitable access” and that the admission structure will “further exacerbate existing disparities” among students from different racial and ethnic backgrounds.

Faulkner said he would re-consider his opposition to the AI-themed school if proponents revise its selective admissions policy to be open to all.

“This technology should be taught to everyone,” he said Monday.

A planned opening was set for fall in a building at 26 Broadway, but it seemed highly unlikely the proposal would’ve received enough votes to get through the 24-member panel on Wednesday.

Chalkbeat first reported the chancellor’s decision to derail the AI high school.

Next Generation has a website and 1,000 students have applied for 100 seats.

Supporters of Next Gen Tech said Faulkner’s opposition was misplaced because the applicant pool for the school is 39% Hispanic, 21% black, 20% Asian and 17% white — with the remainder being multiracial or Native American.

“To have the chairman of PEP to say that he’s not going to support a screened school is beyond surprising,” said Linda Quarles, secretary of the Citywide Council on High Schools and Next Gen Tech booster.

Quarles said 120 screened high school programs in the city base admissions on student performance or merit.

Phasing out screened or merit-based schools with rigorous standards will only discourage parents from enrolling their kids in city public school system and encourage them to leave the Big Apple altogether, Quarles said.

“It is a dangerous precedent,” she said. “It’s devastating for the kids.”

Mayor Zohran Mamdani himself attended and graduated from the Bronx High School of Science, a selective school whose admission is based on students’ scores on a single admissions test — though Hizzoner now wants to phase out selective “gifted and talented” programs in the lower grades.

A rep for Chancellor Samuels confirmed that he pulled Next Gen from consideration, along with other controversial decisions to close Upper West Side middle schools PS 191 and Manhattan School for Children and relocate The Center School.

Samuels grappled with those proposals as the Manhattan District 3 superintendent before being appointed chancellor by Mamdani.

“We take family and community feedback very seriously and, after careful consideration, we have decided to withdraw some of the proposals from the April 29 PEP agenda,” a city Department of Education spokesperson said.

---

Follow live updates on Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s socialist agenda and the latest in NYC politics

---

“Ensuring that every child has access to academically rigorous and truly integrated education remains our focus, and withdrawing these proposals is not an end to these important conversations,” the spokesperson added. “To our school communities: we heard you. “

By design, Next Gen Tech would be an academically rigorous school with a strong math and science curriculum with calculus offered in the 11th grade. Technology courses would include coding while students could earn certificates in digital music audio production and cybersecurity.

NGT planned to partner with Carnegie Mellon University and Google.

Caleb Haraguchi-Combs, a former assistant principal at the Manhattan Center for Science and Math, planned to be the founding principal of the aborted school, which would have shared a building with Richard Green High School and the Lower Manhattan Community Middle School.

It would have replaced the Urban Assembly School of Business for Young Women, which is slated to close due to low enrollment. PEP will still vote on the proposed closure, officials said.

Parents and educators with the Lower Manhattan Community Middle School had opposed the AI-based school coming into the building, saying they wanted to use the vacant space and expand to include high school grades nine to 12.