Chalkbeat

Zohran Mamdani’s thin education agenda didn’t stop a surge of donations from NYC DOE employees

2025-12-03T20:51:57+00:00

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Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani received the highest number of individual donations from New York City Education Department employees than any other winning candidate since mayoral control was implemented, a Chalkbeat analysis of more than 20 years of election data found.

Over 500 city residents working in the city’s largest school district donated approximately $40,000 to Mamdani’s campaign, according to the city’s Campaign Finance Board where donors self-report.

However, while Mamdani had more individual donations from Education Department employees than any other winning candidate since 2002, Mayor Eric Adams received the most amount of money donated by DOE employees when he ran in 2021. Roughly 300 DOE employees donated to Adams’ campaign in 2021, which received over $55,000 from those working for the city’s Education Department.

The United Federation of Teachers endorsed Mamdani in the general election after avoiding picking a candidate during the Democratic primary. And even after the union came out in favor of Mamdani, members continued to debate his thin political record as well as the candidate’s position on Israel and the crisis in the Gaza strip, causing some turmoil within the union.

Mamdani won just over half of the city’s vote in November. Among his few K-12 ideas, Mamdani’s push for ending mayoral control and removing the gifted and talented program for kindergartens sparked controversy, yet teachers Chalkbeat spoke to were drawn to his affordability plan.

Mamdani’s campaign galvanized New Yorkers across the city, attracting about 53,890 donations. That’s more than twice as many donors as Mayor Eric Adams had when he won four years ago and former chief Bill de Blasio for his 2013 and 2017 victories.

In terms of total amount raised, Mamdani’s roughly $4 million was the least among the winning candidates since mayoral control of the city’s Education Department began. After Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who donated over $200 million to himself in total for his three campaigns from 2001 to 2009, de Blasio led with over $11 million in 2013.

No employee from the city’s education department donated to Bloomberg’s campaign, according to available records.

Chalkbeat’s analysis only included donors who listed the education department or a specific public school in the employment section.

More than half of DOE donors who supported Mamdani’s campaign identified themselves as teachers, including substitute and special education teachers.

Jonathan Collins, a professor at Teachers College at Columbia University, said it’s not surprising that New York City teachers, whose salaries range from $68,902 to $123,939 for this school year, support a candidate whose leading campaign promise is affordable housing, transportation, and living.

“Amongst the professions where you see degree earners … teachers tend to make the least and so they’re underpaid relative to their level of educational attainment,” Collins said. “They are middle class people paid like working class people. They’re particularly interested in these affordability campaigns.”

Some teachers who donated to Mamdani’s campaign acknowledged his K-12 education agenda was not a big part of his platform.

Emma Webley, a bilingual teacher at P.S 89 Cypress Hills in Brooklyn, said while canvassing for Mamdani, many educators would question his lack of education policies. She agrees with Mamdani’s opposition to mayoral control but admits the mayor-elect needs to polish his stance more, such as clarifying whether Adams’ mandatory reading curriculum, known as NYC Reads, will continue in his administration.

“It would make sense for him to be focusing on housing and other issues first and then moving on to what is happening in the classroom. But if that didn’t happen ... in the first year of his leadership, then I would be asking questions,” she said.

Kyle DeAngelis, a third grade teacher at Harlem’s P.S 368, also known as the William Lynch School, met Mamdani in February at an “Educators for Zohran” meetup, a coalition of teachers independent of the campaign, advocating for the mayor-elect. DeAngelis was impressed by the candidate, he said, and discussed hiring more counselors and social workers to provide mental health services for students. Mamdani agreed and from there, the third grade teacher knew he would rank the Queens assemblymen first.

He felt compelled to donate and volunteer for Mamdani’s campaign because living on a teacher’s salary in the city is challenging, and his salary raises have not kept up with inflation. He was also drawn to Mamdani’s affordability agenda since food and housing insecurity is a constant issue his students have brought up in class.

“It’s not just what’s going on within the four walls of the classroom,” DeAngelis said. “When children cannot afford or families can’t afford childcare, when they can’t afford groceries, when they can’t afford rent, when they can’t afford healthcare, these are all things that have a profound impact on the work that we do in classrooms every day.”

Ananya Chetia is a reporting intern with Chalkbeat NY. Contact Ananya at achetia@chalkbeat.org.

Charter leaders, union officials, and education advocates rush to influence Mamdani’s schools agenda

2025-11-05T21:51:33+00:00

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After Zohran Mamdani’s election victory on Tuesday night, education advocates across New York City swiftly offered words of encouragement and began pitching ideas to help shape the mayor-elect’s schools agenda.

Some groups urged Mamdani to continue Mayor Eric Adams’ signature curriculum reforms. Others praised his focus on affordability and expressed excitement about his pledge for universal child care. And charter school leaders said they want to build bridges with the incoming mayor, even though the Mamdani campaign criticized the sector on the campaign trail.

Mamdani has said little about his vision for the nation’s largest school system — giving outside groups an opening to help shape his thinking. Mamdani has signaled he is willing to listen to new ideas and has pledged to give families and educators a greater voice.

On Wednesday, Mamdani announced a handful of advisors to begin his transition to City Hall. They include Melanie Hartzog, the leader of New York Foundling, which operates some early childhood and other education programs. Hartzog previously served in city government, including as a deputy mayor and top budget official under former Mayor Bill de Blasio.

Mamdani also tapped Grace Bonilla, CEO of the United Way of New York City, which also operates education programs. She previously worked in the administration of former Mayor Michael Bloomberg. None of the leaders of the transition team Mamdani announced on Wednesday have deep experience in K-12 education.

Teacher groups push to keep Adams’ signature education initiative

Under Adams, the school system made big changes to reading and math instruction, mandating specific reading programs for elementary schools and for Algebra 1 in high school. Curriculum shifts are underway at middle schools, too.

Educators for Excellence, a teacher advocacy group, said Mamdani should keep those efforts going. The group pointed to rising test scores as evidence of success, though experts have cautioned it is difficult to directly attribute the gains to the curriculum changes. Michael Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers, which endorsed Mamdani, also said he hopes the mayor-elect stays the course.

“Changing the curriculums constantly is not a good thing for us,” Mulgrew told Chalkbeat.

Mamdani has indicated he is open to keeping some of those curriculum changes in place, though he has also said teachers should have more flexibility in how they are used.

Charter leaders offer an olive branch

Mamdani has made no secret of his skepticism of charter schools, which educate about 15% of the city’s public school students, arguing they divert resources from city-run public schools. While the mayor’s power over charter schools is limited, Mamdani said he plans to conduct audits of them. (Charter schools are publicly funded but privately managed.)

Charter school leaders staged a massive rally weeks before the primary, warning of threats to the sector. But some charter leaders took a warmer tone after Mamdani’s win on Tuesday, noting that his message on affordability resonated with many families.

“We look forward to a mayor who will unite us, strengthen us and provide us the resources our children and families deserve,” James Merriman, CEO of the New York City Charter School Center, said in a statement.

Some Mamdani critics hope to work with him

Parent Leaders for Accelerated Curriculum and Education, or PLACE, has been a major critic of Mamdani’s education proposals — including ending mayoral control of schools and scrapping gifted programs that begin in kindergarten.

Yiatin Chu, the group’s co-founder, still hopes to find common ground with the mayor-elect on issues like chronic absenteeism, the state’s class size reduction mandate, and attracting more families to the public school system amid declining enrollment. (PLACE endorsed former Gov. Andrew Cuomo.)

“I believe that we have the pulse on public school families,” Chu said. “Of course we would like to work with him and his chancellor.”

Education advocates praise focus on universal child care, affordability

Multiple education groups expressed excitement about one of Mamdani’s central campaign pledges: to roll out universal free child care starting when children are 6 weeks old.

The Alliance for Quality Education, an advocacy group, praised Mamdani’s focus on affordability and noted he is the first mayoral candidate the organization has ever endorsed.

“We have fought for a future where every child can learn in a well-funded school, where child care is accessible to all, and where people do not have to choose between caring for their children and paying rent or putting food on the table,” the organization’s co-directors, Zakiyah Shaakir-Ansari and Marina Marcou-O’Malley, said in a statement. “We believe Zohran shares that vision.”

Union officials also cheered Mamdani’s win. Mulgrew, head of the teachers union, said he and the incoming mayor are aligned on many of the union’s priorities, including ramping up teacher hiring and boosting pay for aides who work with students with disabilities. The union chief also praised Mamdani’s comment to bolster the city’s prekindergarten program for 3-year-olds, launch free child care, and root out wasteful spending.

Still, the union chief acknowledged that it remains to be seen what Mamdani will prioritize.

“I’m not sure exactly what his signature issue is going to be,” Mulgrew said.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Mamdani wins mayoral election. Here’s what it means for NYC schools.

2025-11-05T03:23:39+00:00

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Zohran Mamdani won Tuesday’s New York City mayoral election, putting the 34-year-old Democratic Socialist in charge of the nation’s largest school system at a time when graduation rates have risen but college readiness is low and too many students are still failing to show up to class regularly.

He won a little more than 50% of the vote, beating former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who ran as an independent and won roughly 41% of the vote, according to the Associated Press, which called the race with 75% of the votes tallied. Republican Curtis Sliwa trailed with about 7% of votes. Mamdani becomes the first Muslim mayor of New York City.

One of the most pressing questions ahead for the mayor-elect is whether he will end two decades of mayoral control, a governance model that gives the chief executive enormous power over the city’s schools, including the selection of its chancellor.

Mamdani’s campaign galvanized the youth vote, but the Queens state assemblyman didn’t display a deep interest or expertise in education in the race, and he doesn’t have much of a record of school-related legislation from his time in Albany. Until recently, his campaign website devoted just one 168-word paragraph to K-12 education. But overseeing New York City public schools is no small feat: It has a $41 billion budget, 150,000 staffers, and nearly 900,000 students at more than 1,600 schools.

The school system’s graduation rates have soared 30 percentage points over the past two decades, and state test scores for reading and math have improved since the pandemic. But a closer look at a range of metrics reveals that student progress may be more stagnant than some of these figures indicate.

Just 52% of high school students in 2024 were considered ready to succeed in freshman-level college coursework, according to a recent audit from the state comptroller’s office. Students’ scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP, were essentially the same last year as in 2003. And schools are facing a crisis of chronic absenteeism, with 1 in 3 students missing at least 10% of school last year.

The fate of mayoral control remains murky

Prior to mayoral control, schools were governed by the Board of Education and a decentralized system in which the city’s 32 districts had a lot of power over their own budgets, hiring, and contracts. Complaints about corruption, patronage, and fiefdoms ran rampant.

Today, the mayor chooses the schools chancellor and appoints the majority of members of the Panel for Educational Policy, which votes on major Education Department contracts and school closures.

Mamdani has echoed criticisms that mayoral control gives little say to parents and educators on decisions that directly affect them. He has promised a system of “co-governance” with existing parent councils and school-level leadership teams, though he has offered few details on how that would work.

But how much power he is willing to give up remains to be seen.

“I remain opposed to mayoral control,” Mamdani said at the final debate last month, “and I also believe that the mayor is accountable for that which happens in this city.”

He has yet to define what that accountability means.

Mamdani’s biggest education agenda, free child care — which focuses on the littlest New Yorkers rather than the K-12 system — could prove challenging to enact if the system’s 32 districts are controlled locally. Mayor Bill de Blasio’s ambitious initiative scaling up prekindergarten for 4-year-olds could not have happened without mayoral control, the city’s former chief executive has said.

Lawmakers will consider whether to continue the current system in June 2026. Some education advocates, who met recently with Mamdani’s team, are pushing for a short-term renewal while a commission would create a more detailed plan.

Finding ways to better support teachers

Mamdani, who was endorsed by the United Federation of Teachers in the general election, often talks about the importance of lowering class sizes. To help meet the state’s mandate for capping classrooms — at 20-25 students depending on grade level — Mamdani unveiled a $12 million plan to recruit 1,000 teachers a year by offering tuition assistance to those who commit to teach in city schools for three years.

He also supports Mayor Eric Adams’ literacy and math instruction overhaul, but has emphasized the importance of teachers having more input over how the mandated curriculums are implemented.

In the final debate, Mamdani’s tone on the reading curriculum changes — and the school system overall — shifted a bit, sounding more pessimistic than previously.

“We are not even on track to ensure greater literacy levels across those schools, despite the strides that have been taken with NYC Reads,” Mamdani said. (Reading scores ticked up on the latest state tests, though it’s unclear to what extent the curriculum changes are responsible for those improvements.)

Promises to focus on vulnerable students

When discussing how to fix education, Mamdani has often expressed that larger systemic issues, like homelessness and hunger, need to be addressed too. The city has “grown numb” to the numbers of homeless and hungry children and the segregation in its public schools, he told Chalkbeat on the campaign trail.

“This continues to be a focus for my campaign of putting forward a vision for our school system,” he said.

In responding to a Chalkbeat questionnaire about the most pressing problems of the city schools, he offered some hints that he’d want to focus on the system’s most vulnerable children, including students with disabilities and homeless children. Roughly 154,000 students lived in shelters or doubled up with other families or friends last year, a record high.

He also said he’d support the city’s community school model, providing wraparound services, such as mental health or dental clinics and other social services. The city currently runs more than 400 community schools, and the city’s teachers union supports the model, which has shown some promising results.

Stirring up debate on gifted programs

Mamdani recently reopened a long-running debate over the city’s gifted and talented program in elementary school, saying he wanted to eliminate gifted classes with a kindergarten entry point.

The program has come under fire by integration advocates since it enrolls disproportionately few Black and Latino students relative to their population in the school system as a whole. In the past few years, the program switched from basing admissions on a test given to 4-year-olds to teacher recommendations. Teachers, however, overwhelmingly recommend students.

New York remains an outlier in sorting in kindergarten for gifted and talented programs.

Mamdani did voice support for keeping gifted programs starting in third grade. But many of the programs for third graders, started by the Adams administration and focused on undeserved areas, have failed to gain traction.

And while Mamdani has expressed interest in overhauling gifted programs, he backed away from previous calls to eliminate the Specialized High School Admissions Test, which serves as the sole basis of entry for eight high schools, including Mamdani’s alma mater, Bronx Science.

Mamdani has also discussed tackling problems with Education Department procurement and expanding solar panels on schools. His overarching vision for the school system, however, remains opaque.

“We’ve been wanting to see how these different ideas fit together,”Jonathan Collins, professor of political science and education at Columbia University Teachers College, previously told Chalkbeat, “and instead he’s been pivoting from one idea to another.”

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Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

From TikTok to the ballot: How Mamdani is winning over NYC youth

2025-10-30T12:30:00+00:00

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It may come as no surprise that students at Bronx Science, Zohran Mamdani’s alma mater, are cheering on the 34-year-old mayoral frontrunner.

Students outside the specialized high school last week liked Mamdani’s youth, that he was raised by immigrant parents, and that he’s a person of color, saying those were good qualities for a mayor of New York City.

The Queens state assemblyman is gaining traction with students beyond Bronx Science too — even winning over some students at Archbishop Molloy High School, the esteemed Queens Catholic school former Gov. Andrew Cuomo graduated from 50 years ago.

“I love Mamdani,” said Katie Brophy, 17, standing outside Molloy last week. Katie supports Mamdani’s city-run grocery store proposal to support low-income residents.

Students told Chalkbeat they learned about some of Mamdani’s proposals — like free city buses and increasing the minimum wage — through watching him on TikTok visiting bodegas and different parts of the city. They connected with his straightforward messages about making the city more affordable. In his first pitch on the campaign trail, the video has quick scene cuts, a warm tone filter that softens the city, with Mamdani speaking against a rhythmic beat.

Mamdani’s celebrity status online has grown to include more than a million TikTok followers, while Cuomo has just 14,000 followers. Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa has nearly 200,000 followers, but some students still struggled to identify him by name.

Voting patterns highlight a generational divide in the race. During the Democratic primary, Cuomo led with voters above age 50, but Mamdani won, with twice as many votes from those under 50 as his opponents, according to an Emerson College poll.

More than 90,000 young voters ages 25 to 34 led in early voting registration in the primaries. Meanwhile, during the first weekend of early voting in the general election, voters over 55 made up just over half of overall voters, Gothamist reported.

City residents ages 18 or above can vote in the upcoming mayoral election on Nov. 4. Early voting started Saturday and runs through Nov. 2.

Mamdani moved here from Uganda at the age of 7 with his parents, Mira Nair, a filmmaker, and Mahmood Mamdani, a professor at Columbia University. He graduated from Bronx Science in 2010. Cuomo, who is the son of former Gov. Mario Cuomo, was born in Queens and graduated from Molloy — where his picture hangs in the school’s Hall of Fame — in 1975, when it was an all-boys school. Brooklyn-born Guardian Angels founder Sliwa attended an all-boys Jesuit high school called Brooklyn Preparatory School before being expelled in 1972 and then failing to graduate at Canarsie High School. Both schools Sliwa attended do not exist anymore. (Canarsie High School was replaced by multiple schools at what’s now called the Canarsie Education Complex.)

New York City’s former schools Chancellor David Banks called Mamdani the candidate of the “new, young generation.”

“The fact that he got so many young people engaged in this process. I find that very, very exciting,” Banks told Chalkbeat. “He just built an army of young people who hit the streets. I haven’t seen that kind of energy in a long, long time.”

Dev Brar, a senior from Bronx Science, said he’s voting for Mamdani because of his promise to increase the minimum wage to $30 dollars an hour by 2030. He also doesn’t come across Cuomo’s advertisements.

“Cuomo’s campaigns are on TV, and I don’t really watch that,” Dev said of the former governor.

Mamdani’s appeal among young people isn’t universal, however. There were some rabid opponents to the frontrunner at Cuomo’s old stomping grounds. A student in Molloy’s navy polo uniform driving a white sedan, rolled the windows down on a recent Friday after school and yelled, “F— Mamdani!”

From fighting Trump to free bus-skepticism, students share their views

Senior Jillian Kahn from Molloy, said all the candidates “have significant drawbacks.” She supported Sliwa’s commitment to reforming animal shelters and affordable housing.

“But sometimes when he speaks, he sounds like he’s in a dreamworld,” she said.

She was skeptical of Mamdani’s proposal to make buses free, adding that this was the state government’s responsibility instead. If Jillian had to choose, she’d pick Cuomo.

But many students in the Bronx and Queens were troubled by sexual harassment allegations against Cuomo and death rates at nursing homes during the pandemic while he was governor. Cuomo denied the harassment claims and called the federal nursing home investigation politically motivated.

“He loves his rich billionaire friends,” Katie said, referring to his deep-pocketed campaign donors. She also cited the harassment allegations as a reason to steer clear of supporting him.

Another point in Mamdani’s favor, several students said, was how the frontrunner said he would stand up to the Trump administration.

Out of the three candidates, Mamdani is the most vocal about fighting President Donald Trump, said Bronx Science student Madiha Bukhari. The 17-year-old was particularly mad about the Trump administration cutting $400 million from Columbia University in March. (The university paid a $200 million fine to partially recover funding cuts.)

Going to the same high school as the mayoral frontrunner was a point of pride for Madiha, who like Mamdani, also lost a race for the school’s vice presidency.

“We have that in common,” said Madiha. As someone who is Muslim and part Indian, she said she “feels a cultural connection” with him too.

Senior Tory George from DeWitt Clinton High School, located near Bronx Science, felt she could relate to his identity too.

“He’s brown, he’s young, he’s actually a New Yorker,” she said about Mamdani. Free buses and rent freezes also appealed to her.

Beyond city reform, students want to see the next mayor tackle a variety of issues to support the nation’s largest public school system, including increasing funding for schools and serving “better food” at the cafeterias.

None of the mayoral candidates have made education a focal point this election, despite the Department of Education being the largest city agency.

Sixteen-year-old Sadar Shan wants Mamdani to invest in mental health facilities at schools. At Bronx Science, where Sadar currently attends, there are 12 counselors for roughly 3,000 students.

“That’s just not enough attention needed per student,” Sadar said.

Like Madiha and several other students Chalkbeat spoke to, stopping Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from violently arresting city residents — and fighting Trump’s policies — was on Sadar’s priority list.

“[Mamdani] can stop Trump from taking over the city,” he said.

Ananya Chetia is a reporting intern for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Ananya at achetia@chalkbeat.org.

Mamdani campaign quietly convenes education advocates to shape schools agenda

2025-10-28T12:30:00+00:00

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Though New York City’s public school system has not been a focal point of Zohran Mamdani mayoral agenda, his campaign has quietly started reaching out to education advocates to collect ideas.

Last week, a handful of Mamdani campaign staffers organized a roundtable discussion with dozens of education advocates, parent leaders, and experts to solicit input on what Mamdani should prioritize if he is elected on Nov. 4, multiple people in attendance told Chalkbeat.

The conversation covered several broad topics in virtual breakout rooms, including funding, community schools, literacy, “privatization,” youth groups, students with disabilities, English language learners, children experiencing homelessness, and artificial intelligence, according to a meeting agenda.

One topic of discussion was Mamdani’s vow to end mayoral control of the city’s public schools, which allows the mayor to select a schools chancellor and appoint the majority of the Panel for Educational Policy, or PEP, a board that votes on major contracts and policy decisions. Mamdani has pledged to replace mayoral control with a “co-governance” model that includes more input from students, educators, and parents, though he has not said what that might look like.

Jonathan Greenberg, a Queens parent leader invited to give a short presentation on mayoral control at the meeting, laid out a plan backed by the Education Council Consortium, a coalition of parent leaders. The proposal would extend the mayoral control law in the short term while giving the mayor fewer votes on the PEP. (State law grants the authority of mayoral control, which is up for renewal in June 2026.)

“That would create a functional PEP that would have to be engaged and have meaningful discussion on the issues rather than simply taking what the mayor says and voting,” Greenberg said.

Meanwhile, a commission would come up with a more detailed vision for reforming the school governance system to be implemented later.

The Mamdani staffers who participated in the meeting did not weigh in on that proposal.

“I wish they had, but really they just listened,” Greenberg said.

Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is running as an independent, has said it would be a “terrible mistake” to roll back mayoral control and has criticized Mamdani for not having a clear education platform.

The education roundtable also included conversation about an advisory group report released in 2019 under Mayor Bill de Blasio that offered recommendations for improving school diversity, according to the agenda. Mamdani has referenced it several times on the campaign trail, including in a proposal to phase out gifted programs for kindergarten students.

Several major advocacy groups attended, including the Alliance for Quality Education. A staffer from Advocates for Children, which helps low-income families navigate the school system, delivered a presentation on the organization’s recommendations for whoever the next mayor is. Multiple attendees said City Council education chair Rita Joseph participated as did Jamaal Bowman, a former congressman and Bronx middle school principal. Both have been rumored as possible chancellor candidates.

Planting seeds for a Mamdani transition?

The meeting offers a window into a possible Mamdani K-12 policy agenda that may be taking shape as Election Day on Nov. 4 nears. The 34-year-old Democratic Socialist has offered few detailed plans for how he would lead the nation’s largest school district, serving over 900,000 students in roughly 1,600 schools.

He has emphasized that he would focus on the city’s most vulnerable children, including doubling a program that deploys school staff to check in with homeless students and their caregivers to serve about 7,000 children. In response to a questionnaire from Chalkbeat about new ideas for improving some of the city’s lowest performing schools, he expressed support of community schools, which offer a range of wraparound services like mental health support and food pantries.

Mamdani’s staffers told attendees they were interested in education policy ideas that connect to affordability, a major campaign theme that underpins his proposals to roll out universal child care and freeze rent for tenants in stabilized units. They also asked attendees to consider potential threats from the Trump administration or economic trends as well as practices in other cities that New York could adopt, according to multiple attendees.

Some attendees who have been pushing the campaign to engage more on education issues cheered the opportunity to weigh in.

“It’s great that they’re finally digging into this work,” said Kaliris Salas-Ramirez, a president of the local parent council in East Harlem. “Was it a little later than I hoped? Yeah, absolutely.”

In recent weeks the frontrunner has outlined some new policy ideas, including plans to recruit 1,000 additional teachers a year and reform the Education Department’s contracting process to stamp out redundant spending and waste.

Erika Kendall, president of the local parent council in Brooklyn’s District 17, covering Crown Heights, helped lead a conversation about charter schools during the roundtable. She emphasized some of the ways that charters can draw public resources that she believes could be used in traditional public schools, such as a requirement that city officials subsidize their rent if they don’t offer space in public buildings. (Mamdani has expressed reservations about the publicly funded yet privately managed schools, though he will have little formal power over them.)

“The goal was to hear from as many people as possible — to understand what people are seeing on the ground,” Kendall said, noting the conversation was productive. “I don’t think they were prepared for how comprehensive these conversations were going to be.”

Meanwhile, at least one parent group, Parent Leaders for Accelerated Curriculum and Education, or PLACE, expressed frustration that they were not included. The organization favors expanding selective admissions and endorsed Cuomo.

“As a grassroots parent advocacy group that has advocated for high quality public education, which Mamdani said would be a priority, we are disappointed that we were not invited to the table,” Yiatin Chu, the group’s co-founder, wrote in an email. “Additionally, we extended an invitation to his campaign to discuss his education platform and got no answer.”

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Voter guide: Where the NYC mayoral candidates stand on the future of education

2025-10-24T20:40:06+00:00

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New York City’s next mayor will oversee the nation’s largest school system: more than 1,600 schools serving roughly 900,000 students with about 150,000 employees.

Its $40 billion budget makes it the largest city agency.

And yet, the candidates have not made education a central theme.

Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani’s affordability agenda includes free child care, but he has a slim K-12 platform. He’s offered some hints that he’d want to focus on the system’s most vulnerable children, including students with disabilities and the growing number of homeless students. A record high of the city students — 154,000 — lived last year in shelters or doubled up in homes with friends or family.

Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is running as an independent, has positioned himself as the champion of selective admissions, calling for doubling specialized high schools and expanding gifted and talented programs — both of which serve a fraction of the city’s students and disproportionately enroll white and Asian American children.

And Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa vowed to slash $10 billion from the Education Department’s budget, roughly 42% of how much the city spends on schools. (Mamdani has also called for tackling wasteful department spending.)

Perhaps the most consequential education idea Mamdani has espoused about the city’s school system: having less control over it.

Here’s a closer look at some of the educational issues that have come up on the campaign trail.

What might the future of mayoral control look like?

Ever since Michael Bloomberg won sweeping control over the school system in 2002, including the power to appoint the schools chancellor, every mayor has lobbied state lawmakers to keep this governance model in place.

Mayoral control’s supporters say it creates a clear line of accountability: The buck stops with the mayor, who wields enormous influence over the Education Department’s budget.

Mamdani has vowed to “end” mayoral control, embracing a longstanding critique that it gives little say to parents and educators on decisions that directly affect them. The frontrunner has promised a system of “co-governance” with existing parent councils and school-level leadership teams, though has offered scant details on how that would work.

At the same time, he has said, the mayor should still be held accountable for the public school system — raising questions about how much power he is willing to relinquish.

“I remain opposed to mayoral control, and I also believe that the mayor is accountable for that which happens in this city,” Mamdani said in this week’s debate.

Both of Mamdani’s opponents support mayoral control.

Cuomo recently said it would be a “terrible mistake” to roll it back.

“That’s probably been the most dramatic educational reform in 40 years,” Cuomo said. “We’d go back to the old system that had local school boards, which were corrupt patronage mills.”

Whoever is elected must soon negotiate with state lawmakers over mayoral control, which is up for renewal in 2026. (It’s typically extended every couple years.)

How will the city meet the challenges to shrink classes?

Over the next two years, all New York City public school classrooms must be capped between 20-25 students under a state law. That will require thousands of new teachers, billions of dollars, and thorny tradeoffs at overcrowded campuses.

Mamdani, who was endorsed by the United Federation of Teachers, recently unveiled a plan to recruit 1,000 teachers a year by offering tuition assistance in exchange for a three-year teaching commitment. The $12 million plan won’t be enough to fully staff smaller classes, Mamdani acknowledged. To speed up the process of building new classroom space, he has also called for filling vacancies at the School Construction Authority, the agency overseeing such projects.

During the primary, Cuomo expressed support for the class size law, though he cautioned it would be difficult to implement without an infusion of new funding from the state. In recent weeks, however, the former governor’s tone has shifted considerably. In a town hall meeting with parent leaders last month, he decried the law as “detached from reality” and “reckless.”

“It is an impossibility without funding,” Cuomo said. Sliwa shares that position.

What will happen to Mayor Eric Adams’ curriculum mandates?

Mayor Eric Adams’ main educational agenda has focused on overhauling reading and math instruction. All elementary campuses must now use city-approved reading curriculums. High schools transitioned to a standard Algebra 1 program. A growing number of middle schools must use city-approved literacy and math programs, too.

In a rare instance of agreement, the candidates have said they generally support the reading curriculum changes. Cuomo has raised concerns about whether the mandated math curriculums are as strong. Mamdani said teachers should have more control over how the curriculums are implemented.

Yet in a recent debate, Mamdani took a more pessimistic tone on the reading curriculum changes — and the school system more broadly.

Mamdani has not laid out a detailed vision for improving instruction, but in a meeting with business leaders over the summer, he suggested artificial intelligence could be a useful tool in crafting lesson plans and reduce the number of employees at the Education Department, the Wall Street Journal reported. More recently, he walked back some of those comments, saying AI should supplement rather than replace staffers.

How can NYC fix its failing schools?

Mayors have taken widely different approaches to the city’s lowest-performing campuses. Bloomberg closed many large high schools and opened new, smaller ones in their place. His successor, Bill de Blasio, flooded campuses with social services and academic support, viewing closures as a last resort.

Cuomo has indicated he would shutter schools in the bottom 5% of reading and math performance on state tests, or those with graduation rates below 60%. In their place, the city should open new programs, including charters or high schools that offer students early college credits, he said. (Opening new charter schools would require approval from state lawmakers who have generally been hostile to the sector.)

Mamdani has not outlined a clear plan for improving schools, which Cuomo seized on in the final weeks of the campaign. The Democratic nominee indicated that he is more in line with de Blasio’s vision and said he would support a network of more than 400 community schools that provide wraparound support, pointing to mental health services, tutoring, and other social services.

“While the research on large-scale school improvement initiatives is limited, it is critical to implement strategies that are grounded in data,” Mamdani wrote in response to a Chalkbeat questionnaire, pointing to some encouraging evidence on the community school model.

He has also expressed reservations about the charter sector, which enjoyed support under Bloomberg, arguing they siphon resources from traditional public schools and has vowed to audit them.

What might happen to gifted programs, specialized high schools?

Debate over the city’s gifted and talented program heated up again after Mamdani indicated he wanted to eliminate the classes that start in kindergarten and keep the program starting in third grade. Cuomo and Sliwa both said they would expand gifted programs with kindergarten entry.

Adams had opened dozens of new programs for third graders in underserved areas, a way to address a thorny issue vexing the city’s gifted system: It admits disproportionately few Black and Latino students compared to their share of the population citywide.

For kindergarten gifted and talented classes, students win seats based on prekindergarten teacher recommendations. Though acceptance no longer relies on testing 4-year-olds, a much criticized process, educators still have concerns about sorting kindergartners. Many of the new third grade programs, however — which invite students to apply based on their report cards — are failing to attract applicants.

While Mamdani has expressed interest in curtailing certain gifted programs, he has backed away from his previous stance calling to eliminate the Specialized High School Admissions Test, which serves as the sole basis of entry for eight schools including Stuyvesant, Brooklyn Tech, and Mamdani’s alma mater, Bronx Science. Many integration advocates have blasted the test as fueling the lack of offers to Black and Latino students. He previously told Chalkbeat that he would analyze the test for gender and racial bias.

Cuomo called for expanding the number of specialized high schools to 18 and said he would consider bringing back more selective admissions for other schools. Sliwa has also expressed support for increasing the number of specialized schools.

Who will be the next schools chancellor?

One of the most significant personnel decisions the next mayor will face is who to appoint to lead the nation’s largest school system.

Mamdani has said little about how he will make the decision or if he will conduct a national search. He has indicated that he is open to keeping Melissa Aviles-Ramos, the current schools chancellor appointed by Adams, which would represent a break from previous mayors who have appointed their own schools chief.

It’s also unclear whether he would be willing to give up any of his power to appoint a schools chancellor, a major element of mayoral control.

Cuomo declined to say who he would select when asked during a recent debate. Sliwa said he would appoint Robert Holden, a Queens City Council member.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex atazimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy atazimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Free pre-K isn’t enough: Why families with young kids are leaving NYC before kindergarten

2025-10-22T19:00:47+00:00

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Mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani’s big education agenda, free child care for all, aims to keep families with young children in New York City.

But would the program, costing an estimated $6 billion a year, convince families to stay for elementary school?

Child care is just one piece of an interconnected web of affordability and education issues that influence whether families leave the city when they have children. Also in play: housing, availability of after-school programs, school quality, and navigating school admissions, whether for kindergarten or looking ahead to middle and high school. For many, having a second or third child also changes the calculus, several parents told Chalkbeat.

The city’s free prekindergarten program didn’t stop thousands of families who applied to the program for 4-year-olds last year from leaving the public school system before kindergarten this year, according to Education Department application data.

Roughly 52,400 children submitted applications for pre-K seats in the 2024-25 school year. But when it came time for those children to apply to kindergarten the following year, there was a considerable dropoff to about 46,370, a dip of about 12%.

In the prior two years, the number of kindergarten and preschool applications more closely matched.

It seems unlikely that the difference is explained by families moving to private school for kindergarten. Enrollment in the early grades in private schools has declined the last few years, said Ryan Coughlan, an associate professor at Baruch College’s Marxe School of Public and International Affairs. (Enrollment at private schools has increased at middle and high schools.)

Alan Gu’s twins would have entered kindergarten in New York City this year, but he and his husband left their brownstone in Brooklyn for Jersey City. Finding a suitable public school with an affordable after-school program that aligned with their work schedules felt untenable.

Concerned about the performance of the neighborhood school, Gu felt fortunate last year to get his kids into a sought-after free pre-K program in Manhattan’s Chinatown, but that required waking up at 5:30 a.m. and commuting about an hour on two subway lines to a 15-minute walk with his then 4-year-olds. His kids were exhausted and mentally drained. So was Gu.

For the first three weeks, the school offered no after-care program. When after-care finally launched, it ended at 5 p.m., forcing Gu to leave work early, around 4 p.m. Sometimes, he’d bring his kids back to his office so he could get more work done. Often he was late and felt like a “bad parent.” The cost, $150 per child each week, didn’t make sense to him.

Gu, who works in human resources and had lived in New York for more than 10 years, previously thought he “would die” before moving to New Jersey.

Then he visited the Newport area in Jersey City. It felt safe and had about a 25-minute commute to Manhattan. He was impressed by the local public school.

“Not only were they helpful, it didn’t seem like it was a secret on how to get into the school,” Gu said.

The school had morning care starting at 7 a.m. and after-care lasting until 6 p.m. — and it cost less than his kids’ program in Chinatown. He pulled the twins out and moved across the Hudson River two months before the school year ended.

Now that they’re not traveling nearly an hour each way to school, his twins have energy for an array of activities, like ballet, tap, hip hop, and jiu jitsu — paying almost less combined than for their swim lessons in the city. And he no longer feels like he has to fight for things, like he did in the city, such as speech therapy services for his children.

Out of 14 families of his twins’ pre-K class, only three stayed in the city for kindergarten, he said.

“I felt like New York City did not want me there once I had kids,” Gu said.

Schools and housing often a reason for leaving the city

The mayoral candidates have all embraced the need to bolster child care, with Mamdani making it one of his three signature platforms, alongside a rent freeze and free buses.

“It’s pricing out New Yorkers from the city,” he said during last week’s debate.

Education Department officials said a variety of factors might influence application rate fluctuations, and in summer 2024, they did a research survey to help understand how families make school choices. The survey found that 40% left the school system because they moved out of the city, and of those who left, the top three reasons were: a “better environment to raise kids,” “concerns about schools,” and “more housing space.”

Kristyna Frantz, a mom to a preschooler and twin babies, left in December after a decade in Washington Heights, moving to New Jersey’s Union County and commuting more than an hour to her communications job in the Financial District.

She had spaced her pregnancies so the older would be in 3K, the city’s free pre-K program for 3-year-olds, when the second was born and could be in day care. But having twins changed everything. The day care at her older son’s program increased in price more than 11% from when he started as a 5-month old, bringing the total to more than $2,000 a month per kid, which was prohibitive for her.

It sped up their timeline to move to New Jersey, where her husband is from, and where her in-laws still live and could provide an extra layer of child care.

“The 3-K was really what got my husband to stay for our first kid,” Frantz said. She believes the economics would have worked if they had free or subsidized child care for the twins. “We could have crunched the numbers and I could have said, ‘I know you want to move to New Jersey and mow the lawn, but this math isn’t mathing.”

The scene at a Sept. 7 New Yorkers for Child Care rally.

Both Frantz and Gu have been advocating for affordable child care through the grassroots group New Yorkers United for Child Care, which on Wednesday released a roadmap on how to achieve free child care for 2-year-olds within four years. Along with the policy organization United Neighborhood Houses, they called for an initial focus on the city’s highest poverty areas.

Rebecca Bailin, executive director of New Yorkers United for Child Care, believes the initiative is key to keep the city’s diversity and help families here grow.

“We have seen people say when their kids are 0 to 2: I just have to make it to 3K or pre-K,’” said Bailin, “but I imagine as they’re thinking about that second kid they’re realizing, ‘Oh God, I have to do this all over again and potentially get a bigger apartment and pay for after care.”

Families with young kids flee NYC at double the rate

Households with young children were twice as likely to leave New York City than those without young children, according to a 2024 analysis from the Fiscal Policy Institute. Black and Latino New Yorkers were also leaving at higher rates, the report found. In terms of school demographics, the number of Black students fell 13% over the past five years, along with a 6% drop in the number of white students.

The lack of affordable housing forced Jasmine White to leave Coney Island, the Brooklyn neighborhood where she was born and raised.

Jasmine White with her daughter, Mackenzie White.

On her salary providing physical assistance to adults with disabilities, White barely had savings after paying for her car insurance, cellphone, groceries, and her $340 weekly child care bill for her daughter — even while staying with her mom.

“Add it up after a while, you’re just left with lunch money,” White said.

She moved to Maryland the summer before the 2020-21 school year, during the COVID pandemic, after her daughter had been wait-listed at a kindergarten program White hoped she could attend instead of the local school. By the time her daughter got off the wait-list, they were already gone. And now White, who works as an office manager, says she has more than just lunch money.

Coughlan, the Baruch professor, said there’s been a lot more volatility since the pandemic in terms of families leaving New York City.

“There’s all kinds of questions around where people are choosing to live post-COVID,” he said, noting that some families are now more inclined to leave, worried about a repeat pandemic.

While schools often help root families to their neighborhoods, he’s also seen a rise in “decoupling school from place” — when children don’t attend local schools — which can leave people “feeling untethered,” and that could affect whether families decide to stay as well.

“It’s untenable to pay for child care in the city and be a person who makes a normal income and so that needs to be addressed,” Coughlan said. “But I also think we need to think of how people remain connected beyond that.”

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy atazimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Going DOGE on the DOE: Mamdani wants to reclaim ‘efficiency’ from the right and root out waste

2025-10-21T23:05:20+00:00

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Move over, DOGE.

Zohran Mamdani wants to reclaim the mantle of government efficiency — and he’s targeting the city Education Department’s $41 billion budget.

On Tuesday, the mayoral frontrunner zeroed in on the school system’s contracting process, which he said is slow, poorly managed, and rife with wasteful spending.

“For too long, we have allowed individuals like Elon Musk to pretend as if concerns of efficiency and waste are that of the right wing, when in fact, they should be the bedrock of any progressive politics,” Mamdani told reporters. Musk spearheaded the Department of Government Efficiency under President Donald Trump, an effort to slash government programs.

Mamdani’s plan would “overhaul procurement infrastructure across the DOE,” he said. Contracts with outside vendors represent about $10 billion of the Education Department’s budget.

The announcement on Tuesday was the second education proposal his campaign has rolled out in recent weeks. Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is running as an independent, has repeatedly called out Mamdani for not releasing a more detailed education plan.

As the largest city agency, the Education Department is a frequent target of politicians who contend the public school system isn’t generating outcomes for students in line with its spending. Republican mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa recently vowed to slash $10 billion from the department’s budget, roughly 42% of the city’s contribution to the public school system.

Mamdani acknowledged that many contracts are “essential” and indicated his goal is to root out duplicative spending and plow those dollars back into classrooms rather than slash the system’s budget.

If elected, Mamdani said he would conduct annual audits of the department’s 50 biggest vendors and 25 largest contracts, establish “procurement hubs” in every borough, and require that the department use the same online system for vendors as other city agencies.

Focusing on Education Department spending could help the mayoral frontrunner and Democratic nominee find money for other new programs he’s proposed. Though he has promised to push for tax increases on businesses and the rich to finance some of his most ambitious campaign proposals, he also acknowledged that he may need to find money for new programs within the city’s existing budget. When he unveiled a $12 million teacher recruitment effort earlier this month, he suggested it would be financed by cutting waste.

Mamdani did not indicate how much money he anticipates saving by improving the procurement process, only saying it would lead to a 10% reduction in “redundant spending.” He added the plan would reduce the city’s reliance on emergency procurement procedures and speed up the contracting process.

Mamdani did not offer many examples of duplicative contracts. When asked by a reporter for specific cases, he pointed to hundreds of millions worth of technology purchases during the pandemic, noting the Education Department did not carefully track those devices.

“These were contracts that the DOE entered into without any kind of a system of coordinating inventory,” Mamdani said.

The proposal won praise from the city’s teachers union. “Fixing this tangled mess is long overdue,” United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew said in a statement. He called the procurement system “a chronic source of frustration.” (The union endorsed Mamdani in the general election.)

Some budget experts said it is encouraging that Mamdani is focusing on the issue.

“This is an astronomically complex and large system and is likely that there is duplication and inefficiency within that,” said Ana Champeny, the vice president for research at the Citizens Budget Commission, a watchdog group. The “monumental challenge,” Champeny said, is “how do you start identifying that and ensure you get the best bang for your buck?”

Pruning contracts can lead to significant outcry. When the Adams administration cut $60 million from the Education Department’s food budget, which is largely fulfilled by contractors, schools were forced to yank popular food items from cafeterias, drawing backlash from students. Many of the items were eventually restored.

Other observers noted that Mamdani’s focus on reforming the contracting process could be an effort to reassure middle class and higher-income voters that he will be a responsible steward of the city’s budget. It is also popular with the city’s teachers union, as it directs possible cuts away from their members, said Jonathan Collins, a professor of political science and education at Columbia University Teachers College.

Still, Collins said it’s unclear how the procurement reforms fit into Mamdani’s broader thinking about how to improve the city’s school system. Mamdani has recently released proposals across very different topics, from improving teacher recruitment to phasing out gifted programs for the city’s youngest students.

“We’ve been wanting to see how these different ideas fit together and instead he’s been pivoting from one idea to another,” Collins said.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Chalkbeat asked: Mamdani pledges to boost special education, focus on vulnerable kids

2025-10-20T22:27:59+00:00

Zohran Mamdani indicated that improving special education, an often neglected part of the school system, would be a priority if elected.

“One of the biggest challenges currently facing the school system is the need to strengthen support for students with disabilities,” the Mamdani campaign wrote in response to a Chalkbeat questionnaire.

Mamdani singled out preschool children who often languish at home without seats and do not receive all the services to which they’re entitled. He suggested too many children with disabilities are attending private schools at the city’s expense.

And he also said the city should redouble its support for the city’s 154,000 homeless students, pointing to a program that pairs homeless students with adult mentors.

The Democratic nominee has not laid out a clear vision for improving the nation’s largest school system, aside from a desire to cede some of his power over it. He recently unveiled a plan to recruit more teachers and said he would phase out gifted programs for the city’s youngest students.

But his campaign’s responses indicate that his education agenda may focus on some of the system’s most vulnerable children, who are often far behind their peers in reading and math, experience elevated rates of chronic absenteeism, and are much less likely to graduate on time.

“It is encouraging that he acknowledges that one of the biggest challenges of the system is around supporting kids with [individualized education programs],” said Lori Podvesker, director of disability and education policy at IncludeNYC, which helps families navigate the special education system.

To improve support for students with disabilities, Mamdani pledged to recruit more special education teachers, a longstanding shortage area. He also vowed to reduce the number of students with disabilities who get private school tuition reimbursed by the city because the Education Department cannot offer an adequate placement.

Those payments were expected to balloon to roughly $1.3 billion last school year — a more than fourfold increase compared with a decade ago — according to figures from the city’s Independent Budget Office. (That includes legal, consultant, and transportation costs in addition to tuition payments.) Previous administrations have also expressed alarm with the growing cost but have failed to address it.

Still, Podvesker said she wished the responses fleshed out what concrete steps Mamdani would take to improve the special education system and how he would approach making schools more inclusive for students with disabilities.

In response to the questionnaire, Mamdani also did not outline any new strategies for improving the city’s lowest performing schools. Instead, he vowed to support a group of more than 400 community schools that provide wraparound services including mental health clinics and may offer additional learning time. The city’s teachers union, which endorsed Mamdani, backs that approach, which has shown some promise.

Mamdani left the door open to experimenting with expanding teacher training and other ideas that are “proving effective.”

You can find the Mamdani campaign’s full responses below.

Chalkbeat posed the same questions to all three candidates on Oct. 1. Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is running as an independent, and Republican Curtis Sliwa did not respond to multiple requests. Early voting starts on Oct. 25. Election Day is Nov. 4.

What is your assessment of the school system’s strengths and weaknesses? Do you think a dramatic overhaul is needed or smaller adjustments?

The strength of New York City’s public school system lies in our dedicated teachers, administrators, counselors, paraprofessionals, and custodial staff who work tirelessly to educate and care for our students. One of the bright spots is Every Child and Family is Known, a pilot in the Bronx to support students experiencing homelessness. One in eight students are experiencing homelessness. By pairing Caring Adults to provide hands-on support to students and their families, Every Child and Family is Known exemplifies the ways that schools can serve as true hubs of our communities by meeting the needs of students inside and outside of the classroom. The pilot has proven to be very successful, resulting in reduced chronic absenteeism and improving students’ sense of belonging and well-being. I am heartened to see the Chancellor’s recent announcement of a $2.8 million expansion of the program. I intend to expand it even further, doubling the number of students and families served, with an ultimate goal to make it a citywide program that can serve every student in the shelter system so that anyone experiencing homelessness in the NYC public school system can access services to meet their basic needs.

One of the biggest challenges currently facing the school system is the need to strengthen support for students with disabilities. More than one-fifth of our students have disabilities and in the 2021-2022 school year, 37% of preschoolers with disabilities went the whole year without receiving at least one of the services the New York City Department of Education (DOE) was legally required to provide. I will improve special education for New York City’s students by increasing special education services for preschool age kids, reducing Carter cases, recruiting special education teachers and equipping them with resources to succeed, increasing evidence-based instructional approaches for students with disabilities, and improving language access for families. These improvements will make general education classrooms more inclusive so that students with special needs are no longer marginalized and can be well-served.

Mayor Bill de Blasio spent nearly $800 million on trying to turn around the city’s lowest performing schools, and eventually pulled the plug after it achieved a mixed record of success. There are few slam dunk methods for improving struggling schools at scale.

How would you approach school improvement? Do you have any ideas or strategies that haven’t been tried before?

While the research on large-scale school improvement initiatives is limited, it is critical to implement strategies that are grounded in data. A 2020 Rand study found that schools participating in the NYC Communities Schools initiative showed significant positive results, including better attendance and graduation rates, student achievement, and family engagement at schools–and less disciplinary incidents. I am a big supporter of the current network of 421 community schools that provide students with critical access to medical care, mental health services, tutoring and academic support, summer and afterschool programs, opportunities for experiential learning, and social services. I will also do a review of curricula based on the science of how children learn, including NYC Reads, and invest in efforts to scale strategies that are proving effective, including investing in teacher training.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Will Mamdani break tradition and keep Eric Adams’ schools chancellor? He’s open to it.

2025-10-17T21:26:20+00:00

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Ever since New York City’s mayor won control of the public school system more than two decades ago, the city’s chief executive has installed his own schools chancellor.

But frontrunner Zohran Mamdani said this week that he is open to ending that pattern by keeping Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos, who was appointed by Mayor Eric Adams, at the helm of the nation’s largest school system.

The Education Department veteran was named chancellor one year ago after David Banks abruptly retired, and is widely respected by parents, school leaders, and the teachers union, which has publicly supported her.

“I think she has been doing a good job,” Mamdani told reporters Wednesday after he unveiled a proposal to recruit more teachers. “And I’ve said time and again that I will consider anyone on the basis of the work that they have done — not hold it against them as to who appointed them.”

During a mayoral debate Thursday evening, Mamdani again singled out Aviles-Ramos for praise. “Some of the initiatives that Mayor Adams has launched, especially with this chancellor, have been showing positive signs.”

Previous mayors have appointed new school chiefs after taking office to take the system in a different direction. Yet Mamdani has said little about his education vision and has praised Adams’ signature initiative to overhaul reading and math instruction. Keeping Aviles-Ramos could help those efforts stay on track, some education experts said, while avoiding a leadership transition in the middle of the school year. The next mayor will take office in January.

“Often, mayoral candidates are running against their predecessors,” said Aaron Pallas, a professor at Columbia University’s Teachers College. “Mamdani hasn’t articulated a very specific package of education policy reforms that would diverge considerably from the current administration.”

Mamdani’s chancellor search could be complicated by his vow to end mayoral control, which gives the mayor authority to appoint a schools chief and set policy for more than 1,600 public schools. He has proposed replacing it with a “co-governance” system that includes more feedback from families and educators, though he has not outlined a plan.

That could curtail the power of whomever he chooses to lead the system. Some experts said weakening mayoral control could also make it harder to pull off his pledge to offer universal child care, because it would require coordination with the Education Department.

Pressed during the debate Thursday, Mamdani did not indicate what specific power over the school system he would be willing to relinquish and seemed to suggest the mayor would retain an important role.

“I think the mayor needs to retain the accountability so that New Yorkers know exactly who they can come to when they have critiques,” Mamdani said.

Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is running as an independent, and Republican Curtis Sliwa both criticized Mamdani’s proposal and said they would seek to keep that power, which must be regularly renewed by the state legislature.

Aviles-Ramos has a powerful ally

New York City’s teachers union has publicly supported keeping Aviles-Ramos in the role, especially as she has been open to relaxing the city’s curriculum mandates to give teachers more flexibility.

“She absolutely should be up for consideration for the work she has done,” United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew previously said. The union endorsed Mamdani in the general election after sitting out the primary.

Some families hope Aviles-Ramos will stay, noting that the chancellor has been receptive to parent feedback and foregrounds her identity as a Latina, a group that includes 42% of public school students.

“She speaks so openly about having a daughter who is school aged, having to navigate the system — that connects with a lot of parent leaders,” said Kaliris Salas-Ramirez, president of the District 4 parent council in East Harlem.

Salas-Ramirez added that “there is also some resistance with having a chancellor affiliated with Adams,” who has faced corruption charges and abandoned his bid for reelection as his polling remained in the single digits.

Mamdani has not offered many details about what he’s looking for in a schools chief if he is elected. Last month, he said he had not conducted any interviews.

Several other candidates have been floated, The New York Times reported, including Meisha Porter, who briefly served as chancellor under Mayor Bill de Blasio; Kamar Samuels, the superintendent of Manhattan’s District 3; and Rita Joseph, who helms City Council’s Education Committee.

Aviles-Ramos appeared to make a case that she should stay in the role during her “State of Our Schools” speech last month, some observers told Gothamist. She vowed to expand a program that supports homeless students that Mamdani has also said he plans to grow. And she touted surveys that show 92% of school leaders trust her at her word.

A spokesperson for Aviles-Ramos declined to comment on whether she has spoken with Mamdani or would consider staying in the role.

But in the final line of her speech last month, Aviles-Ramos suggested she is looking to the future.

“We are just getting started,” she said.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Mamdani’s opponents want to grow NYC’s gifted programs. Attracting students isn’t easy.

2025-10-17T16:54:51+00:00

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When mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani reiterated his intention in Thursday night’s debate to eliminate gifted programs for the city’s youngest students, his opponents quickly shot back with promises to move in the opposite direction.

Curtis Sliwa and Andrew Cuomo pledged to open up more gifted classes.

“We don’t have enough slots,” said Sliwa, the Republican nominee, who pledged to double the size of the kindergarten program.

Cuomo, the former New York governor running as an independent, touted his plan to expand gifted and talented programs.

Meanwhile, a group of state and city lawmakers are hoping to go even further, introducing legislation last week that would force the Education Department to scale up gifted classrooms across the city.

But funneling more students into gifted classrooms, which disproportionately enroll white and Asian American students, might be easier said than done.

Three years ago, Mayor Eric Adams made a similar pledge to expand accelerated learning opportunities. The city opened dozens of gifted programs in underserved areas, with 38 schools hosting new gifted programs for rising third graders and eight more programs for kindergarteners, which has historically been the main entry point, according to a Chalkbeat analysis of Education Department data.

Supporters of gifted programs argue these classes help keep families in the public school system. Yet the overall number of students formally admitted to gifted programs citywide fell by more than 1,000 between 2019 and 2023, the Chalkbeat analysis found.

To fill empty seats, schools have moved students to gifted classrooms even if their families didn’t apply, more than offsetting the decline. With those students included in the total, nearly 18,000 students, about 5% of elementary students, were enrolled in gifted classes last year, an increase of about 2,000 children since 2019, department officials said.

New programs are slow to gain traction with families

According to city data, 44 of the schools offering the program — around a third of the citywide total — had fewer than 18 students enrolled in at least one of their gifted classes last year. Over half those schools were newer programs, Chalkbeat’s analysis found.

Experts and educators point to several factors that have made it difficult to grow the program through the formal admissions process. Many families don’t know gifted tracks are available. Another major reason: The third grade entry point adds logistical hurdles for families.

“It’s harder for parents to make a decision to change schools in third grade because of friendships, because of siblings, because of convenience and location reasons,” said Allison Roda, an associate professor at Molloy College who has studied the city’s gifted program.

An Education Department spokesperson said the agency has tried to make it easier for families to learn about and apply to gifted programs by making it part of the regular kindergarten application process.

Adams argued it is fairer to assess students for gifted programs after they’ve had a few years of formal schooling, and experts have criticized the city’s practice of tracking students at age 4, which few other school districts do. Mamdani has indicated he plans to keep the program starting for third graders.

It can take time for schools with new gifted offerings to establish enough of a reputation to attract applicants from other communities, Roda said, noting that some white families have expressed reluctance to accept a gifted seat if it means switching to a school that is predominantly Black and Latino.

About 62% of students in gifted classrooms are white or Asian American, even as they represent just 35% of the public school system as a whole. And while more Black and Latino students are now enrolling in gifted programs, they continue to be vastly underrepresented.

P.S. 279 in Crown Heights opened a gifted program starting in third grade in recent years, but had only admitted nine students as of 2023, according to city data. Outside the school on a recent weekday, several parents said they had no idea the program existed.

Caesar Ashley, a parent at the school, said his daughter was placed in the program last year even though the family never applied.

“If you do good on your work,” his fourth grader said, “they’ll put you in the class.”

Typically, second graders in the top 10% of their school based on report card grades are eligible for gifted programs that begin in third grade. In the wake of the pandemic, city officials eliminated an admissions test for kindergarten gifted programs and now rely on nominations from prekindergarten teachers.

Schools are allowed to move students into gifted classrooms without an application as long as they use “academic criteria,” a department spokesperson said.

Some principals may be reluctant to encourage their students to enroll in gifted programs elsewhere, because school budgets are directly tied to student enrollment. If a student leaves and isn’t replaced, that means fewer dollars for art, music, and afterschool programs.

Underenrolled gifted programs end up costing the city more. Schools usually cover the costs of gifted classes from their own budgets, which are based on student headcount. But for schools without enough students enrolled in gifted classes to cover the cost of a full-time teacher, the city chips in to make up the difference, paying out roughly $2.9 million to 44 schools last year.

Research on whether gifted programs benefit students who attend is limited, though one study focused on New York City found the programs can meaningfully boost reading and math scores, particularly among Black and Latino children. The Education Department’s own research on that question is less conclusive.

Families may not see clear benefits to sending their students to gifted programs, which sometimes move at a faster pace but often use the same curriculum as traditional classrooms, said Roda, who has interviewed numerous families about gifted programming.

“There’s skepticism among parents about what is actually different,” she said.

Michael Elsen-Rooney is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Michael at melsen-rooney@chalkbeat.org.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Mamdani’s $12 million teacher hiring plan: Tuition aid for 3-year commitment to NYC schools

2025-10-15T19:18:03+00:00

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To help New York City hire thousands of extra teachers to lower class sizes, mayoral front-runner Zohran Mamdani wants to offer prospective educators tuition assistance in exchange for a commitment to teach three years in city schools, he said Wednesday.

The plan, one of only a handful of K-12 education proposals Mamdani has put forward in the runup to November’s mayoral election, would bring in roughly 1,000 extra teachers a year at an annual cost of $12 million, he said at a press conference outside an elementary school in Astoria, Queens, the area he represents in the state assembly. Mamdani said savings from cutting contracts and bloat within the Education Department’s bureaucracy would cover the cost.

Under the state’s 2022 class size law, all city classrooms must meet the designated caps of between 20 and 25 students by 2028 — an effort that will require both carving out new space and hiring thousands more educators.

All told, the city will have to hire nearly 18,000 additional teachers to meet the law’s demands, according to estimates from the Independent Budget Office.

“This city faces an urgent question of where and how will we find them,” Mamdani said.

The Democratic socialist was flanked by Queens State Sen. John Liu, one of his early endorsers and a chief architect of the state’s class size law, along with officials from the city teachers union, which backed Mamdani after the Democratic primary and was a major force in lobbying for the state class size law.

“The teachers we have are doing incredible work, but we need to ensure that we ask them to do a job that is in fact possible, and one key part of that is ensuring that they have a limited number of students in their classroom,” he said.

City officials embarked on an unprecedented hiring spree starting last spring to meet the legal requirement of bringing at least 60% of classrooms citywide under the caps by this fall.

The Education Department doled out hundreds of millions of dollars in extra funding to over 700 schools to hire roughly 3,700 new teachers needed to lower class sizes. That’s on top of the 4,000 to 5,000 teachers schools hire each summer to fill vacant positions.

By the end of September, city schools had hired around 6,300 teachers for this school year. That’s up from roughly 4,800 hired over the same period last year, but city officials didn’t respond to a question about whether it was enough to meet the mandated caps.

Mamdani plan builds on existing programs

Mamdani’s proposal is similar to some existing programs like NYC Men Teach and New York City Teaching Fellows that subsidize tuition or offer an expedited path into the teaching profession.

K-12 education has largely taken the back burner in the mayoral election, but attracted some attention in recent weeks after Mamdani made a controversial proposal to eliminate kindergarten admissions for gifted and talented programs.

Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who’s running as an independent and has sought to contrast his education plans with Mamdani’s, has also proposed similar teacher recruitment plans, including growing NYC Teaching Fellows, investing more in “Grow Your Own” programs, and offering tuition assistance for future teachers and career changers.

Mamdani’s plan, which he calls “Community to Classroom,” would offer two tracks: one for high school students who can get college credits, mentorship, and up to $12,000 a year in tuition assistance if they commit to teaching in city schools. The other is for career changers, who would also receive $12,000 in tuition assistance to take adult education courses through CUNY or SUNY.

In addition to tuition assistance, program participants would get free OMNY cards, support on certification exams, and mentorship from current city teachers.

Mamdani didn’t immediately offer details about which contracts or central costs he would cut to achieve the savings needed to fund the program.

He acknowledged the program would not meet the city’s full teacher need for the class size law, but said he hopes to expand the program in the future and improve retention of existing teachers.

City officials have already leaned on programs like Teaching Fellows to boost hiring numbers, doubling the size of that program’s cohort from 500 last summer to 1,000 this summer.

Former First Deputy Chancellor Dan Weisberg, who led teacher recruitment efforts in New York City before stepping down this summer, said that while he hasn’t reviewed Mamdani’s plan, effective efforts to boost hiring should combine “targeted recruiting, tuition subsidies, and support.”

Pointing to programs like the Teaching Follows program, he said “there’s no telling how much we could scale them up effectively” but is “confident we could do it significantly.”

Teacher hiring won’t be enough at overcrowded schools

Even if the city reaches its elevated hiring goals in the coming years, hundreds of schools are too crowded to meet the class size caps. Those schools will need to either find additional space or cut their student numbers by capping enrollment — a strategy the city so far has not embraced.

Mamdani criticized Mayor Eric Adams for doing too little to plan ahead for those schools — and vowed to fill vacant positions in the School Construction Authority to speed new school projects.

“My first order of business will be to exhaust every single option we have in front of us,” he said.

Mamdani, who has said little about who is eyeing as his schools chief, praised current Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos for her “creativity” and “ingenuity” in seeking to meet the class size law’s demands so far.

“I think she has been doing a good job,” Mamdani said when asked if he might keep Aviles-Ramos in the position. “I will consider anyone on the basis of the work that they have done, not hold it against them as to who appointed them as to who appointed them to that job.”

Alex Zimmerman contributed.

Michael Elsen-Rooney is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Michael at melsen-rooney@chalkbeat.org.

Mamdani wants to rethink gifted and talented in NYC. The program has already seen big shifts.

2025-10-10T23:33:20+00:00

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Mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani reignited the debate over New York City’s gifted and talented system earlier this month when he signaled his intention to shake up the program by eliminating admission for kindergartners.

The gifted programs, which enroll nearly 18,000 elementary students across 140 schools, have long been a lightning rod for questions about diversity, fairness, and academic achievement. Roughly 2,500 students are currently admitted in kindergarten and remain in separate classes or schools through fifth grade.

Both of Mamdani’s opponents, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is running as an independent, and Republican Curtis Sliwa, quickly countered with proposals to preserve and expand gifted classes. And on Friday, four lawmakers from southern Brooklyn introduced state legislation that would require the city’s Education Department to expand gifted programming.

Lost in the recent political volley: New York City’s gifted and talented system has already changed in recent years, with a meaningful increase in the number of Black and Latino students, children from low-income families, and students with disabilities.

Those demographic shifts are the result of a move from a test-based admissions system to one based primarily on teacher recommendations, along with Mayor Eric Adams’ administration opening dozens of new gifted and talented programs starting in third grade in underserved areas.

The changes have opened gifted education to a much wider swath of students, but also have created new challenges for schools that have long enrolled a much narrower range of students, some educators and parents said.

The gifted system’s trajectory under Adams also shows the challenges of growing: Many of the new third-grade gifted classes struggled to attract enough applicants, forcing schools to backfill the open seats with students who didn’t formally apply, according to a Chalkbeat review of city data and Education Department officials.

Mamdani’s proposal, which would preserve classes that start in third grade, seems to be sparking discussion within the city Education Department.

Schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos told families at a Staten Island parent town hall on Monday that she’s “concerned” about the current admission process, and that the Education Department in recent days has started talking about possible changes.

How to structure the program is a challenge that has vexed multiple city mayors. Former Mayor Bill de Blasio in the final months of his tenure proposed eliminating separate gifted classes altogether, but Adams halted that plan.

“It’s a really important problem to solve, and a really hard one too,” said Tamara Sussman, a parent of a Queens student in a gifted program. It requires “balancing an equitable education with one that feels challenging and appropriate.”

From testing to recommendations: A more diverse gifted and talented

The city’s gifted programs long relied on standardized exams administered to 4-year-olds to determine admission, with roughly a quarter of test-takers qualifying for a spot in 2019.

Under the teacher recommendation system, which launched during the pandemic, that equation shifted dramatically. Last year, 85% of applicants to gifted programs were deemed eligible.

At River Park Nursery School on the Upper West Side, Director Maria Nunziata estimates around 80% of her preschool families apply for gifted spots — and she recommends virtually all of them.

“Every child brings to us some kind of gift and talent,” she said.

In other parts of the city, far fewer students even apply. Just 76 students from the Bronx’s District 9 applied last year, compared to 718 students from Upper West Side’s District 3, even though the latter district has 5,000 fewer students.

With far more eligible students than available seats, the city gives first priority to siblings of existing students. Some schools also set aside seats for students from underrepresented groups. The remaining seats are determined by a lottery.

Under the test-based system, children had to score above the 90th percentile to qualify for the vast majority of programs, which are separate gifted classes within neighborhood schools.

To be eligible for one of five standalone gifted schools — including New Explorations into Science, Technology and Math; Talented and Gifted School for Young Scholars; and The Anderson School — students had to score above the 97th percentile.

But the test helped drive sharp racial and economic segregation: In 2020, the last year it was administered, just 12% of kindergartners in gifted programs were Black or Latino.

After the city nixed the test, the demographics began to change.

In the 2023-24 school year, 30% of kindergartners in gifted programs were Black or Latino, officials said at a recent City Council hearing. The share of students from low-income families in gifted programs citywide rose to 47% last year, up from 34% in 2019, according to Education Department data.

“We are proud to host increasingly diverse [gifted and talented] classes that reflect the diversity of our city,” said Education Department spokesperson Jenna Lyle, who noted that the city also incorporated the gifted application into the normal kindergarten application to streamline the process for families.

A changing population brings new possibilities and challenges

Some parents and educators say the admissions changes have opened access to students with learning disabilities who would have been screened out by the test but nonetheless benefit from an accelerated program. Citywide, the share of gifted students with disabilities rose to 5% last year from 3% in 2019. (About 22% of students citywide have a disability.)

At Talented and Gifted School for Young Scholars in East Harlem, “taking away the test made it so we attracted students who were more neurodivergent,” said Elaine Tang, a special education teacher. The school recently opened its first classes with both a special and general education teacher.

“It’s kind of forced us to question: What does it mean to be gifted anyways?” she said.

She noted the school’s proficiency rates on state tests had remained in the high 90s. (Across all five standalone gifted schools, reading and math proficiency rates on state exams were in the mid-to-high 90s last school year, with little change from past years.)

As a wider set of students are now eligible for gifted seats, however, several parents and educators said some programs are straining to accommodate students with a broader range of academic abilities.

“Children feel like there’s something wrong with them when really they’re not ready for a curriculum that’s a year past their grade level,” said one staffer at a gifted program, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.

At New Explorations into Science, Technology and Math, some parents are also noticing differences.

“When you go into the classroom, it’s louder,” said one parent who has two children who attended the school, one of whom was admitted after the new admissions changes went into effect. “It’s a stark contrast to when I used to go for the older one. They could sit. They could pay attention more. They could keep up.”

Other educators wondered whether pandemic disruptions have also altered students’ academic readiness and behavior.

“It’s hard to pull apart how it would have looked if none of these kids had been learning at home for the first half of their elementary experience,” said Leigh Ercole, who teaches fourth and fifth graders in the gifted program at Manhattan’s P.S. 165.

She continues to believe in the importance of having a gifted track, but would like to see an admissions overhaul.

Ercole believes the city should use a mix of teacher nominations and other assessments to measure whether students are prepared for gifted classrooms. Students should be universally screened to ensure everyone has a fair shot at admission, she said, adding that at a previous job in the Bronx, she saw few parents who knew about gifted programs.

“I don’t think the answer is to say, ‘No one is gifted,’” she said. “I think it’s going to do a disservice to students in the city.”

Sussman, the Queens mom, said her children, both of whom attended a gifted program at P.S. 150Q, benefited from math instruction that moved at a faster pace. But she was open to other methods of providing accelerated instruction, including “schoolwide enrichment” models.

Those programs provide accelerated opportunities for students based on their strengths and interests without tracking them into separate classrooms. An advisory group under de Blasio proposed schoolwide enrichment as a replacement for gifted tracks.

Ultimately, Sussman agreed with Mamdani’s plan to phase out gifted programs for kindergartners.

“It is really young to start dividing kids,” Sussman said.

One study finds NYC gifted programs boost learning

Amid heated debates about gifted education, there is limited research on a basic question: Do the programs boost student learning?

One study focused on New York City suggests the answer might be yes.

A group of University of Pennsylvania researchers found that the city’s gifted programs appear to significantly increase state test scores — with some of the largest gains among Black and Latino children. Still, strong students who did not attend gifted programs still performed well, suggesting they were unlikely to be harmed if they didn’t attend.

A separate review conducted by the city’s Education Department was less conclusive. “There is no clear trend or indication that G&T enrollment is associated with student achievement,” according to an analysis of math and reading scores obtained by Chalkbeat through a public records request. (Both studies were conducted when the city relied on the admissions exam.)

Allison Roda, an associate professor at Molloy College who has studied the city’s gifted program, emphasized that there is enormous variation in how they are implemented.

“There isn’t a standard curriculum and so you might get enrichment, you might get acceleration,” she said. “It really depends on the school district and the teacher.”

Moreover, New York City’s approach of diverting gifted students to separate schools and classrooms starting as early as kindergarten makes it an outlier nationally. Tang, the Manhattan gifted teacher, taught in three New Jersey districts before moving to the city and never saw standalone gifted classes.

Separate gifted programs in the suburbs are “very rare,” she said. “I think we have to wonder why that is.”

Michael Elsen-Rooney is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Michael atmelsen-rooney@chalkbeat.org.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex atazimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Mamdani wants to scrap gifted seats for NYC kindergartners, renewing debate over segregated program

2025-10-02T20:47:41+00:00

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Zohran Mamdani wants to eliminate a gifted and talented track for kindergartners in the public school system, his campaign said Thursday, a proposal that immediately renewed debate about the coveted yet intensely segregated program.

Mamdani, the Democratic nominee and frontrunner to be New York City’s next mayor, indicated that the current model unfairly separates students by perceived ability at the start of their education.

“Identifying academic giftedness at age 4 is hard to do objectively by any assessment, whether through testing or teacher nominations,” Dora Pekec, campaign spokesperson, wrote in a statement. Mamdani’s “agenda for our schools will ensure that every New York City public school student receives a high-quality early education that enables them to be challenged and fulfilled.”

Mamdani’s proposal, which was first revealed in response to a New York Times questionnaire, is notable because he has said little about how he would manage the nation’s largest school system. He has also not shared many details about how he would encourage school integration, one of his campaign pledges. Discussion about reshaping the city’s gifted programs, often a major flashpoint, has faded in recent years.

Andrew Cuomo, who is running as an independent, and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa immediately criticized Mamdani’s proposal. Both said they would expand gifted programs.

New York City’s school system, which largely enrolls students from economically disadvantaged families and is 62% Black or Latino, is unusual in the degree to which programs may admit students based on their academic records. Gifted programs are widely seen as a method for keeping middle class and white families in public schools. Many Asian American families and other families of color also see them as a pathway into higher-performing schools that may be in short supply in their neighborhoods.

But the programs are starkly segregated. Fewer than one quarter of students in gifted programs were Black or Latino during the 2023-24 school year, according to the most recent Education Department data. About 70% of students in gifted classrooms were white or Asian American, though they comprise about 35% of the student body. The programs enroll few students with disabilities or children who are learning English.

Under Mamdani’s plan, kindergartners would no longer be eligible for separate gifted programs, which typically use the same curriculums as traditional classrooms but may move at a faster pace. Fewer than 4% of all kindergartners, or about 2,100 students, enrolled in gifted programs during the 2023-24 school year.

Asked whether the proposal would affect a handful of citywide schools that only enroll students who are considered gifted or eliminate a separate onramp to gifted programs in third grade, Pekec indicated the proposal is focused on eliminating gifted programs that begin in kindergarten.

Cuomo has attacked Mamdani for lack of K-12 agenda

Some observers said Mamdani’s proposal could be an attempt to counter Cuomo’s criticism in recent weeks that the Queens assemblyman doesn’t have a clear K-12 education agenda. Last week, Cuomo said gifted programs should be expanded during a town hall organized by Parent Leaders for Accelerated Curriculum and Education, known as PLACE, a group that supports screening students based on academic ability.

“It’s hard not to see this as a direct response to the political coalition Cuomo is trying to form,” said Jonathan Collins, a professor of political science and education at Columbia University Teachers College.

Cuomo quickly seized on Mamdani’s proposal, pointing to an Education Department survey that found many parents who left the city’s schools from September 2022 to the end of 2023 wanted more rigorous instruction.

“The answer isn’t to say good riddance to those families,” Cuomo said in a statement. “Eliminating opportunities for excellence doesn’t help underserved kids, it perpetuates the problem.”

Mamdani’s plan echoes a proposal by former Mayor Bill de Blasio to completely phase out elementary school gifted programs. Those efforts, announced in the final months of de Blasio’s final term, were scrapped by the Adams administration, which expanded gifted seats and focused on programs that start in third grade.

Under de Blasio, the city abandoned a controversial exam administered to 4-year-olds that determined their eligibility for gifted seats. Now, those decisions are based on teacher nominations and a lottery system, as there are thousands more eligible students than available seats.

After the Education Department began relying on teacher nominations, a greater share of Black and Latino kindergartners enrolled. During the 2023-24 school year, 14% of kindergartners in gifted programs were Black, up from 4% three years earlier. The share of Latino kindergartners in gifted programs doubled from 8% to 16% over that same period, Education Department officials said during a City Council hearing in June.

Under New York City’s system of mayoral control, Mamdani would have the authority to alter school admissions policies. Yet he has also proposed changing the governance structure in favor of giving parents and educators more input. Some observers pointed out the tension between Mamdani’s proposed changes to gifted programs and his pledge to make decisions more democratically.

The campaign appeared on Thursday to back away from a separate proposal to address racial segregation at the city’s eight specialized high schools that admit students based on a single exam, known as the SHSAT. (Mamdani attended the Bronx High School of Science, a specialized school.)

The schools are widely celebrated as among the strongest public schools in the country but admit few Black and Latino students. The Mamdani campaign previously indicated he would order a study of racial and gender bias in the admissions test. In a separate 2022 questionnaire before he ran for mayor, Mamdani said the test should be abolished.

On Thursday, Pekec wrote that “Zohran has said on multiple occasions he will keep the SHSAT.”

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex atazimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Eric Adams ends reelection campaign, clearing the way for new leadership over NYC schools

2025-09-28T22:42:20+00:00

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With a little more than a month before Election Day, Mayor Eric Adams announced Sunday that he is ending his bid for reelection, all but guaranteeing the nation’s largest school system will soon be under new management.

The move ends speculation in recent weeks that Adams would drop out, as he has consistently polled in last place in the four-way race and multiple news outlets reported that he was negotiating with the Trump administration for a potential job.

“Who would have thought that a kid from South Jamaica, Queens, growing up with learning disabilities, could one day become the mayor of the greatest city in the world,” Adams said in a brief video announcement Sunday.

The mayor, who did not immediately endorse any of the other candidates, indicated that he plans to serve out the remainder of his term and said this “is not the end of my public service.” He will still appear on the ballot on Nov. 4 as an independent because the deadline for removing him has passed.

Adams’ decision to quit the race will not likely have an immediate effect on the city’s public school system. But it raises questions about the future of his education policies once he leaves office in January, including his signature reading and math curriculum overhauls that are still being phased in on many campuses. Observers widely expect the next mayor will appoint a new schools chancellor to replace Melissa Aviles-Ramos, though she is respected by many educators and Education Department staff.

Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo could see a boost from Adams’ departure, though the mayor’s sinking popularity in the polls suggests many of his supporters already fled to other candidates. Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa has pledged to stay in the race despite pressure from President Donald Trump to drop out to set up a one-on-one race between Cuomo and Zohran Mamdani, a Queens assemblyman and the current frontrunner.

“Donald Trump and his billionaire donors might be able to determine Eric Adams and Andrew Cuomo’s actions but they will not dictate the results of this election,” Mamdani said in a statement.

Under New York City’s system of mayoral control, the city’s chief executive exerts enormous influence over the city’s public schools. Exactly how the next mayor will put their stamp on the system remains a question mark.

Mamdani has pledged to ensure schools are properly funded and to end mayoral control in favor of a more democratic governance model that includes input from educators and families, though he has not laid out detailed plans. He has also vowed to create a universal child care program, part of his campaign’s broader focus on affordability, but has said little about how he would improve K-12 education.

Cuomo has recently tried to draw attention to his own education agenda and attack Mamdani’s lack of detailed education plans. Last month, the former governor unveiled a plan to shut down the city’s lowest performing campuses and replace them with other school models, including charters.

Both Sliwa and Cuomo support expanding gifted programs and preserving test-only admissions to several elite high schools, programs that supporters argue helps keep families in the system but are also starkly segregated by race. Mamdani has said he favors school integration efforts and supports a study of the admissions test. He also won the teachers union’s endorsement.

The mayoral candidates have generally spoken favorably about Adams’ signature education initiative — overhauling the way elementary schools approach reading instruction. Still, they have voiced more skepticism about a related effort to overhaul how schools teach math. Schools may not see an immediate retreat from those curriculum changes, however, as the next mayor will take office in the middle of the school year.

Other elements of Adams’ education record have been more contentious. He repeatedly drew headlines for slashing early childhood education programs, including free preschool for 3-year-olds. In other areas, such as the city’s summer school program, Adams used city dollars to avoid major cuts as one-time federal emergency relief dollars ran out in the wake of the pandemic.

In his video announcement Sunday, Adams said he felt “immense pride” in the accomplishments of his administration and hoped his successor would continue and expand his policies.

“We raised test scores and attendance through bold education reforms,” he said.

Adams’ tenure marred by scandal

Corruption investigations have dogged Adams — the first sitting mayor to be indicted in modern history — and led to the resignations of several senior officials, including at the Education Department. His first schools chancellor, David Banks, stepped down after federal investigators searched his home and seized his phone. (Banks has not been accused of wrongdoing.)

The Trump administration successfully pushed federal prosecutors to drop the charges against Adams, saying publicly that they did so to free up Adams to aid their crackdown on immigrants.

In recent days, Adams has articulated education policy views aligned with the Trump administration as well. After the federal Department of Education threatened to cancel $36 million worth of magnet school grants if the city did not scrap protections for transgender students, Adams began to publicly question the city’s own policies that allow trans students to use bathrooms and other facilities in line with their gender identity.

To some in Adams’ orbit, the mayor’s rightward shift has undermined some of the administration’s accomplishments.

Adams’ growing connection to the Trump administration “has tarnished his image and almost usurped so much of the work that was done,” Banks said in an interview with Chalkbeat before Adams dropped out of the race. “I’m sad about the fact that there were so many good people who gave such good work and a lot of their reputations kind of got sullied.”

Jumaane Williams, the city’s public advocate and a frequent Adams critic, said he was once hopeful the mayor could improve the city but has instead watched the administration fall into disarray.

“Sadly, his tenure has been marked by an inability to self-reflect or course-correct after sustained and continued bad decisions,” Williams wrote in a statement. “There is no joy in today’s announcement, even if there is some relief.”

Cara Fitzpatrick contributed.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

NYC mayoral race: Cuomo seizes on Mamdani’s lack of education plan

2025-09-26T23:04:30+00:00

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With a little more than a month until the mayoral election, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo is mounting a last-minute push to elevate an issue that has received scant attention: education.

For much of the race, candidates have barely touched on how they would improve New York City’s schools, even though the Education Department is the largest city agency and the mayor wields enormous power over it.

Cuomo, who is running as an independent, trails frontrunner Zohran Mamdani by double digits in the latest polls. But Mamdani, a Queens assemblyman and Democratic Socialist, has yet to articulate a clear vision for improving the nation’s largest school system — giving Cuomo an opening.

“Deciding our education policy — the future of 1 million students — is perhaps the most important job of a Mayor,” Cuomo posted on X earlier this month. “What’s his plan?” he said in a jab at Mamdani.

In recent weeks, the former governor has promoted his education agenda in the conservative-leaning editorial pages of the New York Post and Wall Street Journal. He has promised prekindergarten seats for 3-year-olds, vowed a push to raise a state cap limiting the growth of charter schools, and proposed replacing the city’s lowest-performing schools with charters or other models — an eyebrow-raising plan, as school closures are often deeply unpopular.

And on Thursday evening, he headlined a virtual education town hall for an audience of close to 100 people organized by Parent Leaders for Accelerated Curriculum and Education, or PLACE, an influential group that favors expanding selective admissions.

Cuomo largely aligned himself with PLACE’s agenda and spoke in favor of expanding selective programs that often track higher-performing students in separate classrooms, including adding more specialized high schools that admit students based on a single test and enroll few Black and Latino students.

“You want to educate every child, but you want to make sure the children who can excel can excel,” he told the group, which has endorsed his bid for mayor. “You don’t want to hold back the extraordinary because you don’t want to separate them from the pack.”

Cuomo said he would consider reintroducing standardized tests and attendance as criteria for middle and high school admissions. Those measures were removed during the pandemic in favor of students’ course grades, a change that some education advocates argue is fairer.

The former governor described the state’s class size mandate, signed into law by Gov. Kathy Hochul, as “reckless” because the state did not properly fund it. PLACE has also criticized the class size law, in part, because it could require capping enrollment at popular schools. Cuomo suggested those schools should get exemptions from the law.

Cuomo’s education focus fills void left by Mamdani

Cuomo’s new education push draws attention to one of Mamdani’s biggest policy weaknesses, said Jonathan Collins, a professor of political science and education at Columbia University Teachers College.

“There have been constant questions aimed at Mamdani that they haven’t really answered in terms of what an education policy agenda would look like,” Collins said. “Cuomo potentially sees blood.”

A Mamdani spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment about Cuomo’s criticisms of his education platform. Mayor Eric Adams, who is running for reelection as an independent, has largely not made education a central issue. However, he recently grabbed headlines for criticizing policies meant to protect transgender students after the Trump administration threatened to cancel $36 million in grants to the Education Department if the city did not alter those policies. Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa recently supported a pro-charter march across the Brooklyn Bridge.

Collins noted that Cuomo’s bid to focus on education policy could resurface some elements of his record that could pose some political downsides.

When he was governor, Cuomo pushed for reforms that tied teacher evaluations to standardized test scores, sparking intense backlash from educators and their unions that led many families to boycott the state tests. The governor also routinely sparred with advocates who accused Cuomo of failing to fully fund a formula that sends more money to high-need schools. (Cuomo relented shortly before he resigned amid scandals related to sexual harassment and his handling of the pandemic.)

As a mayoral candidate, Cuomo has detailed several broadly popular ideas in a 28 page plan, including expanding the number of community schools that embed wraparound services like mental health clinics on campus. Many of those ideas line up with the teachers union’s priorities, a group Cuomo courted during the primary. After the United Federation of Teachers endorsed Mamdani in the general election, the former governor has grown more hostile toward the union.

Asked at the PLACE town hall how he would preserve the mayor’s authority over the school system, which must be periodically renewed by the state legislature, Cuomo indicated he would battle the teachers union, which has criticized mayoral control.

“How do you beat them? You beat them with parents,” Cuomo said.

For his part, Mamdani has devoted just a few sentences on his campaign website to K-12 education and has said little about how he would improve the city’s highest-need schools. His biggest proposal is to end mayoral control of the city’s schools in favor of a system that is more responsive to parents and educators, though he has not offered details about how that might work. He has also vowed to tackle school segregation and root out wasteful spending at the Education Department.

“I take very seriously the responsibility of leading the largest school system in the United States,” he told Chalkbeat during a campaign event last weekend.

During Thursday’s town hall, Cuomo took direct aim at Mamdani’s proposal to give up control of the city’s schools, arguing it would return the system to an era of patronage and corruption.

“The unions and Mamdani want to go back,” Cuomo said. “Mayoral control was the best education reform in this nation in 50 years.”

Political observers said it’s unclear whether Cuomo’s education push is bearing fruit, especially in an election dominated by questions of affordability and public safety.

“If I’m Mamdani, I’m thinking there’s no evidence this is moving the needle,” Collins said.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex atazimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Thousands of charter schools supporters march in Brooklyn

2025-09-18T23:28:34+00:00

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“Anybody want posters?” an event marshal holding a stack of hand-painted signs called out as thousands of charter school parents and children in yellow and purple T-shirts streamed into Cadman Plaza Park on Thursday morning.

Families grabbed placards declaring “Every Zip Code Deserves Excellence,” “Equity is Access,” and “Respect Our Choice,” while charter school leaders rallied alongside them.

By noon, the crowd — representing more than 200 charter schools — spilled out of the park and onto the Brooklyn Bridge to advocate for the education sector.

As it did during the 2013 New York City mayoral election, the charter sector has shifted into offense in recent weeks as Democratic Socialist frontrunner Zohran Mamdani leads the polls. Eva Moskowitz, founder of Success Academy, the city’s largest charter school network and one of the rally’s organizers, has not publicly named Mamdani but has warned that charters face "existential" threats.

Mamdani is the only mayoral candidate who has criticized charter schools, which he says shouldn’t be given space in public school buildings. He has also said he would audit charter finances.

“I’m worried about facilities. I am worried about funding — we have inequitable funding. Charter schools get thousands of dollars less. And I’m worried about our freedom,” Moskowitz told reporters at a press conference during the rally.

Success Academy CEO Eva Moskowitz said charters have "inequitable funding" during a rally at Cadman Plaza Park in Brooklyn. Success Academy was one of the organizers.

Charter school supporters say they’re a lifeline for Black and brown families who don’t have equitable access to quality education. Critics argue that the privately managed but publicly funded schools siphon away resources from public schools.

Charter schools educate roughly 150,000 New York City students at nearly 300 schools. More than 40% of the city’s charter schools occupy Department of Education buildings, which they often share with traditional public schools. A 2014 law requires the city to provide new or expanding charter networks space in existing public school buildings or subsidize their rent.

The city’s mayor does not have many direct powers over the charter sector, and a state cap currently prevents additional charters from opening in New York City. Legislators in Albany have shown little interest in lifting that cap, and some of the city’s largest charter networks have struggled to maintain enrollment in the wake of the pandemic. But the mayor can be a charter booster or detractor and can set the tone at the Education Department, which often coordinates services at charter schools.

David Chen and his son, who is a fifth grader at Success Academy, attend a pro-charter school rally at Cadman Plaza Park in Brooklyn.

Parent Lira Medinas, whose son began his kindergarten year at Success Academy, has concerns about Mamdani. Like other charter parents, Medinas took off time from work to attend the rally.

“ He’s not supportive of the charter schools,” Medinas said.

She said she can’t afford to send her child to a private school and believes the public school options available to her family are not as strong as charters.

“We are fighting for the right of having a choice,” she said.

Other parents at the rally voiced their support for charters.

“I feel confident that my son is getting a good education, and so that’s why we are pushing for charter schools, and we want the resources,” said Colleen Scotton, who decided to send her son to a Success Academy school after attending public schools herself.

“We want the doors to stay open so more kids can have access to the same education,” she said.

The event featured food, speeches, and musical performances, including a surprise appearance from Grammy Award-winning rapper Common. Success Academy canceled classes and required students to attend the rally like it did for the 2013 rally, ensuring a large crowd.

‘We need a show of force’: Charter leaders plan massive rally ahead of NYC mayoral election

2025-09-15T23:08:43+00:00

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More than a decade ago, thousands of charter school families and staff marched across the Brooklyn Bridge in a show of strength one month before Bill de Blasio was elected mayor. They feared the progressive candidate would follow through on promises to make it harder for charters to operate in city-owned space.

Now, in an echo of that 2013 rally, charter leaders are gearing up to march across the bridge on Thursday as Zohran Mamdani, a Democratic Socialist and charter school critic, is the frontrunner to win November’s mayoral election.

The mayor, who oversees the New York City public school system, does not have direct authority to expand or shrink the charter sector. He can, however, set the tone on whether the city is a welcoming environment for charters, which are privately managed and publicly funded. The sector educates nearly 150,000 children, or 15% of public school students, up from 6% a dozen years ago. More than 40% of charter schools operate in Education Department buildings.

Mayor Eric Adams has not been a major booster of charters, but, unlike de Blasio, has avoided big clashes during his tenure. Mamdani, a Queens assemblyman, has signaled he might take a more antagonistic approach.

He argues charters divert resources away from traditional public schools and should not be granted space in city buildings. He has vowed to launch audits of them if he wins.

Success Academy, the city’s largest charter network, is canceling regular classes and sending students to Thursday’s rally, as it did in 2013.

“We need a show of force,” Success CEO Eva Moskowitz wrote in a message to families obtained by Chalkbeat. She urged them to contact their elected representatives to remind them that “charter schools are public schools.”

Although some charter staffers expressed uneasiness about the seeming political overtones of the rally, a Success spokesperson said the rally was not intended to influence the election.

The Mamdani campaign did not respond to a request for comment about the rally.

“Zohran knows that New York City’s public schools are the foundation of our communities, our economy, and our workforce,” Dora Pekec, a spokesperson for Mamdani’s campaign, told Gothamist. “Yet charter schools siphon resources away from public education, often without real accountability or oversight.”

Success, and some of the rally’s other leaders, have avoided directly linking it to the election. They have sent more generic messages about ensuring that charter families, nearly 90% of whom are Black or Latino, are heard and raising awareness about charters. In interviews, some charter leaders emphasized that Mamdani’s focus on affordability is a crucial issue for many of their families.

Mamdani’s platform “generally appears to be about equity and equality and making New York City work for everyone and particularly for lower-income families,” said Arthur Samuels, the executive director of MESA Charter High Schools, which operates two campuses in Brooklyn. “Overwhelmingly, families that send their kids to charter schools are those families.”

Other charter leaders said it was time for the schools to ramp up their advocacy efforts after years of relative quiet.

“We had lost touch with the advocacy part of our work,” said Lisa Margosian, the CEO of Achievement First, which operates 22 charter schools in New York City. “We need to lift up our heads and make sure people are aware of what we’re doing.”

More than 200 charters are expected to participate Thursday, organizers said. Some large networks, including Achievement First and Uncommon Schools, plan to hold classes as usual that day.

Mamdani has not made education a major part of his campaign, and he could largely sidestep contentious fights over charter schools if elected. But charter supporters worry Mamdani could undercut their aim of growing the sector by lobbying in Albany, especially when it comes to raising the charter cap, which currently prevents new charter schools from opening. He could also create more bureaucratic hurdles for schools that depend on city dollars and real estate, some worry.

Charters as a political lightning rod

Not all charter school staffers support the rally. Some educators have expressed concern that it could be construed as an effort to influence the election and felt uncomfortable that students and staff were expected to participate.

“The rally is at least somewhat politically minded,” said one Success Academy teacher who supports Mamdani and spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution. “It just feels like a very specific political stance was taken by the network.”

Success Academy spokesperson Ann Powell disputed that the network was taking a position in the election. “We are not seeking to influence the mayoral race,” Powell wrote in an email. “We have asked our speakers not to mention the race or the name of any candidate.”

Asked about the network’s decision to cancel classes and send students to the rally, she wrote: “We are not canceling school; we are moving it to the streets.”

Charters have long been a flashpoint in city politics. Supporters argue the schools offer quality options for families who have often lacked access to strong public schools in their neighborhoods. The sector typically posts higher reading and math scores on state tests than traditional public school counterparts, particularly among Black and Latino children, though results can vary significantly by school.

Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is running as an independent, supports growing the sector and has proposed converting low-performing district schools into charters. During his time as governor, he won accolades from pro-charter groups for backing a state law that required the city to find space for charters in public buildings or subsidize their rent in private space. A spokesperson for Cuomo’s campaign indicated he did not have plans to attend the rally.

Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa also supports charter school growth. In 2013, the Republican mayoral candidate attended the charter rally; a spokesperson for the Sliwa campaign did not indicate if he would do the same.

Critics contend the schools tend to enroll a smaller share of students with disabilities and English language learners, and some employ strict discipline practices that can push families out. The city’s teachers union, a powerful voice in local politics, also opposes them, as the vast majority of charter schools are not unionized. The union endorsed Mamdani in the general election.

Some charters struggle with enrollment

Apart from the election, the charter sector is facing headwinds. Many New York Democrats have grown increasingly skeptical of charter schools and have resisted raising the charter cap. (In 2023 state lawmakers allowed several charters that closed or were never opened to be reissued to other operators but did not raise the overall cap.)

The sector, long known for explosive growth, has also struggled to maintain enrollment in many schools.

Four of the city’s largest networks — Success Academy, KIPP, Achievement First, and Uncommon Schools — all enrolled fewer students last school year than they did three years ago. Overall, the charter sector has grown about 6% over that time, in large part because some schools are still expanding to higher grade levels, while traditional public school enrollment in grades K-12 declined about 2%.

Rafiq Kalam Id-Din, the founder of Brooklyn’s Ember Charter School for Mindful Education and one of the organizers of the rally, said he still believes the sector has room to grow despite the enrollment challenges.

“We want to say we want less of the most innovative work, we want less of interesting options?” he said. “It makes no sense.”

Kalam Id-Din said he was unaware that Mamdani has criticized charter schools and argued that the schools should fit squarely within the candidate’s affordability agenda. Without charters, he said, some families would leave the city entirely.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

NYC’s next mayor could shake up the schools chancellor search. This group has ideas for doing that.

2025-09-10T21:58:01+00:00

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Unlike most city leaders, New York City’s mayor exerts near-complete control over its school system, with the chief executive able to unilaterally select the schools chancellor and dictate education policy priorities.

Zohran Mamdani, the current frontrunner in November’s race, has campaigned on ending mayoral control and giving students, parents, and educators more influence over the school system — though he has shared few details about how that would work.

Now a group of progressive education advocates is releasing a slate of policy proposals to make the school system more responsive to local communities in the hopes of influencing the next mayor. Their coalition may have sway with Mamdani, a Democratic Socialist, as he devises an education agenda. Among their top priorities is rethinking the search process for the next schools chancellor, typically a new mayor’s first major education decision.

If Mamdani takes the helm at City Hall, how he picks his schools chief could offer an early barometer of whether the 33-year-old Queens assembly member will follow through on his biggest education promise: to reduce mayoral power over the Education Department.

“This is a big test,” said Jonathan Collins, a professor of political science and education at Columbia University Teachers College. “In a system like New York’s, you are who you appoint.”

The chief of New York City’s public schools is one of the most visible and coveted education jobs in the country. The chancellor oversees a $41 billion budget, roughly 150,000 employees, and influences policy that is often closely watched by other districts. The decision could be even more consequential if Mamdani wins because he has not outlined a clear vision for improving the city’s public schools.

“If education is going to be the stepchild, then whoever he appoints is probably going to have a lot of freedom to be creative because it’s just not a top priority,” Collins added.

The policy blueprint is from New Yorkers for Racially Just Public Schools, a coalition of advocacy groups. It calls on the next mayor to create a search committee made up of students, parents, educators, and representatives of City Council and the comptroller’s office to vet chancellor candidates and devise selection criteria.

The report also proposes a series of town hall meetings in each borough for members of the public to offer input on the “qualities and priorities the next Chancellor should have that best represent the communities they will serve.”

The blueprint is based on feedback from more than 1,200 community members.

“I think it’s really important to have input from the people who are being directly impacted,” said Kassidy Khuu, a junior at Manhattan’s Hunter College High School and a member of New Yorkers for Racially Just Public Schools. “I personally go to a test-in school that happens to have a lot of school segregation and lacks diversity. That’s definitely a key issue that I would want to see addressed.”

The next schools chief should have deep policy knowledge and prior experience managing a school district or other education organization, and preferably have extensive knowledge of New York City, the report contends. The policy recommendations are set to be formally released at an event next week.

NYC mayoral candidates differ on schools chancellor search

Mamdani said last week that he plans to select a chancellor in consultation with groups who have supported his campaign, including the teachers union, and told reporters he will pick someone “who can deliver the outcomes that so many New Yorkers are in desperate need of.”

A Mamdani campaign spokesperson did not respond to questions about whether he would solicit public input.

A spokesperson for Andrew Cuomo, who is running as an independent, said he would welcome “collaboration from all stakeholders in making these decisions” but added “it is too early to speculate about candidates for top positions or processes for choosing them.” During his primary campaign, the former governor has said he “strongly” supports mayoral control of the city’s schools.

Mayor Eric Adams, who is also running for reelection as an independent, did not conduct wide searches for either of his two schools chancellors. David Banks, his first schools chief, was a longtime friend with deep roots in the system.

Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa said in a statement that he would “welcome a more inclusive, transparent citywide search for a schools chancellor that brings parents, students, and educators to the table for what is arguably the second most important job in city government.”

Proposing a more-inclusive chancellor search process isn’t without precedent. Comptroller Brad Lander, who is widely seen as a contender for a high-level job in City Hall if Mamdani wins, said he would seek “advice and consent” from the City Council during his campaign for mayor. (Lander and Mamdani endorsed each other in the primary.)

Ilona Nanay, a teacher at the High School for Teaching and the Professions who was involved in crafting the report’s recommendations, said making the chancellor search process more open could be a first step to reducing the mayor’s power over the system. She acknowledged that soliciting public input is “a messy process and it does take time, [but] it makes for a more cohesive and informed system.”

Mamdani has remained tight-lipped about who he would consider for the top education post, or if he planned to conduct a national search.

Several possible candidates have emerged in preliminary discussions, The New York Times reported, and all of them have local roots. They include Meisha Porter, a longtime Education Department veteran who served briefly as chancellor under Mayor Bill de Blasio; Rita Joseph, the chair of City Council’s Education Committee; and Kamar Samuels, a superintendent who oversees schools in Manhattan’s District 3.

Jamaal Bowman, a former member of Congress and vocal opponent of standardized testing during his time as a middle school principal in the Bronx, has also come up in discussions, according to the New York Post.

Asked last week about whether Bowman was in the running, Mamdani indicated the process was still in its earliest stages.

“I have not started any personnel interviews as it pertains to the schools chancellor,” he said.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex atazimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

How would Mamdani improve NYC public schools? The mayoral frontrunner offers few clues

2025-09-05T22:08:58+00:00

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On the first day of school, Zohran Mamdani stood in front of a middle school in Queens with the president of the teachers union and expressed enthusiastic support for a state mandate to reduce class sizes and a new law banning cellphones in school.

But, when asked by a reporter, he struggled to lay out how his administration would improve the city’s highest-need schools if he wins in November.

Education has not been a focal point in the election, even though the school system is the city’s largest department and commands a budget of more than $41 billion with roughly 146,000 employees. Mamdani, a 33-year-old Queens assemblyman who won the Democratic primary, devoted a single 168-word paragraph to K-12 education on his campaign website.

Pressed on his plans to improve schools on Thursday, Mamdani did not outline any specific policy initiatives. He emphasized the importance of funding and criticized his leading opponent, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is running as an independent.

“One of the first fights that I was a part of in Albany was the fight to fulfill the Campaign for Fiscal Equity and to actually start to fully fund our public schools, which was a fight that had the opposition of then Gov. Andrew Cuomo,” Mamdani said, referring to a long-running legal battle over whether the state adequately funded its schools.

He vowed to root out nepotism and “look line by line at every single position” in the Education Department bureaucracy to ensure that they are “actually working towards the betterment of the system” — a promise similar to the one Mayor Eric Adams’ administration made before taking office four years ago.

Mamdani also committed to cut down on wasteful spending and consider input from educators.

“Amidst all of the contracting and consulting that we pay for through [the Education Department], we know that there’s immense amount that can be saved … and through an understanding that when you are procuring curricula, it may actually be worth your time to speak to some of the teachers who then have to teach that curriculum,” Mamdani added.

His administration would “redirect that funding back straight into that classroom,” he said. “That has been a large focus of how we are envisioning what it will look like to run the largest school system in the United States.”

To several education advocates and observers, the response underscored that Mamdani has largely stuck to broad promises to invest in schools rather than advancing detailed ideas about what those investments should look like.

“As a leader, putting forward a vision of education to be held accountable to is really important,” said Jonathan Collins, a professor of political science and education at Columbia University Teachers College. He added: “It’s September — the runway is getting shorter.”

Asked if he plans to release a more detailed agenda for K-12 schools before the election, Mamdani did not commit to doing so.

“We are continuing to develop policy,” he said.

The next mayor will inherit a school system that faces many pressing challenges, including elevated rates of chronic absenteeism, falling enrollment, and reading and math proficiency rates that cleave along lines of race and class.

Adams has focused on overhauling reading and math instruction and expanding career education programs. His reelection campaign is widely considered to be a long shot, leaving the next mayor to decide whether to continue those efforts.

Mamdani’s education agenda includes ending the current system of mayoral control of the Education Department in favor of an approach that includes more community voice, though he has not shared details about his vision for changing the governance system. He also favors mental health support and school integration.

The city’s teachers union refrained from endorsing in the Democratic primary due to rifts between educators over the candidates’ positions on Israel and whether to prioritize prior executive experience. The union later endorsed Mamdani for the general election.

Cuomo has offered a lengthier set of education proposals, including an effort to replace low-performing schools with other models such as charters, which are publicly funded but privately managed.

“While I don’t necessarily align with everything in Cuomo’s platform, there is more of a detailed platform for sure,” said Matt Gonzales, a member of New Yorkers for Racially Just Public Schools, an advocacy group that plans to soon put out a policy roadmap that it hopes the mayoral candidates will embrace. (Gonzales said he was not speaking on behalf of the organization.)

Gonzales applauded Mamdani’s focus on school funding and affordable child care, and he said the mayoral frontrunner could help define a progressive vision for schools as the Trump administration attacks diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.

“There’s an opportunity for not just Mamdani, but others who are trying to lead cities and states, about what a diverse, inclusive education system should look like,” he said. “There is no [Democratic party] vision for public education.”

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex atazimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Teachers union backs Zohran Mamdani for mayor after primary snub

2025-07-08T23:06:13+00:00

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The United Federation of Teachers is now throwing its support behind Zohran Mamdani in the general election for mayor of New York City, after the union declined to endorse a candidate during the Democratic primary.

The UFT’s delegate assembly voted Tuesday to endorse the 33-year-old Queens state assemblyman, less than a month after it refused to endorse the Democratic socialist in the primary.

At that time, union President Michael Mulgrew said there were unbreachable rifts among the rank-and-file over the candidates’ level of experience to manage the city and their positions on non-education issues, including Israel and the crisis in the Gaza Strip.

Members who cared most about affordability, he said, favored Mamdani. Other members supported former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and former Comptroller Scott Stringer.

But now that the primary is over, it is unsurprising that the union would throw its weight behind the Democratic candidate.

Other major unions have made similar moves, including the Hotel and Gaming Trades Council; Local 32BJ SEIU, representing building workers, including doormen; and the New York State Nurses Association, all of whom supported former Gov. Andrew Cuomo during the primary.

The teachers union is the city’s second largest with nearly 200,000 members, including about 60,000 retirees. District Council 37, the largest municipal union, endorsed City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, with Mamdani as its No. 2 choice.

“As a union, we have to protect public education, public employees, and public service from attacks from Washington, DC. We have to make New York City safer and more affordable for working- and middle-class families,” Mulgrew wrote in a statement. “We have to make the jobs of educators and nurses more attractive with better pay and benefits, and retain those already doing the work. We need a mayor who understands the task before us and who will help us get it done.”

Mamdani said he was honored to have the UFT’s support.

“Public education is under attack from [President Donald] Trump’s authoritarianism on the outside and an affordability crisis from the inside,” he said in a statement. “The need for a true fighter for New York City teachers and students has never been higher.”

The general election will be held Nov. 4. Mayor Eric Adams is planning to run as an independent, along with lawyer Jim Walden. Cuomo has not yet decided whether he’ll run. Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa is on the Republican ballot.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy atazimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Zohran Mamdani wants to end mayoral control of NYC schools. Here’s what that could mean.

2025-07-01T20:14:52+00:00

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Zohran Mamdani has not sketched out a plan to manage the nation’s largest school system. But the Queens assemblyman, who won a decisive victory for the Democratic mayoral nomination on Tuesday, has one big idea: giving himself less power.

Since 2002, the state has granted the mayor of New York City almost complete authority over the public school system. The mayor unilaterally selects the schools chancellor and appoints the majority of the Panel for Educational Policy, a board that votes on school closures, contracts, and other major changes to Education Department regulations.

Most mayoral candidates this year said they support mayoral control, though some suggested tweaks. Every mayor has lobbied state lawmakers in Albany for extensions to mayoral control since it was enacted more than two decades ago. Mamdani, a 33-year-old Democratic socialist, has vowed to be an exception to that rule.

“Zohran supports an end to mayoral control and envisions a system instead in which parents, students, educators and administrators work together,” his campaign website states. In its place, he calls for a “co-governance” model that empowers existing organizations, such as elected parent councils and local school teams that include administrators, teachers, and caregivers.

Mamdani’s plan would represent a fundamental shift in school governance at a time when the system faces many pressing issues, including elevated rates of chronic absenteeism, declining enrollment, and persistent gaps in student achievement.

“That’s a signal that he’s thinking about this in a very different way than the typical mayoral hopeful,” said Jonathan Collins, a professor of political science and education at Columbia University Teachers College. “Not too many politicians have been in the business of giving power away.”

Mamdani secured 56% of the vote in the Democratic primary, according to unofficial ranked choice results released on Tuesday. That momentum could carry him through a general election dominated by Democratic voters. But he still faces a crowded field, with Mayor Eric Adams, Independent Jim Walden, Republican Curtis Sliwa, and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who received 44% of votes in the primary. (Though Cuomo will be on the ballot, he has not said whether he will mount a campaign.)

Debate over mayoral control to start again in 2026

Whoever enters City Hall in January will quickly be thrust into the perennial debate about mayoral control, as the state law granting that authority is up for renewal in the middle of 2026. State lawmakers have shown some willingness to tweak mayoral control in recent years, granting only short renewals and adding new members to the education panel (though the mayor retains the majority).

Supporters of the model contend that it allows for the mayor to execute a clear policy vision for the city’s schools and makes it obvious to the public who is responsible for the system’s performance. The prior system of decentralized school boards was rife with corruption and patronage, they argue.

Critics contend that mayoral control makes it too difficult for parents, students, and educators to have a say over how schools are run and that mayoral elections every four years are a blunt accountability tool, as other issues often squeeze out education. They also note that Adams’ hired or promoted some of his relatives into senior government jobs. His schools chancellor, David Banks, retired amid a federal corruption investigation, though he was not accused of wrongdoing.

Mamdani has not articulated a clear vision for the city’s schools and said little about what alternatives to mayoral control he favors. His campaign did not respond to a request for specifics. Brad Lander, a mayoral candidate who cross-endorsed with Mamdani, also proposed changes to mayoral control to give City Council the power to weigh in on the appointment of the schools chancellor.

John Liu, a Queens Democrat who chairs the state Senate’s New York City education committee, said he could imagine a range of possibilities for Mamdani’s “co-governance” approach. He said it could involve transitioning to an elected school board similar to Chicago, or allowing other elected officials power to make additional appointments to the Panel for Educational Policy. That board has 24 members, a majority of whom are appointed by the mayor.

“It’s great to hear [Mamdani] discussing new ideas,” said Liu, who endorsed Mamdani and said more debate is needed about various approaches to running the system.

Still, Liu sounded a note of skepticism that the Democratic nominee would relinquish control of the school system. “What’s said on the campaign trail is not always what happens once you become mayor,” he said.

Mamdani’s ‘co-governance’ proposal draws enthusiasm and concern

Heather Lewis, a professor of art and design education at Pratt who has written extensively about the community control movement in New York, wondered whether Mamdani might give local community education councils more influence, a move she supports. Those bodies, which represent 32 local districts and four citywide councils, could have more authority to supervise the superintendents who oversee principals, she said, a power the local boards held before mayoral control.

Mamdani is “trying to figure out how to co-govern” — something no one has tried to do since Bloomberg implemented mayoral control, she said. “That’s exciting.”

Other observers were skeptical of deferring policy decisions to the local level. For one, turnout in local parent council elections has historically been dismal, with some council members winning with just a handful of votes, meaning those groups may not fully represent their communities.

Mamdani could also be forced to confront local decisions he may disagree with; Manhattan’s District 2, for instance, passed a controversial resolution in 2024 calling for a review of the city’s policy of allowing transgender girls to join girls’ sports teams.

“Is Mamdani really willing to go down roads like that?” said David Bloomfield, a professor of education, law, and public policy at Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate Center.

Bloomfield, who previously served as the general counsel for the city’s Board of Education before mayoral control, added that Mamdani’s pitch for “co-governance” may be a winning campaign message because it has a populist appeal to make the system more democratic.

“It is a signal of a mindset more than an operational plan,” he said.

Other observers said they are open to changes to mayoral control but wished Mamdani was clearer about how changing the governance structure could produce better results for students.

“Co-sharing power [is] a process, not an outcome,” said David Adams, the CEO of Urban Assembly, an organization that supports a network of 22 public schools across the city. “It’s like okay, cool, but to what end?”

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Zohran Mamdani on education: The Democratic primary winner’s plans for NYC schools

2025-06-25T17:22:28+00:00

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If presumptive Democratic candidate for mayor Zohran Mamdani wins in November, he would oversee the nation’s largest school system – but he doesn’t want to do it alone.

The 33-year-old democratic socialist told Chalkbeat he is “opposed to mayoral control in its current iteration” and would advocate for a system that would lean on partnerships to govern the system of roughly 911,000 students and 1,600 schools.

The Queens assemblyman doesn’t have a long track record when it comes to city schools, but he is a graduate of the Bronx High School of Science and a former standardized testing tutor who would like to study racial and gender bias in the specialized high school exam.

Despite a stunning apparent victory Tuesday, Mamdani has a long road ahead of him to get to City Hall. If he formally clinches the nomination after ranked-choice ballots are counted, Mamdani will still face in November Mayor Eric Adams, who is running a third-party campaign, and potentially former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is mulling the same. Curtis Sliwa, the Guardian Angels founder, is running on the Republican ticket, and Jim Walden, a former assistant U.S. attorney, will be on the ballot as an independent.

While more of New York City’s budget goes to the Education Department than any other city agency, education wasn’t a focal point during this year’s primary race. But city schools could take on a larger role in the general election – and observers will be watching the United Federation of Teachers, which is the city’s second largest union and declined to endorse a candidate in the Democratic primary because of deep division within its members.

Here’s what we have learned about Mamdani’s views on city schools during his campaign:

Focus on child poverty, homelessness

The city’s affordability took center stage throughout Mamdani’s campaign and shaped his language around education. During the first primary debate, when Mamdani was asked about education, he talked about how 500,000 children go to bed hungry each night and how 100,000 of the city’s students are homeless. According to his platform, Mamdani would expand the city’s Bronx pilot “Every Child and Family Is Known,” which pairs children living in shelters with a “caring” adult who provides daily check-ins with them and weekly check-ins with their families.

During the second debate, when asked about supporting students with significant disabilities whose needs can’t be met in their neighborhood schools, Mamdani mentioned leaning on “high quality” tutoring. He also discussed ways to meet the state’s mandate to limit the city’s class sizes, including passing a City Council bill pushed by the teachers union to increase the wages for paraprofessionals, or teachers aides. The city is currently facing a shortage of these staffers, who often help students with disabilities. Mamdani also mentioned a push to cut down on Education Department contracts to consultants.

On his website, Mamdani’s K-12 platform discusses “strong” after-school programs, mental health services, and integrated student bodies. His platform focuses heavily on free child care from birth to five years old, and Mamdani called for raising the salary of child care workers to be on par with public school teachers.

He also supports a bigger city and state investment into the CUNY system and has long championed a “new deal” for CUNY to make the system tuition-free, increase funding for infrastructure and staff salaries, and provide free OMNY cards for students to reduce their public transit costs to and from class and work.

Mamdani said he would also create car-free streets in front of every school in the city as a way to prevent traffic deaths, foster outdoor play, and reduce pollution around schools. His vision is to make car-free school streets universal, he said, instead of the current opt-in system.

Mamdani’s views on thorny issues facing schools

Mamdani is one of the few candidates who opposes mayoral control (at least in its current form) and proposes instead to try to create “a more participatory educational system.”

That could include co-governance through the Panel for Educational Policy (the board that approves contracts and school closures) and school leadership teams (school-based teams consisting of school administrators, teachers, and parents), for instance. The city school governance system is up for renewal from the state in 2026.

Overhauling the city’s reading and math instruction with curriculum mandates has been Adams’ major school initiative. A new mayor will need to grapple with whether to continue, tweak, or scrap these changes. Mamdani called the city’s literacy program “a step in the right direction.” But he said the Education Department should increase teacher development and also provide more support to adapt materials for students struggling to access the curriculum as well ensuring it’s culturally responsive.

“I would work with our school communities to find the right balance of maintaining focus on literacy and the initiative, while adjusting the program to ensure we enable more teacher discretion,” he said in a statement in response to questions on several issues that Chalkbeat asked the mayoral hopefuls.

Ensuring the city’s compliance with the class size mandate will be another massive task for the next mayor. Meeting the targets will require a hiring spree projected to cost as much as $1.9 billion annually and potentially many billions more to create new classroom space.

Mamdani told Chalkbeat he would work with the School Construction Authority on a capital plan and would ensure the Education Department has enough funding to hire thousands of teachers. He provided few details on how he’d pay for that, though he said he would undertake a major audit to find inefficiencies to help the Education Department save money to invest in class size compliance.

Mamdani said he’d consider capping enrollment at overcrowded schools as well as consider mergers “where appropriate.”

As a graduate of Bronx Science and a former standardized test tutor, Mamdani told Chalkbeat he’s seen “firsthand the promise and the failure of our specialized high schools and their admissions process.” He said he supported an independent analysis of the Specialized High School Admissions Test for gender and racial bias, and he would address the city’s highly segregated school system by implementing recommendations from a 2019 school diversity advisory group. (The specialized high school admissions test, which is the sole basis for entry to eight schools, is enshrined in state law.)

When it comes to addressing New York City’s shrinking school safety force, Mamdani told Chalkbeat he would want to invest instead in guidance counselors, social workers, and mental health support, as well as expand free after-school and summer programs. He also would establish a youth advisory committee on hate violence prevention.

“As Mayor, I will focus on these investments along with restorative justice models, which allow our students to remain in schools, learn from mistakes, grow conflict resolution skills, and improve academic outcomes,” Mamdani said.

And Mamdani pledged to stand up to the Trump administration’s threats to cut education funding over diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.

“I am running to protect New Yorkers from Trump,” he said in a statement to Chalkbeat. “My policies will deliver protections from his rising prices, safety from his attacks on immigrants and LGBTQIA+ New Yorkers, and protections from his attacks on funding for vital services.”

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy atazimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Mamdani leads Cuomo in NYC mayoral primary. Here’s a look at their education records.

2025-06-25T03:08:18+00:00

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Queens Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani is leading in the Democratic primary for New York City mayor, setting the stage for a surprising upset in the race for City Hall.

Results could be a week away since no candidate garnered enough first-choice votes to win outright Tuesday night, but former Gov. Andrew Cuomo conceded the race and called Mamdani to congratulate him.

With 90% of first round votes counted, Mamdani won 43.5%, according to the Associated Press. This put him ahead of Cuomo, who came in with 36.3% of the votes, followed by city Comptroller Brad Lander with 11.4%.

Since the 33-year-old democratic socialist secured less than the 50% threshold needed for an immediate win, the city’s ranked choice system kicked in. The elections board is expected to release a preliminary tabulation of the ranked choice results as early as July 1, with an official, certified tally expected three weeks after the election.

But Mamdani’s opponents were treating Tuesday’s results as a victory for the upstart candidate.

“Tonight is his night. He deserved it. He won,” Cuomo told supporters Tuesday night. “We are going to take a look and make some decisions.”

In past elections, the winner of the Democratic primary had a strong shot at the mayor’s office, which oversees the city’s school system. But this year, the candidate who moves onto the Nov. 4 general election on the Democratic party line may still face an uphill battle.

In New York, third parties can nominate candidates who are already running under the major parties. So if Cuomo ultimately loses the Democratic nomination, he can run in the general election on an independent ballot line called Fight and Deliver, a party he created.

Mayor Eric Adams, who sat out the Democratic primary race, is running as an independent under the“EndAntiSemitism” or “Safe&Affordable” ballot lines. Additionally, Curtis Sliwa, the founder of the Guardian Angels, is running on the Republican ticket, and Jim Walden, a former assistant U.S. attorney, will also be on the ballot as an independent.

The mayor of New York City has a tremendous amount of power over the nation’s largest school system. Under mayoral control, which became state law in 2002, the city’s chief executive unilaterally picks the chancellor who oversees the Education Department’s $40 billion budget, roughly 150,000 employees, and nearly 911,000 students attending about 1,600 schools.

Mamdani’s education record

Mamdani doesn’t have a deep record when it comes to New York City’s K-12 schools.

As a legislator, he was among several sponsors of various education-related bills that have not been signed into law. One would require all school districts in the state to participate in the national school lunch program to serve free meals to students (as New York City already does).

He also sponsored a bill to overhaul how schools handle misconduct, banning suspensions for minor infractions like tardiness or dress code violations, and requiring schools to have professional development on restorative justice practices, which emphasize conflict resolution and relationship-building over punitive approaches.

Mamdani signed on to sponsor a bill to provide language assistance services for parents who don’t speak English and another to bolster school-based health clinics. He supported a bill to make the Muslim holidays of Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha school holidays across the state, as they currently are in New York City.

He signed onto a bill that would provide grants for schools to install solar panels, one that would require elementary and high schools to provide an Asian American history curriculum, and a bill to mandate instruction on climate change.

Mamdani also supported the Student Journalist Free Speech Act, which would protect students’ free speech rights in public high schools, and a bill requiring schools to include instruction on eating disorder prevention in health education for students in grades 6-12.

Cuomo’s education record

Cuomo touts his education record as a bright spot during his time as governor, but he often faced pushback from educators and advocates while he was leading the state. He came out of the gate with an aggressive reform agenda, attempting to overhaul teacher evaluations by tying them to state test scores. But he ended up relenting in the face of backlash of the massive opt out movement in the suburbs.

Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo leaves after voting in the Democratic primary at the High School of Art and Design Tuesday. He conceded to state Rep. Zohran Mamdani after the first round of votes were counted.

The former governor resisted massive increases in education spending, only to give in later by boosting state aid to schools. For years, he refused to fully fund Foundation Aid, a state funding formula that sends more money to high needs schools. According to that formula, created after a long-running lawsuit found the state failed to provide a “sound, basic education” to New York City, Cuomo short changed city schools by billions of dollars, advocates complained. (Still, New York spends more per pupil than any other state.)

Cuomo’s proposal to fund “free college” attracted much fanfare, but it ultimately was more style than substance thanks to the fine print: Students had to live and work in New York for as many years as they received free tuition, and if they left, they’d have to pay the scholarship off as a loan.

And while leading New York’s response during the pandemic, Cuomo had initially said he’d leave the decision whether to close schools to the state’s roughly 700 school districts, before pivoting on his plans for New York City, giving the Big Apple just 24 hours to come up with plans.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy atazimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Polarizing race: NYC teachers union declines to endorse in mayoral primary

2025-06-13T20:59:50+00:00

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In a striking reversal, the city’s teachers union has declined to endorse a candidate in the Democratic primary for mayor, officials announced Friday afternoon.

The United Federation of Teachers’ stamp of approval is widely coveted, as the union is the city’s second largest with nearly 200,000 members, including about 60,000 retirees.

But Michael Mulgrew, the union’s president, said there were deep divisions between union members about which candidate has the right experience to manage the city and their positions on issues other than education, including Israel and the crisis in the Gaza Strip.

Debate became so tense that it was impossible to forge a consensus.

“People are just like, ‘We don’t care what other people are saying. We have dug in and we’re not moving,’” Mulgrew said in an interview with Chalkbeat. “When you get these greater societal issues, that’s when … it becomes a little dicey.”

He added: “There’s not even somewhat of a consensus on this race. It is split all over the place.”

In a union poll, three issues — proper city management, affordability, and responding to the Trump administration — placed ahead of public education, which Mulgrew said was unusual.

Members who prioritized stronger city leadership and responding to Trump tended to favor former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, according to the union chief, while those who worried about affordability supported Zohran Mamdani, a Queens state assemblymember. Those who prioritized public education leaned toward former Comptroller Scott Stringer, whom the union has previously endorsed, Mulgrew said.

The union has previously refrained from endorsing mayoral candidates, including during former Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s reelection bids in 2005 and 2009 — and twice during the 1990s.

Amanda Vender, a Queens educator who teaches students who are learning English, said she was glad the union polled its members but wished they had weighed in on the race.

“I’m disappointed there’s no guidance to at the very least not rank Cuomo,” she said, citing his record on education funding and cuts to public employee pensions.

Mulgrew said the union will likely issue an endorsement in the general election this November, even as it is possible that Cuomo and Mamdani could once again face off in that race. He said an ultimate decision would rest with the union’s delegate assembly, which includes staff from every campus.

The UFT had initially called on candidates to compete for its endorsement by spending a day in a public school classroom. But under pressure from City Hall — and amid allegations that the visits violated rules against using public schools for personal political purposes — the union dropped the requirement.

Some candidates had already participated in the visits, complicating the union’s endorsement process. The union also held a candidate forum.

Even if the UFT had issued an endorsement, there would have been little time to mobilize its members, as early voting begins on Saturday. Many other major labor unions issued endorsements weeks ago. District Council 37, the largest municipal union, endorsed City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams nearly two months ago.

The teachers union does not have a strong track record of electoral success with its endorsements. Stringer won the UFT’s stamp of approval in 2021 more than two months before the primary, though he finished in fifth place after facing sexual misconduct allegations. (Stringer is running again but his campaign has struggled to gain traction.) In 2013, the union endorsed Bill Thompson over the eventual winner, Bill de Blasio.

In the run-up to the Democratic primary, Mulgrew had been tied up in a fierce reelection battle of his own, which he won late last month with his lowest margin of victory since earning his first full term in 2010.

The teachers union isn’t alone in sitting out the mayoral race. The union representing school principals and other administrators has also so far declined to weigh in. A spokesperson did not respond to questions about whether an endorsement is forthcoming.

The mayoral candidates have largely refrained from releasing detailed plans for improving the city’s public schools, and education has received little attention during the campaign.

But the mayor controls the nation’s largest school system, which is facing many pressing issues, including a union-backed state law that requires sharp class size reductions. (You can find the candidates’ positions on class size reduction as well as several other critical education issues in our election guide.)

Mulgrew was tight-lipped about which candidates he personally believes would be the best stewards of New York City schools, noting that he does not always agree with the union’s endorsements.

“I never tell anyone who I’m planning on voting for,” he said. “Even my wife doesn’t know.”

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex atazimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

NYC mayoral candidates on education: Your guide to their plans for nation’s largest school system

2025-06-13T18:04:29+00:00

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This is part of a series in which Chalkbeat asked the mayoral candidates questions about important education issues that will likely define the next four years. The primary is June 24, with early voting from June 14-22.

The candidates running for New York City mayor have not made education a central issue, yet operating the nation’s largest school system is one of the top responsibilities for the chief executive of the Big Apple — and it commands the most resources.

The mayor controls the Education Department, appointing a chancellor who oversees its $40 billion budget, roughly 150,000 employees, and 1,600 schools serving nearly 911,000 students.

The next mayor will face entrenched issues — from disparities in student performance to school segregation — that the candidates have largely sidestepped.

They also must address pressing questions about how to implement the state’s class size mandate — an expensive task that will require hiring thousands of new teachers. Meanwhile, they will confront a Trump administration that aims to slash federal funding and root out diversity and equity programs.

Chalkbeat asked the mayoral candidates seven questions about education issues that will likely define the next four years, including whether they would follow through on Mayor Eric Adams’ reading and math curriculum overhauls and whether they would move to close the growing number of tiny schools. (The mayor declined to participate because he is not running in the Democratic primary.)

Here are our main takeaways from their responses. You can read their full answers by clicking on each headline.

Would you continue the current administration’s curriculum mandates for literacy and math?

Eric Adams’ most prominent education initiative is a massive overhaul to reading instruction, requiring schools to use city-approved curriculums. The move is part of a national “science of reading” movement that has drawn attention to flawed approaches to reading instruction many schools have long embraced.

The mayoral candidates generally support the reading curriculum changes, though several said teachers need more support and training. Several also suggested the mandate should be less rigid.

Queens state Rep. Zohran Mamdani wants to “enable more teacher discretion” in how the curriculums are implemented. Echoing concerns from some parent leaders, city Comptroller Brad Lander and former U.S. assistant attorney Jim Walden both want schools with a track record of success to have more leeway to skirt the curriculum changes.

The candidates were much more skeptical of the city’s effort to standardize math curriculums, particularly high Algebra I courses, a change that has drawn pushback from some educators and the teachers union. Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Queens state Sen. Jessica Ramos each expressed misgivings about the math changes and Lander said he would “ask my Chancellor for a full review of the data” and consult with educators before making a decision about whether to scrap it.

How would you continue implementing the mandate to reduce class sizes?

Under a 2022 state law, New York City must sharply reduce class sizes. Meeting that mandate will require hiring thousands of additional teachers, creating more classroom space, and finding billions of dollars.

Reducing class sizes is a major priority of the city’s teachers union and nearly all of the candidates said they would comply with the law’s requirements, which mandate that classrooms shrink to 20-25 students depending on the grade level by September 2028.

The mayoral candidates generally agreed that funding is a major hurdle and vowed to press state officials to cough up more money to implement it. Former city Comptroller Scott Stringer and Mamdani said they would also cut waste and repurpose existing funding within the Education Department’s budget to help pay for it, though they did not offer specifics.

Former Bronx state Rep. Michael Blake plans to boost the teacher pipeline with apprenticeships and “grow your own” programs. Lander also indicated that he would prevent schools from shedding teachers if their enrollment declines, a common practice as funding is typically tied to student headcount. The candidates largely did not address a host of difficult tradeoffs, including whether to cap enrollment at popular campuses or which schools should receive exemptions.

Two candidates said the law should be overhauled or scrapped. Walden said it should be revised to focus on high-need schools. (Higher poverty schools already tend to have smaller class sizes, which means the law is likely to benefit more affluent campuses.)

Former hedge-fund executive Whitney Tilson said the law should be rescinded entirely. “The class-size mandate is a costly giveaway to the teachers unions that will do nothing to help kids,” he said.

What’s your take on the city’s selective school admissions as well as the Specialized High School Admissions Test?

New York City’s notoriously complicated high school application process has long created a tiered system with dozens of “selective” schools basing admissions on grades, and the eight specialized high schools using an exam for entry.

Nearly all of the candidates would keep the Specialized High School Admissions Test, or SHSAT, which is enshrined in state law. Several called for expanded test prep access. It’s a sea change from four years ago when several candidates (including Stringer) called for eliminating the exam, which is often blamed for the low numbers of Black and Latino students at these schools.

Several mayoral hopefuls are also calling to increase the number of screened schools.

Blake was the only candidate calling to replace the SHSAT with “multiple measures, such as academic records and lived experience.” Mamdani, a Bronx Science alum and former standardized test tutor, said he’d support an independent analysis of the SHSAT for gender and racial bias. Lander said he’d keep the SHSAT but double the number of specialized high schools, with the new ones accepting the highest performers from middle schools across the city, a move he hopes would “alleviate the pressure families face to invest heavily in test preparation.”

How would you approach school safety and security, as the city has seen the number of school safety agents dramatically drop?

During the last mayoral election, New York City schools were planning to shift the school safety division from NYPD supervision to the Education Department, and several candidates explicitly backed the idea of redirecting financial resources from the Police Department toward mental health and other student support.

The Adams administration reversed course on taking away NYPD’s authority of school safety agents, who are uniformed but unarmed police officers stationed at schools, and public conversation calling for systemic reform of school safety has receded. At the same time, however, the number of school safety agents has shrunk from 5,000 during the 2019-20 school year to 3,600 currently, a drop of roughly 28%. Many principals have concerns about the drop, but some critics of the current system see the declining headcount as an opportunity to rethink school safety.

Many candidates support staffing up the school safety agent force. Lander called for a pay increase for the job that has an annual starting salary of $36,000. He and others also called for expanding mental health support. Several called for bolstering restorative justice approaches to help address conflict resolution. City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams believes that schools should get to decide their own safety approach, providing support for school communities that want more safety agents.

With a growing number of small schools, would you consider ramping up closures or mergers?

Nearly 200 schools enrolled fewer than 200 students last school year, almost double the number from about a decade ago.

And enrollment drops are expected to continue in the coming years.

With funding tied to student headcount, the next mayor will likely have to grapple with the growing number of tiny schools.They’re often costly to run, yet unable to afford a full complement of programs. Several candidates said they would support mergers or closures, with some saying they’d like to ensure community engagement in the process.

Cuomo said it would be “irresponsible” to take mergers and consolidations off the table. Mamdani said he’d consider mergers as well as capping overenrolled schools. Lander, who had issued a report on this as comptroller, favors mergers that intentionally integrate under- and over-utilized schools, through a lengthy community-involved planning process.

Adrienne Adams, however, said school closures are “not an option of particular interest,” and she would create a working group with teachers, parents, students, and city and state education officials to tackle the small schools issue.

What’s your take on mayoral control?

Under mayoral control, which became state law in 2002, New York City’s chief executive has a tremendous amount of authority over the nation’s largest school system.

Supporters of this system say that making one person responsible for the system’s performance ensures a clear line of accountability. Opponents argue that the system is anti-democratic and makes the system vulnerable to political winds with each new administration.

The state legislature will once again consider the fate of mayoral control, when it’s up for renewal in 2026, putting the onus on the next mayor to make a case for what the city’s governance model should look like.

Most of the candidates support mayoral control, but several called for greater transparency and including more parent voice.

Lander called for “municipal control,” with centralized management reporting to the mayor, but also space for parents, students, and other local elected officials to weigh in. He would, for example, “seek advice and consent” from the City Council on appointing a chancellor.

Mamdani said he opposed mayoral control “in its current iteration” and would create a more “participatory educational system” with “co-governance” from the Panel for Educational Policy, school leadership teams, and Community Education Councils. Ramos said she would consider bringing together teachers, parents, students, and experts to develop an alternative to mayoral control.

How would you respond to the Trump administration’s threats to revoke federal funding from schools?

Pushing back on the Trump administration has been front and center for many mayoral candidates.

Donald Trump has taken a particular interest in decimating the federal Department of Education, and in his efforts to root out diversity, equity, and inclusion programs from schools, Trump has threatened to withhold federal education funds. (The city gets roughly $2 billion a year in federal funding.)

Several of the candidates vowed to continue challenging the legality of Trump’s moves to withhold congressionally authorized funding. Brooklyn state Sen. Zellnor Myrie, for example, said he’d consider using the city’s financial contributions to the federal government as leverage: “New York must explore a nuclear option of withholding any state or local remittances to the federal government if Trump ignores a court order to give our city its funds.”

Cuomo said he would fight on behalf of the school system and that he had the most experience in standing up to Trump, but he also took a more conciliatory tone, saying, “I will work with the Trump administration to get the best possible treatment for the New York City school system and its students.”

Mamdani, meanwhile, claimed that Trump would have leverage with Cuomo, who he says “is backed by Trump’s donors.”

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex atazimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

NYC mayoral race: How the candidates would respond to Trump on education funding threats

2025-06-10T21:36:54+00:00

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How New York City’s next mayor will respond to threats from President Donald Trump has become an animating question in this year’s mayoral campaign.

It’s a question that could have big implications for the city’s public school system, which receives about $2 billion a year in federal funding. The Trump administration has aggressively used the threat of withholding federal education funds to push states and districts to align with its policies in areas ranging from transgender sports rules to diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.

New York City’s Education Department, the nation’s largest school system, has not yet been directly targeted by federal threats or investigations. But worried school staff and families have pushed city and education department officials to issue clear statements on protections for LGBTQ and immigrant students.

In April, New York’s state education department was the first to publicly rebuff the Trump administration’s demand that states certify they are not pursuing diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in public schools — or risk forfeiting federal funds. The administration has launched civil rights investigations into states and districts that allow transgender girls to play on girls sports teams — a policy New York City has steadfastly defended.

Former governor and mayoral frontrunner Andrew Cuomo has staked his candidacy in large part on being the contender with the most direct experience dealing with Trump. But other candidates have argued that Cuomo would be the least forceful in pushing back on the Trump administration.

Chalkbeat asked the leading candidates how they would respond to Trump administration threats to education funding as part of a questionnaire on March 25 to find out their views on seven pressing issues. A spokesperson for Mayor Eric Adams said he declined to participate since he isn’t in the primary.

Here’s what they told us about their approach to Trump.

Responses may have been edited for formatting or trimmed for length, but otherwise each candidate’s answers are as submitted, including hyperlinks.

Should NYC’s mayor control the public schools? Here’s what the candidates say.

2025-06-09T21:40:04+00:00

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The winner of this year’s New York City mayoral election will step into a role with an unusual level of authority over public schools.

Under the state’s mayoral control law dating back to 2002, the city’s chief executive has almost unfettered control over the nation’s largest school system. The mayor unilaterally appoints the schools chancellor and names the majority of members to the education oversight panel that approves contracts and school closures. The City Council, which acts as a check on the mayor’s power in other areas, has little authority over education policy.

But the controversial governance system will be up for renewal once again midway through 2026, part of a long-running pattern in which the state legislature renews mayoral control for only short stints, turning it into a perennial political football. That means the city’s next mayor will once again be thrust into the debate over whether — and for how long — lawmakers in Albany should extend his or her control over city schools.

Supporters of the governance system, including the city’s past three mayors, say that making one person responsible for the performance of the public school system is the best way to ensure it’s responsive and there’s a clear line of accountability. The previous school board system was rife with corruption and inefficiency, mayoral control supporters contend.

Detractors argue the system is anti-democratic and ties the school system to shifting political winds rather than sound education policy. A 300-page report commissioned by the state legislature and released last year offered no definitive conclusions on the academic effects of mayoral control but sparked some renewed calls to reevaluate school governance.

Many of the current contenders for mayor have taken up the question of mayoral control before — as state legislators, city officials, and governor. But Chalkbeat wanted to know how they would view the question when it’s their own authority over city schools at stake.

Chalkbeat asked the leading candidates how they would address mayoral control as part of a questionnaire on March 25 to find out their views on seven pressing issues. A spokesperson for Mayor Eric Adams said he declined to participate since he isn’t in the primary.

Here’s what they told us about their views on the city’s school governance model.

Responses may have been edited for formatting or trimmed for length, but otherwise each candidate’s answers are as submitted, including hyperlinks.

NYC is facing a growing number of small schools. Will the next mayor close them?

2025-06-06T20:25:05+00:00

New York City is facing a glut of tiny schools.

As enrollment declines accelerated since the pandemic, nearly 200 schools enrolled fewer than 200 students last school year — more than double the number of small schools compared with 2016.

The growing number of small campuses presents a dilemma for the next mayor. These schools are expensive to run, yet also struggle to afford a full range of programs, since funding is tied to student headcount.

Should the city support these schools? Or should officials ramp up closures and mergers, moves that often disproportionately affect Black and Latino communities and generate community backlash?

Enrollment drops are expected to deepen in the coming years, according to projections from the School Construction Authority, making those questions even more urgent.

Chalkbeat asked the mayoral candidates how they would approach the ballooning number of small schools. Some were more open to closures than others, but many of them agreed there should be a more thorough community engagement process.

This was one of seven pressing issues Chalkbeat posed to the leading candidates in a March 25 questionnaire. A spokesperson for Mayor Eric Adams said he declined to participate since he isn’t in the primary. During his tenure, Adams has ramped up mergers to address the issue and has also moved to close three schools. (We updated the story with a response from Zohran Mamdani’s campaign, which was provided after publication.)

Here’s what the candidates told us about how they would approach the issue.

Responses may have been edited for formatting or trimmed for length, but otherwise each candidate’s answers are as submitted, including hyperlinks.

How would NYC’s mayoral candidates respond to the school safety agent shortage?

2025-06-04T19:44:52+00:00

Perhaps no issue better reflects the seismic shifts from the last mayoral election to this one in both the state of New York City’s school system and the politics surrounding it than the question of how to keep school safe — and what role NYPD school safety agents should play.

The number of safety agents — uniformed but unarmed NYPD officers stationed at schools — has shrunk from 5,000 during the 2019-2020 school year to 3,600 currently, a drop of roughly 28%.

Experts and safety agents say the drop was driven by high attrition and slow hiring during the pandemic, and a starting annual pay of roughly $37,000, which makes it difficult to recruit.

The steep drop is concerning to many principals, who rarely have enough staff to patrol campus perimeters during arrival and drop-off, which can be potentially problematic during transitional times. Those who run schools with metal detectors have students waiting in long lines to get into their buildings when there’s not enough staff to run the scanning machines.

Last mayoral election, the city was still in the midst of a plan hatched during the George Floyd racial justice protests of 2020 to shift the school safety division from NYPD supervision to the Education Department. Multiple candidates explicitly backed the idea of shifting financial resources away from the NYPD and redirecting them toward mental health and other types of student support.

And while the public conversation around systemic reform to the city’s school safety apparatus has faded, some critics of the system see the declining headcount as an opportunity to embrace approaches to school safety less reliant on police.

Chalkbeat asked the leading candidates how they would address the staffing shortage as part of a questionnaire on March 25 to find out their views on seven pressing issues. A spokesperson for Mayor Eric Adams said he declined to participate since he isn’t in the primary.

Here’s what they told us about their approach to school safety.

Responses may have been edited for formatting or trimmed for length, but otherwise each candidate’s answers are as submitted, including hyperlinks.

NYC high school admissions and the SHSAT: Here’s where the mayoral candidates stand

2025-05-28T18:36:10+00:00

The New York City high school process is notoriously complicated.

And a small piece of it that occupies an outsized amount of attention — the Specialized High School Admissions Test, or SHSAT, which is needed to get into eight of the city’s most prestigious schools — is often considered a political third rail.

The application algorithm (for schools other than the specialized high schools) is meant to make the system fair by opening up schools across the city to students, but it favors families with the wherewithal to navigate the system. The level of screening in schools across the five boroughs is unparalleled, exacerbating the city’s dubious distinction as one of the most segregated districts in the nation.

Last year, out of nearly 71,000 high school applicants, about 19,000, or 27%, received offers at the dozens of selective schools that base admissions on grades. Fifty-one percent of those offers went to Black and Latino students, who make up about 60% of students citywide.

Nearly 26,000 students took the SHSAT, with roughly 4,000, or about 16% of test-takers, receiving offers to the city’s eight specialized high schools that base admissions solely on the test. Of those offers, 12% went to Black and Latino students.

So how can New York City make admissions more equitable? And what happens to the system as a whole when there’s a group of schools that can select their students based on grades, while others can’t?

Mayor Eric Adams’ response has been to further embrace sorting students, pushing to open more “academically accelerated” schools in historically underserved neighborhoods.

Many of the mayoral candidates seem to agree with that approach, calling for opening additional specialized or screened schools. One suggested the new schools would draw the top students from every middle school across the city. Nearly all would keep the SHSAT (which is enshrined in state law) but called for expanded test prep access. One candidate mentioned the importance of ensuring that non-specialized schools have access to more challenging curriculums.

Chalkbeat sent a questionnaire to the leading candidates on March 25 to find out their views on seven pressing issues. A spokesperson for Mayor Eric Adams said he declined to participate since he isn’t in the primary.

We asked each of the candidates how they would approach screened admissions and whether they supported the SHSAT. Here’s what they told us.

Responses may have been edited for formatting or trimmed for length, but otherwise each candidate’s answers are as submitted, including hyperlinks.

NYC faces a massive (and expensive) class size mandate. Here’s where the mayoral candidates stand.

2025-05-16T20:11:27+00:00

The next mayor of New York City will be responsible for implementing one of the biggest changes to schools in recent years: sharply reducing class sizes.

Under a state law passed in 2022, the city’s K-12 classrooms must be capped at 20-25 students depending on grade level, with performing arts and physical education classes allowed up to 40. Fewer than half of the city’s classrooms currently fall within those caps. The city must reach full compliance by September 2028.

It’s a massive task that will require a hiring spree projected to cost as much as $1.9 billion annually and potentially many billions more to create new classroom space. Where that money will come from remains an open question the next mayor must answer.

Most of the candidates said they would push state lawmakers to finance it — though it’s unclear if state officials will pony up.

The next administration will also have to confront other tricky tradeoffs. Should some schools receive exemptions from the law? Should popular schools cap enrollment? Which schools will get to build new space? How can it be implemented without shortchanging high-need schools, which already tend to have smaller classes?

We asked each of the candidates how they would approach the class size reduction mandate. Here’s what they told us.

Responses may have been edited for formatting or trimmed for length, but otherwise each candidate’s answers are as submitted, including hyperlinks.

Eric Adams installed sweeping curriculum mandates. Here’s what the mayoral candidates would do next.

2025-05-14T21:38:21+00:00

The candidates vying to unseat Mayor Eric Adams have largely attacked the incumbent’s record. But there’s at least one policy many of them want to keep: a dramatic overhaul of the city’s reading curriculum.

Adams’ most significant education initiative, known as NYC Reads, requires all elementary schools to adopt a city-approved literacy program. It’s been a major change for a school system that has long empowered principals to make their own curriculum choices.

Despite some concerns about implementation and whether teachers are receiving adequate training, the candidates generally plan to continue the program if elected. Multiple candidates said schools with a track record of success should get more leeway.

The city’s math curriculum mandate, called NYC Solves, is another story. Candidates were more wary of Adams’ push to standardize high school Algebra 1 coursework, echoing concerns among some teachers. (Both the reading and math curriculum mandates are expanding to middle schools as well.)

Chalkbeat sent a questionnaire to the leading candidates on March 25 to find out their views on seven pressing issues, including the city’s major curriculum overhaul and its significant implications for teaching and learning.

A spokesperson for the mayor said he declined to participate since he isn’t in the primary. We updated the story with a response from City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, which was provided after publication.

Here’s what the candidates told us about how they would approach reading and math instruction.

Responses may have been edited for formatting or trimmed for length, but otherwise each candidate’s answers are as submitted, including hyperlinks.