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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.
