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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.
