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Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s old colleagues in Albany aren’t going to let him maintain control of New York City schools without a fight.
Though the former state assemblyman campaigned on ending mayoral control as a way to give families and educators more of a say over the nation’s largest education system, Mamdani recently reversed course. Now, he faces an uphill battle with lawmakers in Albany to let him hold onto that power. Neither the Senate nor the Assembly proposed extending Mamdani’s control of city schools in separate budget proposals they released this week despite Gov. Kathy Hochul pitching a four-year extension of it in her budget proposal.
The state’s final budget is due April 1.
Albany gave New York City’s mayor control of the education system more than 20 years ago and has extended it ever since. The governance model — which is set to sunset on June 30 — allows the mayor to unilaterally appoint the schools chancellor, select a majority of the city’s school board, and generally set the district’s policy direction.
As Mamdani has moved full steam ahead on his plan to bring free child care to the city’s 2-year-olds and bolster the free program for 3-year-olds, he has come to appreciate having centralized control over the vast system.
“We would not have been able to launch 2-K or begin to fix the issues plaguing 3-K without mayoral control,” Mamdani said in a statement. “Mayoral control is key to delivering our affordability agenda, and I look forward to continuing to work with leaders in Albany to secure its extension.”
Former Mayor Bill de Blasio, who built the city’s massive prekindergarten program for 4-year-olds in 2014, said he would not have been able to launch that initiative without mayoral control.
“This is something that would really lead the nation” de Blasio told Chalkbeat about Mamdani’s child care push. “He’s not going to be able to do it, especially not quickly, if he doesn’t have sufficient capacity to run the system.”
Hochul had asked for a four-year extension in 2024 as well. Ultimately, state legislators approved a two-year extension with some changes to the school board, known as the Panel for Educational Policy. (The board grew to 24 appointees, with the addition of a chair nominated by Albany officials and selected by the mayor.)
Because the mayor appoints a majority of the members, the board has long been considered a rubber stamp for the chief executive. But the panel has increasingly displayed an independent streak, repeatedly bucking City Hall under former Mayor Eric Adams.
Another tweak from Albany lawmakers: Panel members serve one-year terms that run through June. That resulted in Mamdani inheriting Adams’ appointees, putting the new mayor in an awkward position of not fully controlling the school board for his first six months in office.
Adams, at the end of his term, ceded some of his control of the Panel for Educational Policy and left office with two mayoral vacancies. Mamdani has yet to fill those openings.
Still, there have been some new additions to the panel, including Jonathan Collins, an assistant professor of political science and education at Columbia University’s Teachers College. He was appointed by Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal.
“It’s an honor to be able to serve the kids of our city,” Collins wrote on LinkedIn on Tuesday, “and in this particular moment, I welcome the opportunity to model what true democratic school governance can look like.”
Advocates have continued to press the mayor to follow through on his promise to make the system more responsive to students, parents, and teachers.
State Sen. John Liu, who chairs the New York City Education Committee, said extending mayoral control would hinge on the city coming up with a plan to shrink class sizes to comply with state law. He also said he is speaking with Mamdani about possible changes to make the system more democratic.
“I’m in discussion with the mayor about what the plan is for class size reduction and what he envisions as a way to increase stakeholder input into how our schools are run,” said Liu, who did not offer more details.
When previously revealing his reversal on mayoral control, Mamdani pledged to incorporate community involvement, restructure parent meetings for community education councils to increase participation and awareness of these elected bodies, and improve the role of parent coordinators to be “meaningful” parent organizers instead of principals’ administrative coordinators.
Hundreds of parent coordinators wrote to Chalkbeat with their ideas for the mayor. They want better pay, more respect, a clearer job description — and they want to be included in decisions made about their jobs.
Albany signals support for Foundation Aid increase
Though lawmakers might not be on board for Mamdani’s plea for extending mayoral control, they do seem aligned with him on changing the formula that makes up the bulk of school budgets, funnelling more money to high-need schools.
The two-decades-old Foundation Aid formula was tweaked last year, but many advocates and politicians said the changes weren’t significant enough. Both houses called to add additional weights to the formula for homeless students,those in foster care, and children learning English as a new language.
High-need districts like New York City — which had about 154,000 students in temporary housing last year — stand to benefit if those weights are added. City schools last year received $314 million less than they would have under the original formula.
Compared to Hochul’s proposal to increase Foundation Aid across the state to $27.1 billion next fiscal year, the Assembly called for $27.8 billion, Speaker Carl Heastie said, while the Senate called for $27.4 billion.
Correction: March 10, 2026: This story initially said that Jonathan Collins was appointed to the Panel for Educational Policy by Mayor Zohran Mamdani. In fact, he was appointed by Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal.
Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.
Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.
