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A month after New York City’s school board failed to approve a technology contract with the software giant Oracle — prompting officials to warn of possible disruptions to “mission critical” systems — the board reversed course this week.
The city’s Panel for Educational Policy approved a $1.65 million extension with Oracle, after city officials said spiking the contract could disrupt human resources help centers that serve more than 150,000 employees. The contract also supports an enrollment support center that fields about 1,000 calls a day on issues ranging from student transportation and special education.
The deal represents a fraction of the Education Department’s roughly $13 billion spending on outside contracts. But the board’s August contract rejection was notable: Mayor Zohran Mamdani had just appointed the majority of its members and still could not muster the 13 votes necessary to approve the administration’s proposed contract.
The contract passed Wednesday evening, with 16 members voting yes and four no votes. Two mayoral appointees — Maddy Fox and and Tariq Kahn — abstained. (In August, the vote failed with nine votes in favor, six opposed, and two abstentions, falling four votes short.)
Skepticism of the contract, including from mayoral appointees, suggests that the board may not hesitate to buck the mayor’s wishes, as the board has grown increasingly independent.
Decisions about what technology the Education Department deploys, and which companies it does business with, are under increasing scrutiny. City officials have been rethinking what role artificial intelligence and other software should play in the city’s classrooms and have issued major restrictions this school year.
Several members of the public, including activists and educators, had urged the panel not to approve the contract. They cited the company’s investment in AI, even as city officials insisted there was “no AI use associated with this contract.” Others pointed to the company’s co-founder Larry Ellison, who has embraced AI and supported President Donald Trump’s 2024 election bid.
Those arguments gained traction with some panel members, some of whom wondered whether the Education Department could do the same work in house rather than contracting it out.
“Fruits of the Ellison tree are all poison,” Adriana Alicea, a board member appointed by Queens parent leaders, said at the Wednesday meeting before voting no on the contract.
On Wednesday, some panel members seemed torn about whether to approve it given the city’s dire warnings about disruptions to crucial systems.
Fox, a mayoral appointee, said the panel had been “grappling with this” but “there are limited options for the DOE in relation to this contract.” She noted the deal is part of a broader city government contract with Oracle. (She did not respond to an emailed question about why she abstained from the contract vote.)
Board member Greg Faulkner, also a mayoral appointee, said he hopes the city comes up with an alternative solution over the next year. He voted in favor on Wednesday, but said he would likely not vote in favor of it in the future.
“If they put an Oracle contract in front of us a year from now, I’m not sure it would pass,” he said.
In the meantime, the board passed a resolution Wednesday requesting more information from the Education Department about the contract due by the end of the calendar year.
An Education Department spokesperson did not respond to a question about whether officials are looking into alternatives to Oracle. An Oracle spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
Alex Zimmerman is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.
