Ten months into his term, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is facing criticism from education advocates who say he has not followed through on the ambitious K-12 school agenda he promised as a candidate.
“It’s not good enough to be the TikTok mayor for 900,000 New York City public school students and their families,” said David Bloomfield, former general counsel for the New York City Board of Education and a professor emeritus at Brooklyn College. “We need movement, not just words.”
Bloomfield said the administration has yet to lay out a strategy for dealing with declining enrollment, racial segregation, overcrowded classrooms and school mergers. “Mayor Mamdani has not addressed education adequately,” he said. “Ten months into his administration, there is no real overwhelming education agenda… We’re really hearing nothing out of the administration.”
Leonie Haimson, founder of the advocacy group Class Size Matters, said many parents and advocates expected a sharp break from the policies of former Mayor Eric Adams. “Most people who are involved in education advocacy and many parents are disappointed because they really expected a big shift from the last administration,” she said. “Mamdani ran on a very progressive agenda overall, a kind of activist agenda, and yet we haven’t seen many changes from the Adams administration in terms of K-12 education.”
New York City’s public schools operate under mayoral control, which gives Mamdani wide authority over the system and its leadership, including Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels. Bloomfield said continuing that arrangement “without a real agenda” has left the system adrift.
A $38.6 Billion Budget
The city has allocated $38.6 billion to its public schools, which serve nearly one million students. According to a New York Post analysis, New York City spends 50% more per student than Los Angeles and Chicago, the country’s other two largest school districts.
Bloomfield questioned whether that money is going where it’s needed most, noting that funding continues to flow to schools with shrinking enrollment while other campuses are “bursting at the seams.” “Money will go a long way to solving the education problem in New York,” he said. “The problem, though, where does that money go? How is that money used?”
Class Size Law in Limbo
Haimson pointed to Mamdani’s shifting position on class sizes as particularly disappointing. A New York state law signed by Gov. Kathy Hochul — which Mamdani supported as a state assemblyman — requires city public schools to cap class sizes at between 20 and 25 students depending on grade level. Since taking office, Mamdani has sought a two-year extension that would push full compliance to 2030.
“The one thing he was most enthusiastic about was lowering class sizes and complying with the class size law. And yet, as soon as he got elected, he decided he wanted an extension,” Haimson said. “I expected that they would come out with a real plan on how that space would be created, and they have not done so.”
Haimson said Mamdani’s K-12 approach has largely tracked that of Adams, a comparison Bloomfield shares. He noted that during Adams’s first six months in office, the former mayor issued 21 press releases related to K-12 education, including on expanding gifted and talented programs and introducing dyslexia screening. Mamdani issued 11 releases over the same period in his term, according to an analysis by Chalkbeat.
“I think there’s disappointment. People want change,” Bloomfield said. “Change is necessary, whether it’s in terms of race… quality education, reading scores, math scores. There really is a need for improvement, and yet we’re hearing nothing out of City Hall or the Department of Education.”
Credit for Early Childhood, Gap After Age 5
Haimson did credit Mamdani for launching the city’s first 2-K initiative, a partnership with Hochul that expands early education and childcare access to 2-year-olds. But she said that focus hasn’t extended to older students.
“He really hasn’t taken much interest in anything that relates to education once the child turns 5 years old,” she said. “And of course, there’s many, many years of schooling that make a huge difference in a child’s life after the age of 5.”
Both advocates said they want to see Mamdani and Samuels make K-12 education a bigger priority going forward. “I’d like him… to pay more attention to K-12 education, because he did get mayoral control renewed, and it really is one of the top responsibilities of mayors in this city is to make sure that New York City kids are getting a good education,” Haimson said.
“We really need either the chancellor, Kamar Samuels, or the mayor himself to step up,” Bloomfield added.
Neither Mamdani nor Samuels responded to requests for comment.
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