Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani is shifting course on one of his education campaign promises, saying he now supports keeping mayoral control of New York City’s public schools.
At a press conference on Wednesday announcing his pick for schools chancellor, Mamdani said he still has “concerns” about the governance structure, which gives the mayor sweeping power over school policy, but that he wants to keep it in place to ensure accountability.
“As with every policy position I take, my focus is on outcomes,” Mamdani said. “So though I have held concerns about mayoral control, I also acknowledge that New Yorkers need to know where the buck stops with me.”
He named Kamar Samuels, a longtime city educator and current superintendent of Manhattan’s District 3, as the next chancellor. Samuels, a former Bronx teacher and Brooklyn principal, has held multiple leadership roles across the city’s school system.
Mamdani said he and Samuels would “pursue an aggressive democratization agenda to make sure the entire system has a voice” by elevating school-based parent coordinators and giving more power to local Community Education Councils. But he did not offer specifics on how those reforms would work.
The announcement marks a shift from Mamdani’s campaign rhetoric. On his website, and in debates, he promised to “end mayoral control” and give parents, teachers and students more power through a co-governance model.
Mayoral control has been in place since 2002, when then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg pushed state lawmakers to dissolve the city’s elected school boards, citing dysfunction and a lack of accountability. Since then, education policy has largely been driven by whichever mayor is in office.
Mayors in multiple cities took similar steps, wresting control of schools from school boards in an effort to streamline governance and enact new policies.
Critics have said the setup leads to whiplash for educators and families every four to eight years.
While education was not a major focus of Mamdani’s campaign, he said Wednesday that his broader goal of making New York more affordable is tied to education.
He pledged to hire more teachers, meet new class size mandates and improve services for homeless students.
