Today is the first day for New York City public schools back from winter break, with a new mayor, Zohran Mamdani, and a new schools chancellor, Kamar Samuels. And what is also new is that Mamdani turned heel on his prior wrongheaded opposition to mayoral control of schools, announcing his support for this crucial power in tandem with his selection of Samuels hours before being sworn into office.
Excellent, Mamdani has now realized that we need a system where the buck definitively stops somewhere.
Mamdani surely knew the ways in which the old Board of Education, run by unaccountable picks of the five borough presidents, was an ideological battleground where political groups attempted to advance culture war agendas and shape the political identities of students rather than concerning themselves with promoting robust education.
Under mayoral control, going back to 2002, student learning has been the priority. Samuels, a veteran of the current Department of Education set up, may have persuaded Mamdani to change his view. If so, that’s the new chancellor’s first achievement.
Hundreds of thousands of pupils and their families and tens of thousands of teachers need a mayor and a chancellor who can make tough decisions and navigate everything from persistent racial disparities to changing job markets to the generational transformations wrought by technological advancement, including the suite of tools that are commonly referred to as AI. They need not just the answers to the questions but to know how and what questions to ask.
Having mayoral control of schools means the elected mayor, not the appointed Panel for Educational Policy, is in charge. Whatever Mamdani thought on the campaign trail about collaboration will come into sharp focus when he and Samuels get down to business.
How our education system is run is one of the most important questions in our society for the simple reason that it is the system we rely on to prepare the next generations of New Yorkers. A poor education is something that is not easily remedied, and which has lifelong repercussions.
It is precisely because education forms the backbone of a citizenry capable of critical thinking that challenges power and can reshape society that the Trump administration — which is far more interested in compliance and demagoguery than it is in a well-prepared and engaged electorate — is targeting the federal Department of Education and vilifying educators nationwide. Education is the natural enemy of complacency and autocracy.
If even as harsh a critic of mayoral control as Mamdani once was can come around on a 180, it should send a clear signal to the Legislature that the debate is settled and it should extend mayoral control, not just for the next year or two, but as a permanent facet of New York City home governance.
We hope the new mayor uses the authority to think hard about what the system is accomplishing, and for whom. Investment is important, but it’s clear that whatever failings our public school system has are not primarily the result of underinvestment in a city where we spend more than any other in the United States per pupil.
What we need is creative thinking that can help bridge gaps and prepare students not just for jobs but for life. Godspeed, Mayor Mamdani and Chancellor Samuels.
