Throughout Zohran Mamdani’s grassroots mayoral campaign, rent freezes, free buses and publicly-owned grocery stores took center stage.But one discussion that often went overlooked was New York City’s public education system, and the mayor-elects vague plans to revise it —- leaving many educators wondering if he will deliver on his promise to redirect power into their hands.
For Mamdani, the name of the game is “co-governance.” The term represents the Queens Assemblyman’s plan to redistribute authority away from the mayor’s office to the city council, the appointed schools chancellor and the New Yorkers for whom it matters most: parents, teachers and, by extension, students.
Steinhardt assistant professor Adriana Villavicencio, who teaches courses in educational leadership and policy studies and works with the Research Alliance for New York City Schools, said she sees the benefit of both mayoral control over public education and a more decentralized model.
“Part of the switch to mayoral control allowed for certain policies to be enacted more quickly or more efficiently.” Villavicencio, who formerly worked as a middle and high school English teacher in Brooklyn, said. “At the same time, we want to think about what may have been lost in that process, and if there are ways to retain efficiency and good decision-making for the entire city versus just some community school districts, while also preserving the voice and power of communities and local families.”
New York City public schools serve nearly 1 million students, more than 80% of which are racial minorities and 75% of which are economically disadvantaged. The city’s schools have increasingly faced challenges in recent years, as they face both overcrowding and understaffing, alongside a surge in chronic absenteeism rates post-COVID. The current structure was first introduced by former mayor Michael Bloomberg in 2022, wen he abolished the governing Board of Education and reduced the school districts’ power over issues such as their own budgets or contracts.
Mamdani himself was raised in this system. But the Bronx High School of Science graduate will be the only mayor in the last two decades to oppose mayoral control, saying in July that “we need a system that understands teachers, students, parents — as being part of the way in which we deliver the educational policy of this city.”
Last month, Mamdani doubled down on his stance that the system neglects parents in particular.
“They go to a hearing about the future of a school that their children go to — eight hours of testimony,” Mamdani told MSNBC. “Meanwhile, the decision was actually made weeks and months prior, and this is just a mere formality.”
Mamdani’s choice to relinquish control also raises hesitations among some educators. David Lepelstat, a humanities teacher at the Institute for Collaborative Education in Gramercy Park and staunch Mamdani supporter, told WSN that with the rise of charter schools and the privatization of education, Mamdani could protect public education by letting go of his authority over it.
“I think it’s a bit of a toss over to the city council, which I understand, but I would prefer a more activist mayor, especially with the power that he does have and because of his political standpoint,” Lepelstat said. “I think we need to be strong in defending education, especially when there’s exciting things happening in our city.”
In spite of this concern, Lepelstat also acknowledged Mamdani’s endorsement from the United Federation of Teachers, the city’s most prominent teacher’s union, as a sign of good faith.
“There’s so much weight and obstacles that so many of our students are carrying that are invisible, that just stem from families having trouble with living in the most unaffordable city in America,” Lepelstat said. “If we could alleviate that burden, even just a little bit, the positives that you see in the classroom would be enormous.”
While Mamdani has yet to publicly outline how his plan will better incorporate parents and teachers into policymaking, educators remain hopeful. Claire Pustinger, a high school teacher at the Academy of American Studies in Queens, has been an active supporter of Mamdani since before the Democratic primaries, and thinks that his focus on affordability will directly bolster student engagement.
“I was very energized by the fact that this was a person who cared about the material conditions for every single New Yorker,” Pustinger told WSN. “I think that speaking to teachers and respecting us as experts, not just of our pedagogy but of our class communities, and allowing us the freedom to create within that and to respond to student needs, is incredibly important.”
Contact Danica Guan at culture@nyunews.com.
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