During his campaign, Zohran Mamdani pledged to end mayoral control of New York City’s schools. One day before taking office, he changed his mind. His decision reflects the legal and operational realities of governing the nation’s largest school system.
Mamdani’s about-face came at a New Year’s Eve press conference to announce Kamar Samuels as his schools chancellor. “I will be asking the legislature for a continuation of mayoral control,” he said, adding that he would ensure that “the mayoral control we preside over is not the same one that New Yorkers see today.”
New York City’s mayoral control model concentrates responsibility between the mayor and the school chancellor, making it less likely that major reforms will be abandoned as soon as leadership changes. Board-governed districts, by contrast, tend to produce leadership turnover and short reform cycles, making accountability almost impossible to sustain…