Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani will soon assume control of the nation’s largest school system where he will confront a bevy of challenges ranging from teacher recruitment to enrollment declines to significant federal funding cuts.
Leading that effort in his administration will be Kamar Samuels, who Mamdani announced as his schools chancellor on Wednesday. City & State first reported on Tuesday that the Manhattan superintendent was Mamdani’s pick for the challenging job.
It’s a huge system with over 135,000 employees and more than 900,000 students. Though multiple candidates were in the running – including current Schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos and former Schools Chancellor Meisha Ross Porter – Samuels won out, and has no shortage of fans who praise his work in Manhattan. He started his career at the Department of Education as an elementary school teacher in the Bronx…