Will Zohran Mamdani Kill The Best Thing About New York City Public Sch

With Zohran Mamdani projected to win the New York City Democratic mayoral primary, his slate of socialist-influenced policies, from city-owned grocery stores to a rent freeze, are one step closer to reality. Mamdani's socialist agenda won't stop with housing policy or the minimum wage. It will also hit America's largest public school system and aim to kill the best thing about it. While New York City schools are routinely criticized for overspending, underaccountable teachers' unions, and general dysfunction, the city's group of selective high schools is a consistent bright spot. Eight schools, including Mamdani's alma mater, Bronx High School of Science, admit students through an exam. The schools give talented students from all over the city the ability to escape chaotic local schools and receive an education at some of the top public high schools in the country.

However, the Specialized High School Admissions Test (SHSAT), which is the test used to admit students, has long come under fire for what critics say is a racial bias. That's because Asian students overwhelmingly perform best on these tests. In 2023, for example, over two-thirds of the students at Stuyvesant High School (widely regarded as the best of the eight high schools) were Asian. However, this framing is reductive. It's worth noting that Asians have the lowest median income of any racial group in New York City. And, contrary to the popular vision of magnet schools being comprised of upper-middle-class white and Asian students, New York's selective high schools are economically diverse; 50 percent of Stuyvesant students are economically disadvantaged.

At Bronx Science, it's 52 percent. But that hasn't kept politicians from attacking the schools as segregated, and the SHSAT as racist. In 2018, then-Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) called the high schools a "monumental injustice." He attempted to survert a state law protecting the SHSAT, but the admissions change has so far been tied up... Over the years, Mamdani has stated that he would also attempt to ditch the admissions test. "As a graduate of Bronx Science, I have personally witnessed just how segregated New York City public schools are, especially our specialized high schools," he said in a 2022 interview. "I support measures to integrate our public schools and fully fund our education system, including the abolition of the SHSAT."

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to get essential news about NYC’s public schools delivered to your inbox. Zohran Mamdani has not sketched out a plan to manage the nation’s largest school system. But the Queens assemblyman, who won a decisive victory for the Democratic mayoral nomination on Tuesday, has one big idea: giving himself less power. Since 2002, the state has granted the mayor of New York City almost complete authority over the public school system. The mayor unilaterally selects the schools chancellor and appoints the majority of the Panel for Educational Policy, a board that votes on school closures, contracts, and other major changes to Education Department regulations. Most mayoral candidates this year said they support mayoral control, though some suggested tweaks.

Every mayor has lobbied state lawmakers in Albany for extensions to mayoral control since it was enacted more than two decades ago. Mamdani, a 33-year-old Democratic socialist, has vowed to be an exception to that rule. “Zohran supports an end to mayoral control and envisions a system instead in which parents, students, educators and administrators work together,” his campaign website states. In its place, he calls for a “co-governance” model that empowers existing organizations, such as elected parent councils and local school teams that include administrators, teachers, and caregivers. The educational priorities of socialist Big Apple mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani could undermine progress in the nation’s largest school system, veteran education experts warn. The Democratic Party candidate was the only hopeful who said he wants to gut mayoral control of the city school system — a set-up that has been in place since 2002 and supported by...

“Zohran supports an end to mayoral control and envisions a system instead in which parents, students, educators and administrators work together to create the school environments in which students and families will best thrive—strengthening... Mamdani repeated during a NY1 interview last week that he wanted to go beyond a mayor having an “automatic majority” of appointments to the Panel for Educational Policy. The socialist Democrat, who was endorsed by the United Federation of Teachers after he overwhelmingly won the Dem primary last month, said he is on the same wavelength as the union, which has long... Reason.com is the leading libertarian magazine covering news, politics, science, culture, and more through articles, videos, and podcasts. With Zohran Mamdani projected to win the New York City Democratic mayoral primary, his slate of socialist-influenced policies, from city-owned grocery stores to a rent freeze, are one step closer to reality. Mamdani's socialist agenda won't stop with housing policy or the minimum wage.

It will also hit America's largest public school system and aim to kill the best thing about it. While New York City schools are routinely criticized for overspending, underaccountable teachers' unions, and general dysfunction, the city's group of selective high schools is a consistent bright spot. Eight schools, including Mamdani's alma mater, Bronx High School of Science, admit students through an exam. The schools give talented students from all over the city the ability to escape chaotic local schools and receive an education at some of the top public high schools in the country. However, the Specialized High School Admissions Test (SHSAT), which is the test used to admit students, has long come under fire for what critics say is a racial bias. That's because Asian students overwhelmingly perform best on these tests.

In 2023, for example, over two-thirds of the students at Stuyvesant High School (widely regarded as the best of the eight high schools) were Asian. However, this framing is reductive. It's worth noting that Asians have the lowest median income of any racial group in New York City. And, contrary to the popular vision of magnet schools being comprised of upper-middle-class white and Asian students, New York's selective high schools are economically diverse; 50 percent of Stuyvesant students are economically disadvantaged. At Bronx Science, it's 52 percent. But that hasn't kept politicians from attacking the schools as segregated, and the SHSAT as racist.

In 2018, then-Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) called the high schools a "monumental injustice." He attempted to survert a state law protecting the SHSAT, but the admissions change has so far been tied up... Zohran Mamdani, the odds-on favorite to be the next mayor of New York City, has said precious little about education. But as someone who ran our school system for almost a decade, I can tell you what little he has said is alarming. He is opposed to charter schools and said he wouldn’t allow any more of them. He is opposed to gifted and talented (G&T) elementary and middle schools. He is troubled by the admissions criteria for the city’s specialized high schools.

He is opposed to mayoral control of the schools. And he was even rumored earlier this summer to consider Jamaal Bowman, the highly polarizing, extremely left-wing former congressman, as a potential candidate to lead the school system as chancellor. I held that position from 2002 to 2010 while Michael Bloomberg was the city’s mayor. Mamdani’s platform is almost certain to hurt the mostly black and Latino kids who live in the city’s poorer communities while driving middle-class and affluent families out of the public school system. Let’s start with charter schools, an issue on which the evidence is overwhelmingly compelling. Charter schools are a public-school option—free to students and available to all, by lottery if oversubscribed.

But in contrast to traditional public schools (called “district schools”), charter schools are operated by private, generally nonprofit organizations rather than by government bureaucrats. Updated on: September 7, 2025 / 2:52 PM EDT / CBS New York Zohran Mamdani, a Democratic socialist and the presumed frontrunner in New York City's mayoral race, has big plans to overhaul America's largest city and revamp the NYPD's responsibilities if he wins in November. Mamdani, who appeared with Sen. Bernie Sanders at a town hall in Brooklyn over the weekend and recently challenged President Trump to a debate, has made major promises to make city buses free, expand universal child care and freeze... The 33-year-old state assemblyman from Queens is also vowing to spend $1 billion to create the city Department of Community Safety, which he says would have social workers respond first, instead of NYPD officers,...

Mamdani laid out his, perhaps controversial, public safety plan to rely on mental health workers first instead of the NYPD in situations involving emotionally disturbed individuals -- like homeless people on the subways --... The 34-year-old, Ugandan-born democratic socialist defeated former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who ran as an Independent, in Tuesday's election, according to a race call by the Associated Press. A major development tonight on the local election that is being watched across the country. Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani will be the next mayor of New York City. That is according to a call made by the Associated Press shortly after polls closed at 9 p.m.

Eastern time. Mamdani came from behind in the Democratic primaries last summer, and then he dominated in the general election, beating former Governor Andrew Cuomo, who ran as an independent, and Republican Curtis Sliwa. NPR's Brian Mann is on the street tonight in Brooklyn and joins us now. Hi. SUMMERS: Brian, that was a pretty quick call as elections go. Tell us why.

MANN: Yeah. This was a huge turnout across the city, and Zohran Mamdani just, again, dominated. He got a massive turnout from his supporters. I'm here at his celebration headquarters in Brooklyn, and when news came that the race had been called, Juana, there was a huge cheer. People here have been celebrating all evening. They thought this was the way it was going to go, and now it's official.

SUMMERS: He faced a veteran political operator in Andrew Cuomo. He also faced tens of millions of dollars in super PAC spending by billionaires who were really hoping to block the election of a Democratic socialist. So I want to talk for a minute about Cuomo's campaign. What seemed to happen there?

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