Zohran Mamdani’s War on Charter Schools
It’s confirmed: If Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani is elected New York City mayor in November, he’ll wage war on charter schools to the detriment of working-class families.
“I oppose efforts by the state to mandate an expansion of charter school operations in New York City,” the Queens Assemblyman said in a Staten Island Advance survey, according to the New York Post’s exclusive.
“I also oppose the co-locating of charter schools inside DOE school buildings, but for those already co-located, my administration would undertake a comprehensive review of charter school funding to address the unevenness of our system.”
New Yorkers ought to ask Mamdani how his opposition to charter schools squares with his self-styled image as a tribune to the working class.
Charter schools primarily serve black and Hispanic students in lower-income neighborhoods. Parents demand more charter options — a request Albany has denied.
But NYC parents’ intuition is well-founded: The Manhattan Institute found that charter schools outperformed traditional public schools by 9 percentage points in English and 12.1 points in math last year. A 2023 Stanford University study found that NYC charter school students had an additional 80 and 42 days of growth per year in math and reading, respectively.
I can attest to NYC charter schools’ miraculous track record of lifting students beyond expectations. From first to eighth grade, I attended Leadership Prep Ocean Hill, the first public school in low-income neighborhood Brownsville, Brooklyn to win the National Blue Ribbon Award for its students’ stellar academic performance.
My school day lasted longer than public schools’. Leadership Prep devoted an extra hour to independent reading, English, and math. My classmates and I sat up straight with our hands folded and greeted our principal every morning with a firm handshake. Leadership Prep affirmed a simple truth lost among administrators and bureaucrats today: repetition and discipline are fundamental to quality education.
Charter schools are the clear solution to New York City’s education crisis, and now Mr. Mamdani vows to dismantle them. The $40 billion Department of Education spends $21,112 per pupil — the highest cost per student in the nation. Yet, only 23% of city eighth graders are proficient in math and 29% in reading, according to the Nation’s Report Card. A third of New York City public school kids were “chronically absent” last year — an astonishing 300,000 students.
Does the Democratic nominee have a real alternative for working-class families desperate for high-quality education?
Mr. Mamdani’s platform advocates for integration, smaller class sizes, and improved after-school programs and mental health counseling. He backs ending mayoral control and shifting power to teachers and parents.
If he were serious about these principles, he would let working-class parents continue to do what they’ve been doing for years: exercising their choice to enroll their children in charter schools.
The truth is, beyond his nebulous promise to put parents and teachers first, Mamdani doesn’t have a serious education plan for New York. And don’t expect him to budge on his anti-charter stance — his United Federation of Teachers endorsement ensures that.
Every other mayoral candidate offers tangible prescriptions for NYC’s education catastrophe. Incumbent Eric Adams, Republican Curtis Sliwa, and independent Jim Walden want to expand Gifted and Talented programs. Andrew Cuomo supports charter schools.
Black and Hispanic parents should not be fooled by Mr. Mamdani’s claim to champion working-class families. Special interests like the Teachers union and Democratic Socialists of America shape his vision for city schools — not pragmatic governance.
