New York City’s public education system is weeks away from being managed by an outspoken antisemite, a fierce advocate against parental rights in education, and a staunch supporter of a universal curriculum in the name of equity. This can only result in one thing: devastation.
In a state that already ranks 22nd, Zohran Mamdani’s vision will further erode the quality of the city’s public education.
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Mamdani’s pledge to limit the growth of charter schools, institutions that allow students to focus on specialized subjects, would trap children in their assigned district schools and deny them the opportunity to pursue an education tailored to their interests.
“I oppose efforts by the state to mandate an expansion of charter school operations in New York City,” the self-proclaimed socialist assemblyman said. “My administration would undertake a comprehensive review of charter school funding to address the unevenness of our system.”
Mamdani’s campaign against charter schools directly undermines the interests of New York City parents. A full 63% of them support expanding charter options, which overwhelmingly serve black and Hispanic students in low-income communities that together make up the majority of the city’s population.
Mamdani’s assault on parents’ right to choose the education best suited to their children extends beyond charter schools. He has now set his sights on the city’s gifted and talented programs, which allow high-achieving students to learn at an accelerated pace alongside peers of similar ability.
After outgoing Mayor Eric Adams expanded these programs in 2022, making advanced learning opportunities available in every New York City district, Mamdani said that, if elected, he would “return to the previous policy,” effectively rolling back those gains.
Mamdani’s opposition to gifted programs is not only unfair to New York City’s parents, it’s deeply hypocritical. In 2013, he attended an elite private college with an acceptance rate of just 8%, proving that he understands the value of placing students in challenging academic environments among peers of similar ability. Yet he now seeks to deny that same opportunity to the city’s brightest public school students.
Nor do Mamdani’s troubling positions end with education. His pledges to lift sanctions on antisemitic student rioters, roll back disciplinary policies, and pressure New York administrators to shield those arrested for antisemitic harassment and vandalism have left Jewish students across the city feeling unsafe and abandoned.
“We would find ourselves living in a world turned upside down, where moral depravity, cloaked in the false guise of social justice and progressive reform, reigns supreme,” Netanel Crispe, a Jewish student activist at Yale University, told the Washington Examiner. “Recent events have, unfortunately, demonstrated the herd-like mentality of many of our nation’s leaders, whether in politics or academia.”
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“Just as the encampments at Columbia spread like wildfire to university campuses across America and beyond, the politics of New York City continue to set a national precedent,” he added.
“The rule of law holds no authority in the absence of consequences. The past two years have demonstrated—at the extreme cost of too many innocent Americans—the devastating results of failing to hold individuals accountable for violating our laws. Mamdani’s effort to release criminals back onto our streets would send a clear and reverberating message across New York City and beyond: that crimes, including attacks on the Jewish community, can be committed without fear of repercussions,” Crispe concluded.