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As part of his vow to close a multi-billion dollar budget gap, Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced on Wednesday an initial wave of spending cuts to New York City’s Education Department.
But the reductions represent a tiny fraction of what the mayor ordered the agency, along with others, to trim. Officials said they’re still combing through proposals to determine which cuts to approve.
The Education Department’s central offices are expected to reign in spending on supplies, professional development, and travel — adding up to $27.5 million this school year. Next school year, the city will “terminate underutilized contracts” and “implement spending caps” to save $30.3 million.
Overall, the Education Department is expected to find hundreds of millions in savings across this school year and next school year.
In an executive order issued earlier this year, Mamdani charged city agencies with appointing a chief savings officer to identify 1.5% in spending trims this fiscal year and 2.5% next fiscal year. Each savings officer was supposed to issue a public report March 20 laying out a plan for cuts. Spokespeople for Mamdani and the Education Department declined to release the agency’s plan, which was developed by Michael Cheatham, an acting deputy chancellor who oversees finance and is the department’s current savings officer.
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A City Hall spokesperson said the Education Department would be expected to cut from the city’s contribution to the agency’s budget, which includes state, city, and federal funding. In total, that suggests the Education Department could be expected to cut over $800 million. Officials did not confirm an exact dollar amount figure the agency has been asked to cut.
“We’re only getting pieces of information,” said Ana Champeny, the vice president for research at the Citizens Budget Commission, a watchdog group. “They chose to release a very small subset of reductions that they say they’ve vetted so far.”
Education Department spokespeople declined to share which specific contracts are being cut, but said they reflect duplicative technology and software deals, consulting services that are no longer needed or can be offered internally, and certain administrative services.
City Hall announced more than $230 million in cuts across city agencies on Wednesday; officials said they are reviewing agency plans to cut $1.7 billion.
“Government must deliver for working people — and every dollar in our budget must work as hard as they do,” Mamdani said in a statement. “This is just the beginning of our work to improve service delivery and make city government the most efficient it can be.”
As the city’s largest agency, the Education Department is often a target for politicians who want to find efficiencies in city government. But finding cuts that don’t disrupt school programs is often easier said than done. Zeroing out funding for central staff and superintendent offices, for instance, would save about 1.2% of the agency’s budget.
“The mayor is clear that vital services need to be protected,” schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels said during a City Council hearing earlier this week. “We are cognizant of not impacting schools.”
On the campaign trail, Mamdani vowed to deploy a DOGE-style program to root out waste in the city’s public schools and “overhaul procurement infrastructure across the DOE.”
“For too long, we have allowed individuals like Elon Musk to pretend as if concerns of efficiency and waste are that of the right wing, when in fact, they should be the bedrock of any progressive politics,” Mamdani said in October.
Alex Zimmerman is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.