In a massive reversal to a key education promise on the campaign trail, mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani on Wednesday announced he now supports mayoral control – after pledging to terminate it.

Announcing Kamar Samuels, current superintendent of District 3 in upper Manhattan, as his new pick to lead the country’s largest public school system, Mamdani said he would “be asking the legislature for a continuation of mayoral control.”

What You Need To Know

After being a critic of the decades-old policy known as mayoral control, mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani on Wednesday admitted he wants to oversee the nation’s largest public school system

The powerful teacher’s union previously backed ending the law, but did not respond to a request for comment when contacted by NY1

Mamdani also announced Kamar Samuels, the current superintendent of District 3 in upper Manhattan, as his new pick to lead the country’s largest public school system

“And I will also be committed, with my incoming schools chancellor, to ensure that the mayoral control we preside over is not the same one that New Yorkers see today,” he said in Harlem. “It will be one that includes more involvement, more responsibility, more accessibility of the current processes that parents are told to engage in, but so often [do not] know about.”

After being a critic of the decades-old policy known as mayoral control, Mamdani admitted he wants to oversee the nation’s largest public school system.

“New Yorkers need to know that the buck stops with me,” he explained.

First implemented in 2002 under then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg after dissolving the old, controversial School Board of Education system, mayoral control grants the city’s chief executive the power to appoint a schools chancellor and set curriculum goals.

The powerful teacher’s union previously backed ending the law, but did not respond to a request for comment when contacted by NY1 on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, current Schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos, who was appointed by Mayor Eric Adams, is getting the axe in the middle of the school year. Mamdani said she will stay on for another month.

Samuels will take over her role as the new boss of the city’s school system.

“I have had every role, and in every role my focus has been the same: delivering results,” Samuels said.

Samuels said he’s on board with the smaller class size law, requiring the city Department of Education to shrink kindergarten through high school classes by granting a lower student-to-teacher ratio, allegedly a way to improve academic outcomes.

Behind on its deadlines, the city will need to build some new schools, merge or potentially close others to comply.

“We are all in on meeting the class size mandate as much as possible, I think there are several approaches, and what you can look forward to is a lot of community and parent engagement,” Samuels added.

Mamdani also appeared to leave the door open to asking Albany for some wiggle room on the deadline.

“When we return to Albany for this upcoming legislative session, we will also make clear the kind of support that’s necessary for the full implementation of that,” he said.

Mamdani also announced a handful of other appointments Wednesday, including his new Department of Buildings commissioner Ahmed Tigani, Louise Yeung as chief climate officer, Emmy Liss as executive director for the Office of Child Care, and Julia Kerson as new deputy mayor for operations.

Mamdani was also spotted at City Hall going over last-minute preparations for his formal inauguration ceremony.