{"id":129435,"date":"2026-02-10T23:20:48","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T23:20:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/129435\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T23:20:48","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T23:20:48","slug":"mamdanis-education-chief-wants-extension-of-mayoral-control-over-nyc-public-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/129435\/","title":{"rendered":"Mamdani’s education chief wants extension of mayoral control over NYC public schools"},"content":{"rendered":"

Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels<\/a> affirmed Tuesday that he wants to extend mayoral control by another four years, a reversal of Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s campaign pledge to get rid of the system. <\/p>\n

Samuels said he backs Gov. Kathy Hochul\u2019s proposal for a four-year extension of the current system, in which the mayor, rather than an elected school board, runs the public school system by appointing the chancellor and most members of the main oversight panel that sets education policy.<\/p>\n

During testimony before the City Council\u2019s Education Committee, Samuels said increased \u201cfamily empowerment\u201d would strengthen the governance structure, which he dubbed \u201cmayoral accountability.\u201d Mayoral control is set to expire in June 2026.<\/p>\n

Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels said he supports Gov. Kathy Hochul\u2019s proposal to continue the current system for four more years. Stephen Yang for the NY Post<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe mayoral accountability and family empowerment can and must coexist,\u201d he said. \u201cOur children deserve both the centralized oversight and execution that allow for real, impactful change and the local input and decision-making that give our families a meaningful say.\u201d<\/p>\n

Samuels said centralized authority under the mayor helps the Department of Education move more quickly on systemwide goals, such as complying with the state\u2019s class size mandate<\/a>, by allowing the city to shift students and resources between neighboring schools with different enrollment levels.<\/p>\n

Samuels said mayoral control will make it easier to hit upcoming class size targets dictated by the state\u2019s class size law. Getty Images for Brooklyn Academy Of Music<\/p>\n

New York City must slash classroom sizes across the board by 2027-28 under the law, and Mamdani has put forth a $12 million-plan <\/a>to hire 1,000 new teachers a year to meet the mandate.<\/p>\n

During his mayoral campaign, Mamdani vowed to end mayoral control of the largest public school district in the country, arguing that the structure sidelined community voices in the system.<\/p>\n

But after getting elected, Mamdani reversed course, announcing his support to renew mayoral control as he introduced Samuels as the new schools chancellor, overseeing more than 900,000 students at some 1,800 schools.<\/p>\n

Most council members during Tuesday\u2019s hearing said they also supported mayoral control, but several pushed for stronger checks and balances.<\/p>\n

Mamdani vowed to end mayoral control during his campaign, but after getting elected, he reversed course, and announced he wanted to renew mayoral control. His reversal put him in line with Hochul\u2019s preference. Andrew Schwartz \/ SplashNews.com<\/p>\n

Councilman Eric Dinowitz (D-Bronx), the education committee chair, pressed for greater contract oversight and transparency requirements for the DOE.<\/p>\n

Samuels also fielded questions about President Trump\u2019s illegal immigration crackdown during the hearing.<\/p>\n

Councilwoman Jennifer Guti\u00e9rrez (D-Brooklyn) asked if the DOE had a unified approach for potential encounters with federal immigration agents.<\/p>\n

Samuels said the administration views schools as \u201csafe havens\u201d and described procedures such as buzzer entry systems and protocols requiring school safety agents to question visitors and alert principals when law enforcement appears at a school.<\/p>\n

A senior DOE official said the city has created trainings on how to respond to possible US Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity, with sessions offered online and in person for principals, superintendents and other staff.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The official said the sessions are technically voluntary but attendance is \u201cencouraged\u201d and \u201cmonitored\u201d by superintendents, particularly in communities with high numbers of immigrant families.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels affirmed Tuesday that he wants to extend mayoral control by another four years, a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":129436,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[4337,67,2035,75,84,83,12298,57,9,24,63,6915,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-129435","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manhattan","8":"tag-department-of-education","9":"tag-education","10":"tag-ice","11":"tag-manhattan","12":"tag-manhattan-headlines","13":"tag-manhattan-news","14":"tag-mayoral-control","15":"tag-metro","16":"tag-new-york","17":"tag-new-york-city","18":"tag-nyc","19":"tag-schools-chancellor","20":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129435\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/129436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}