{"id":247994,"date":"2026-05-29T18:22:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T18:22:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/247994\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T18:22:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T18:22:07","slug":"nyc-wants-to-cut-wasteful-spending-what-does-that-look-like-in-public-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/247994\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC wants to cut wasteful spending. What does that look like in public schools?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York\u2019s free daily newsletter<\/a> to get essential news about NYC\u2019s public schools delivered to your inbox.<\/p>\n

In Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s quest to trim spending from New York City\u2019s massive municipal budget, there\u2019s no bigger target than the Education Department.<\/p>\n

The department\u2019s nearly $45 billion budget<\/a> is the largest of any agency by far, making up roughly a third of the city\u2019s entire budget.<\/p>\n

The city schools budget has even become a national talking point for critics of Mamdani. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos recently said<\/a> if he ran his company like New York City ran its schools, it would mean charging customers a $100 fee while taking six weeks to deliver a package.<\/p>\n

Now, as Mamdani doubles down on his waste-trimming efforts with a new Commission on Government Efficiency<\/a>, Chalkbeat wants to better understand what the Education Department\u2019s massive budget looks like to the people working in and attending the system every day, and where you see the biggest potential savings.<\/p>\n

The size and complexity of the budget is difficult to comprehend. It covers everything from staff and supplies at roughly 1,600 district schools as well as the educations of hundreds of thousands of students in charter and private schools and childcare centers. It spends billions on transportation, food, and maintenance. <\/p>\n

So far, Mamdani\u2019s biggest cost-cutting plan for the Education Department comes from hundreds of millions in expected savings from delayed implementation of the state\u2019s class size law<\/a>. He\u2019s also pledged to trim spending on students with disabilities attending private schools. City officials are counting on $100 million in savings from \u201cimproved financial controls\u201d and tens of millions more from consolidating or eliminating unnecessary contracts, according to budget documents<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Chalkbeat wants to hear from you, since where you see the biggest spending inefficiencies could look very different depending on your role in the system. <\/p>\n

For parents and students, what are the programs and materials at your school that feel least useful? For teachers and school staff, are boxes of new textbooks or laptops gathering dust? For administrators, are there projects, materials or contracts whose costs seem too high? And if you\u2019re involved in larger contracts or spending decisions, are there instances where the city is paying for duplicate services, or contracting out tasks it could do in-house for cheaper?<\/p>\n

By getting a ground-level view of Education Department spending, Chalkbeat hopes to help create a clearer picture of where the city\u2019s money goes, and we need your help in piecing that image together. <\/p>\n

Please fill out the form below. If you are having trouble viewing this form, go here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Loading\u2026<\/p>\n

Michael Elsen-Rooney is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Michael at melsen-rooney@chalkbeat.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sign up for Chalkbeat New York\u2019s free daily newsletter to get essential news about NYC\u2019s public schools delivered…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":247995,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[67,75,9,24,56,63,37284,65,64,37285,7037],"class_list":["post-247994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-education","tag-manhattan","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-department-of-education","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-tweed-courthouse","tag-world-trade-center"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247994","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=247994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247994\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/247995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}