{"id":61051,"date":"2025-12-04T19:34:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T19:34:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/61051\/"},"modified":"2025-12-04T19:34:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T19:34:13","slug":"mamdani-gets-highest-number-of-donations-from-doe-employees-since-2002","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/61051\/","title":{"rendered":"Mamdani gets highest number of donations from DOE employees since 2002"},"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

Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani received the highest number of individual donations from New York City Education Department employees than any other winning candidate since mayoral control was implemented, a Chalkbeat analysis of more than 20 years of election data found.<\/p>\n

Over 500 city residents working in the city\u2019s largest school district donated approximately $40,000 to Mamdani\u2019s campaign, according to the city\u2019s Campaign Finance Board<\/a> where donors self-report. <\/p>\n

However, while Mamdani had more individual donations from Education Department employees than any other winning candidate since 2002, Mayor Eric Adams received the most amount of money donated by DOE employees when he ran in 2021. Roughly 300 DOE employees donated to Adams\u2019 campaign in 2021, which received over $55,000 from those working for the city\u2019s Education Department. <\/p>\n

The United Federation of Teachers endorsed<\/a> Mamdani in the general election after avoiding picking a candidate during the Democratic primary. And even after the union came out in favor of Mamdani, members continued to debate his thin political record as well as the candidate\u2019s position on Israel and the crisis in the Gaza strip, causing some turmoil within the union. <\/p>\n

Mamdani won just over half<\/a> of the city\u2019s vote in November. Among his few K-12 ideas, Mamdani\u2019s push for ending mayoral control<\/a> and removing the gifted and talented program<\/a> for kindergartens sparked controversy, yet teachers Chalkbeat spoke to were drawn to his affordability plan. <\/p>\n

Mamdani\u2019s campaign galvanized New Yorkers across the city, attracting about 53,890 donations. That\u2019s more than twice as many donors as Mayor Eric Adams had when he won four years ago and former chief Bill de Blasio for his 2013 and 2017 victories.<\/p>\n

In terms of total amount raised, Mamdani\u2019s roughly $4 million was the least among the winning candidates since mayoral control of the city\u2019s Education Department began. After Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who donated over $200 million to himself <\/a>in total for his three campaigns from 2001 to 2009, de Blasio led with over $11 million in 2013. <\/p>\n

No employee from the city\u2019s education department donated to Bloomberg\u2019s campaign, according to available records. <\/p>\n

We’re on a need-to-know basis.<\/p>\n

Every weekday morning, Chalkbeat New York is bringing thousands of subscribers the news on public schools and education policy that they need to start their day. Sign up for our free newsletter to join them.<\/p>\n

Chalkbeat\u2019s analysis only included donors who listed the education department or a specific public school in the employment section. <\/p>\n

More than half of DOE donors who supported Mamdani\u2019s campaign identified themselves as teachers, including substitute and special education teachers. <\/p>\n

Jonathan Collins, a professor at Teachers College at Columbia University, said it\u2019s not surprising that New York City teachers, whose salaries range from $68,902 to $123,939<\/a> for this school year, support a candidate whose leading campaign promise is affordable housing, transportation, and living.<\/p>\n

\u201cAmongst the professions where you see degree earners \u2026 teachers tend to make the least and so they\u2019re underpaid relative to their level of educational attainment,\u201d Collins said. \u201cThey are middle class people paid like working class people. They\u2019re particularly interested in these affordability campaigns.\u201d <\/p>\n

Some teachers who donated to Mamdani\u2019s campaign acknowledged his K-12 education agenda was not a big part of his platform. <\/p>\n

Emma Webley, a bilingual teacher at P.S 89 Cypress Hills in Brooklyn, said while canvassing for Mamdani, many educators would question his lack of education policies. She agrees with Mamdani\u2019s opposition to mayoral control but admits the mayor-elect needs to polish his stance more, such as clarifying whether Adams\u2019 mandatory reading curriculum, known as NYC Reads, will continue in his administration. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt would make sense for him to be focusing on housing and other issues first and then moving on to what is happening in the classroom. But if that didn\u2019t happen … in the first year of his leadership, then I would be asking questions,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

Kyle DeAngelis, a third grade teacher at Harlem\u2019s P.S 368, also known as the William Lynch School, met Mamdani in February at an \u201cEducators for Zohran\u201d meetup, a coalition of teachers independent of the campaign, advocating for the mayor-elect. DeAngelis was impressed by the candidate, he said, and discussed hiring more counselors and social workers to provide mental health services for students. Mamdani agreed and from there, the third grade teacher knew he would rank the Queens assemblymen first. <\/p>\n

He felt compelled to donate and volunteer for Mamdani\u2019s campaign because living on a teacher\u2019s salary in the city is challenging, and his salary raises have not kept up with inflation. He was also drawn to Mamdani\u2019s affordability agenda since food and housing insecurity is a constant issue his students have brought up in class. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not just what\u2019s going on within the four walls of the classroom,\u201d DeAngelis said. \u201cWhen children cannot afford or families can\u2019t afford childcare, when they can\u2019t afford groceries, when they can\u2019t afford rent, when they can\u2019t afford healthcare, these are all things that have a profound impact on the work that we do in classrooms every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ananya Chetia is a reporting intern with Chalkbeat NY. Contact Ananya at achetia@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":61052,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[4146,13535,13533,13534,1445,9,24,56,63,65,64,122],"class_list":{"0":"post-61051","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-chalkbeat","9":"tag-democratic-mayoral-nominee-zohran-mamdani-and-united-federation-of-teachers-president-michael-mulgrew","10":"tag-first-day-of-school","11":"tag-i-s-5-in-elmhurst","12":"tag-mamdani","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-new-york-city","15":"tag-ny","16":"tag-nyc","17":"tag-nyc-headlines","18":"tag-nyc-news","19":"tag-queens"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61051","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=61051"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61051\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}