It\u2019s another off-the-charts snub.<\/p>\n
Mayor-elect\u00a0<\/a>Zohran Mamdani blew off a written request to meet with 19 city charter school leaders who wanted to make the case they would work together to educate needy students.<\/p>\n The charter school operators told Mamdani in a Dec. 1 invite that they could help the democratic socialist implement his affordability agenda.<\/p>\n Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani did not respond to a letter signed by 19 city charter school leaders requesting that he meet with them. Luiz C. Ribeiro for NY Post<\/p>\n \u201cEquity and affordability are inseparable,\u201d the leaders wrote in the letter, which offered Dec. 12 as a possible date for a sitdown at Ember Charter School for Mindful Education.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen a family can count on an excellent public school near home, life gets less expensive: fewer hours on buses, fewer tutoring bills, fewer impossible choices between rent and opportunity,\u201d the letter added. \u201cIn short, when equity rises, fewer people, especially Black and Brown families, feel compelled to leave our great city.\u201d<\/p>\n But Mamdani never even acknowledged the letter.<\/p>\n \u201cSo far there\u2019s been radio silence,\u201d said Eva Moskowitz<\/a>, founder and head of the city\u2019s largest charter school network, the 59-school Success Academy, a co-signer of the Mamdani letter.<\/p>\n But Moskowitz \u2014 a co-signer of the letter \u2014 said she remains \u201coptimistic\u201d she and other charter school operators can develop a relationship with the Mamdani administration.<\/p>\n A march in support of New York City charter schools at the Brooklyn Bridge on Sept. 18, 2025. Paul Martinka<\/p>\n She said it\u2019s fair to cut Mamdani some slack, with the mayoral-elect running up against the holidays while assembling an administration. He has yet to name his schools chancellor.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cLet\u2019s put petty politics aside,\u201d Moskowitz said. \u201cI\u2019m patient.\u201d<\/p>\n Charter leaders had a cooperative relationship with Mayor Eric Adams and his team but always remained at odds with lefty Mayor Bill de Blasio, who took an antagonistic stance with some in the sector.<\/p>\n They\u2019re now vowing to be partners with the incoming Mamdani administration, and pledged in their letter to advocate for his proposed universal child care program.<\/p>\n \u201cTo be clear: our hands are raised sir, and we stand ready to do more. This includes helping to deliver on universal childcare AND more high-quality charter schools,\u201d the charter school reps wrote in the letter \u2014 which was co-written and co-signed by Rafiq Kalam Id-Din II, the founder of Ember Charter.<\/a><\/p>\n There are now more than 150,000 students enrolled in 285 charter schools, or more than one in six of all students in publicly-funded schools in the five boroughs.<\/p>\n But Mamdani didn\u2019t appoint any officials from the charter sector to his transition Committee on Youth & Education \u2014 one of 17 teams that include 400 people.<\/p>\n During his campaign, Mamdani opposed charter school expansion<\/a> in the city, specifically objecting to raising the cap in state to allow more of them to open or to provide space in city school buildings.<\/p>\n Charter schools are publicly-funded but privately run by not-for-profit groups and most staffers don\u2019t belong to a union. Students are chosen via lottery.<\/p>\n The alternative schools typically have a longer school day and school year, and its students outperform counterparts in traditional public schools on the state\u2019s standardized math and English Language Arts exams.<\/p>\n The letter to Mamdani argued that charter schools can help with affordability for families in New York City. Paul Martinka<\/p>\n