Zohran Mamdani dropped his big education \u201cplan\u201d last week \u2014 and of course his vision amounts to nothing but bigger spending.<\/p>\n
He embraced the perverse<\/a> state class-size law, which forces New York City (and no other system) to hire thousands more \u201ceducators\u201d to no real purpose except to enrich the United Federation of Teachers.<\/p>\n Class sizes are already below the law\u2019s limits in nearly all the city\u2019s (too many) failing schools; it\u2019s the successful ones that will have to boost their teacher-student ratios.<\/p>\n The law may well even require the \u201ccrown jewel\u201d elite high schools (Stuyvesant, Bronx Science, Brooklyn Tech, etc.) to admit fewer kids<\/a>, for lack of the classroom space to meet the requirements with current enrollments. <\/p>\n But the leading mayoral candidate either doesn\u2019t know or doesn\u2019t care: He\u2019s pretending to be bold by declaring he\u2019ll devote $12 million to tuition assistance for 1,000 potential teachers a year who\u2019ll promise to take jobs in Department of Education schools for three years.<\/p>\n Hello: The problem isn\u2019t finding warm bodies who\u2019ll technically qualify to teach; it\u2019s finding enough excellent (or at least decent) educators to avoid watering down the talent pool<\/a> so that fewer students wind up having good teachers.<\/p>\n \t\t\tMore From\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPost Editorial Board<\/p>\n But this of a piece with Mamdani\u2019s glaring lack of knowledge of \u2014 or interest in \u2014 the city\u2019s schools.<\/p>\n Yet the DOE\u2019s $41 billion budget dwarfs the NYPD $5.8 billion one: Control of the city\u2019s schools, responsible for educating more than 900,000 kids, is one of any mayor\u2019s biggest and most consequential duties.<\/a><\/p>\n Then again, Mamdani says he wants to surrender mayoral control, claiming that the problem is that too many parents and teachers are shut out of decision-making. <\/p>\n And never mind that the guy he says is his role model, Mayor Bill de Blasio, rightly fought like mad to retain this power: What kind of candidate runs for office looking to ditch one of his most important responsibilities?<\/p>\n Mamdani has all kinds of detailed plans for making New York City cheap (\u201caffordable\u201d). Free buses, free day care, discounted groceries, all paid for by other people\u2019s money.<\/p>\n He knows exactly which parts of the NYPD he wants to disband, but when asked about education he\u2019s got next to nothing.<\/p>\n The schools are in a major crisis. Fewer than half of all black and Latino students are <\/a>proficient in grade-level math and reading.<\/p>\n