{"id":86091,"date":"2026-01-01T00:20:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T00:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/86091\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T00:20:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T00:20:10","slug":"mamdani-reverses-course-on-mayoral-control-as-he-taps-new-chancellor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/86091\/","title":{"rendered":"Mamdani reverses course on mayoral control as he taps new chancellor"},"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

As Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani announced Kamar Samuels<\/a> as his new schools chancellor on Wednesday, he also reversed course on one of his main K-12 campaign pledges: He no longer plans to end mayoral control<\/a> of the nation\u2019s largest school system. <\/p>\n

Instead, he will ask Albany to extend the governance model when it comes up for renewal in June. He said he will work alongside Samuels, a veteran New York City educator, toward a version of mayoral control that will \u201cengage parents, teachers, and students in decision-making,\u201d Mamdani said at a press conference on the northern tip of Central Park just hours before his inauguration.<\/p>\n

His stance on mayoral control represents a major about-face for the city\u2019s new chief executive. But Mamdani\u2019s views on school governance were an outlier <\/a>compared with other mayoral candidates, and the idea to ditch mayoral control entirely had many skeptics, especially when paired with Mamdani\u2019s sweeping plan to build a free child care system. <\/p>\n

Mamdani acknowledged the challenges of the massive system he\u2019s inheriting, with its $43 billion budget, roughly 150,000 staff, and nearly 900,000 students. While literacy rates are improving, he said, nearly 45% of the city\u2019s students in grades 3-8 remained below grade level, according to last year\u2019s state tests<\/a>. Roughly 154,000 students are homeless.<\/a> And thousands of teachers are needed to meet the mandate to shrink classes<\/a>, particularly in hard-to-staff positions for special education, bilingual education, math, and science. <\/p>\n

He said he now realizes that New Yorkers should direct their concerns to him. <\/p>\n

\u201cI will be asking the legislature for a continuation of mayoral control,\u201d Mamdani said, \u201cand I will also be committed with my incoming schools chancellor to ensure that the mayoral control we preside over is not the same one that New Yorkers see today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Under the current governance model, the mayor unilaterally selects the schools chancellor and appoints the majority of the Panel for Educational Policy, a board that votes on school closures, contracts, and other major changes to Education Department regulations. The panel is typically considered a rubber stamp of mayoral priorities, though Mayor Eric Adams left some vacancies on the board, resulting in recent votes that pushed back more than usual.<\/a> <\/p>\n

Mamdani pledged to incorporate community involvement in a way that will not be \u201cceremonial or procedural, but tangible and actionable.\u201d He wants to restructure parent meetings for community education councils so that \u201cworking parents can actually attend them\u201d and improve awareness of these elected parent boards that oversee school zones and advise on policy. Voter turnout for these boards has been less than 2%<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Mamdani also promised to \u201cimprove the parent coordinator role to be a meaningful organizer of parents, rather than an administrative coordinator reporting to a principal.\u201d The responsibilities of parent coordinators, a role created in the initial deal allowing for mayoral control, vary widely from school to school<\/a>. Many do a tremendous amount of organizing already, particularly when it comes to helping homeless families, but many in the role have long complained about its low wages.<\/p>\n

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Mamdani said he chose Samuels because \u201cthis moment demands a new generation of leadership\u201d that \u201cunderstands our schools\u201d and has a \u201ctransformative vision\u201d on how to lead them.<\/p>\n

As superintendent of Manhattan\u2019s District 3 stretching from the Upper West Side to part of Harlem, Samuels oversaw some controversial school mergers<\/a>, combining schools with different demographics as a way to foster integration<\/a> in one of the country\u2019s most segregated school systems. He initially used that approach while superintendent of Brooklyn\u2019s District 13<\/a>, where he also spearheaded a move away from gifted and talented programs that separate kids toward schoolwide enrichment models, embracing the International Baccalaureate program<\/a>. Samuels started out as a teacher and principal in the Bronx. <\/p>\n

Mamdani made clear on Wednesday that he remains opposed to gifted programs<\/a> for kindergarten students, but that he has no plans to change the process for the current application<\/a> season.<\/p>\n

Samuels\u2019 work overseeing the Adams administration\u2019s literacy curriculum mandate, NYC Reads, led to an increase in test scores, Mamdani pointed out. Samuels also secured more than $10 million in grants across districts 3 and 13 to advance integration efforts through admissions policies, mergers, and rezonings. <\/p>\n

\u201cEquity is not an abstract idea. It\u2019s a set of choices we make together in policy,\u201d Samuels said. \u201cBut what matters is not just what we do, it\u2019s how we do it, by listening to educators, by respecting families, by seeing students, not just as data points, but as whole people with enormous potential.\u201d<\/p>\n

In recent weeks, some parent groups had been calling for Mamdani to maintain stability of the school system and keep the current chancellor, Melissa Aviles-Ramos<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Liss will be the new child care office head<\/p>\n

Mamdani also announced that Emmy Liss will serve as executive director for the mayor\u2019s Office of Child Care, a position that will be critical in realizing Mamdani\u2019s pledge to bring free child care to New Yorkers. <\/p>\n

\"AOn Dec. 31, 2025, Zohran Mamdani tapped Emmy Liss, pictured with her son, to lead his office on child care. Liss was the chief of staff for Josh Wallack, a top aide in the de Blasio administration who oversaw the Education Department\u2019s rollout for prekindergarten for 3- and 4-year-olds. (Amy Zimmer\/Chalkbeat) <\/p>\n

Liss was the chief of staff for Josh Wallack, a top aide in the de Blasio administration who oversaw the Education Department\u2019s rollout for prekindergarten for 3- and 4-year-olds. She has been advising the mayor-elect on child care issues.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I worked on the expansion of universal 3-k and pre-K, I saw firsthand what it means when city government comes together to deliver the families with the vision of universal child care,\u201d Liss said on Wednesday. \u201cWe have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to come together again, to double down on the city\u2019s investments and to design and implement a program that truly meets the needs of families and sustains our child care providers and educators.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy atazimmer@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":86092,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[5287,41803,9,24,55,54,56,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-86091","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-child-care","9":"tag-emmy-liss","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-city","12":"tag-new-york-city-headlines","13":"tag-new-york-city-news","14":"tag-ny","15":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86091","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=86091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86091\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}