New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s education platform is loaded with socialist slogans like ensuring “public schools are fully funded with equally distributed resources” and “free childcare for every New Yorker aged 6 weeks to 5 years.”
But the truth is that NYC public schools are not suffering from a lack of funding, and NYC parents are not demanding universal government-run childcare.
The real problem, which Mamdani’s socialist policies will not address, is the fact that NYC public schools operate in near monopolistic fashion, free from accountability to the parents they should be serving first and foremost.
The New York City Public Schools (NYCPS) system is the largest school district in the nation and has the largest budget in the country. In the 2025-26 school year, NYCPS will spend $42.8 billion, most of which will not be spent in the classroom.
In total, only $16.6 billion, less than 40 percent of the total budget, is allocated for “K-12 Schools and Instruction.”
Nearly half that amount, $8.5 billion, will be spent on “Employee Benefits and Pensions,” and close to $4 billion, about 10 percent of the total budget, will be spent on “Debt Payments.”
In 2024-25, approximately one million students attended NYC schools. Unsurprisingly, most NYC students are forced to attend public schools. In 2024-25, NYC had 1,597 public schools with about 900,000 students enrolled, compared to 281 charter schools with fewer than 150,000 students enrolled.
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It should be noted that NYC spends more per student than any other city or district in the entire nation. Last year, the NYC Department of Education spent $42,168 per student, a nearly 40 percent increase from five years ago.
Despite its prodigious budget, NYCPS is utterly failing to properly educate students, let alone keep them safe while on school grounds.
Based on a 2024 survey, more than half of NYC students "said harassment, bullying and intimidation by classmates was common,” and two-in-10 said they do not feel safe most days in school.
According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, also called the Nation’s Report Card, NYC students are well below the national and state averages. Since 2015, NYC student scores have declined in nearly every subject. In 2024, only 23 percent of NYC eighth graders were proficient in math, and less than 30 percent were proficient in reading.
Against this backdrop of educational ineptitude, as spending per pupil has increased astronomically and student academic performance and safety have declined, Mayor Mamdani demands more money and more government control.
But that will not solve the NYC education crisis because it does not address the core issue: Government-run schools lack direct accountability to their customers.
On the other hand, private, parochial, and charter schools are accountable to the parents who choose to send their kids to these non-public institutions.
Although school choice options for New York City residents are limited, the concept is very popular. Nearly 80 percent of New York parents support education savings accounts (ESAs), which “[establish] for parents a government-authorized savings account with restricted, but multiple uses for educational purposes.” Two-thirds of New Yorkers believe ESAs “should be available to all families, regardless of incomes and special needs.” And 60 percent of New Yorkers think their local school district “is going in the wrong direction.”
If that is not a biting indictment of the NYCPS system, consider this final statistic: In New York, the average private school tuition cost is $22,380, about half of what NYCPS spends per student.
If Mayor Mamdani really wanted to achieve social justice, he would fight the government-run education monopoly and give all NYC parents the wish they deserve: universal school choice.
Chris Talgo ([email protected]) is the editorial director at The Heartland Institute.
Editor’s Note: Zohran Mamdani is an avowed Democratic Socialist whose policies are wreaking havoc on New York City.
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