Zoharan Mamdani Recent victory Democratic Mayorl Primary in New York City has attracted extensive attention to its affiliation America’s Democratic Socialist What else do you see Uncommon rhetoricBut beyond the headlines, this education platform is the Mamdani Champion that can pose the greatest threat to the families of New York City – especially for those who try to use better schools and bright futures for their children.
There is one at the origin of the attitude of the Mamdani Disrespect rejection School choice. He opposes vouchers, charter school expansion and even co-place policies that allow high-performance charters to operate in public school buildings. Their platform asks for a funding overhaul that can severely reduce resources for charter schools, even if they serve. 15 percent Of the students of the city.
Mammadani opposes charter schools and vouchers on the basis of the claim that they bend public resources, lack accountability and mainly benefit rich families at the cost of low -income students. They argue that despite marketing as a tool to help struggling students, voucher programs are often used by already rich families in private schools. As President Trump Push For a national voucher initiative, Mammadani stressed that New York should invest in a fully funded public school system to ensure true educational equity.
But evidence paint a different picture. Success Academy, New York City’s largest and most tested charter network, nominate a student population 98 percent Made from minority students, with a vast majority coming from low -income houses.
Despite these demographics, its educational results are nothing less than exceptional: 96 percent Its students passed the State Mathematics Examination, and 83 percent Passed English Language Arts Examination. Conversely, the citywide public school is revolving around only the proficiency rate. 49 percentTo what extent charter schools like success academy are not reducing public education, but making it better.
By threatening the charter expansion and funding, the platform of Mamdani effectively reduces one of the few viable paths, which is for educational success for students in the unqualified neighborhood. Families who trust charters are not getting out of public education – they are getting out of failure.
As a Co-writer Among the “People’s Budget” proposed by Black, Puerto Rickon, Hispanic and Asian Legislative Cocks, Mamdani supports the target spending initiative that prefer political messages on tangible educational results. The budget of 2025 included an initiative for the purpose of increasing the teacher diversity, which demanded the Caucas. $ 8 million Investment in recruitment, training and retention programs to make the teaching work more diverse. This initiative is particularly ironic that New York City’s Public School System – The largest in both state and nation – Already there is a teaching staff that is almost 42 percent Despite black, African Americans, only includes 22 percent The population of the city.
In the same budget, Mamdani’s Caucas was allocated $ 250,000 To promote “racial and cultural inclusion” in K -12 classes and dedicated $ 351,500 For the purpose of supporting “underprised” teachers for statewide conferences, it is believed to remove obstacles faced by color teachers.
But the problem is not with diversity – it is accompanied by the wrong priorities of the case. New York City is already one of the most diverse population in the country. Meanwhile, the student’s performance in the main subjects keeps staggering, and near the old absence 40 percentDespite spending more per student than any other state – over $ 36,000 Annual – New York continues to fall low on basic benchmarks. Mamdani’s answer is more expense, in which there is no meaningful strategy to improve a little accountability and results.
The choice of the school, by contrast, provides a proven mechanism to increase student achievement without drawing funding from traditional public schools.
Programs from states such as Florida and North Carolina suggest that scholarship and charter models can co -exist with public education. In many cases, they run the improvement system-church. A 2019 Study Even public schools were found to be minor educational benefits, which should compete with nearby options-based options.
Mamdani rejected these successes, designing the school’s choice as an ideological threat rather than a practical solution. But for many families, the choice of school allows parents to choose the best educational environment for their children, whether it is a high-performing charter, a trust-based school, or special instructions that better fit the needs of a student.
Mamdani’s plan provides the opposite. It preserves a rigid system that often fails students to the most needs, while reducing resources towards symbolic programs that greatly reduce to improve reading, mathematics or appearance. Their vision enhances bureaucracy on results and ideology on occasion.
There is no shortage of funds in the city of New York, there is a lack of alignment between expenses and results. What is the need of the city, which are policies that empower families, reward effective schools and face failure with urgency – not just slogans. Mamdani is not a kind of leader who is in the student office of New York City.
Gregory Lykhov is a high school student from Great Neck, NY
