NEW YORK CITY — Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani has stunned education leaders by ignoring a direct overture from the city’s charter school sector, signaling that his administration may be preparing for an adversarial relationship with the publicly funded, privately operated schools that educate more than 150,000 New York children.
“Radio Silence”
In a written request sent on Dec. 1, 19 prominent city charter school leaders invited Mamdani to a meeting to discuss collaboration on his key “affordability” agenda. The letter, which offered a Dec. 12 meet-and-greet at Ember Charter School, argued that charter schools could help alleviate financial burdens for working families.
“When 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,” the leaders wrote. “In short, when equity rises, fewer people, especially black and brown families, feel compelled to leave our great city.”
However, according to reports, the Mayor-elect never responded.
“So far there’s been radio silence,” Eva Moskowitz, founder of Success Academy, the city’s largest charter network, confirmed.
A “Missed Opportunity”
The snub has drawn sharp criticism from The New York Post’s editorial board, which accused Mamdani of siding with “ideologues and special interests” over the needs of students.
“You’d expect Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, a Democratic Socialist, to want all kids to have access to high-quality schools that facilitate upward mobility,” the board wrote. “Yet he just dissed leaders from 19 city charter-school networks… blowing off these excellent schools would not only hurt kids; it would be a missed opportunity to advance his own ‘affordability’ agenda.”
The Education Battle Lines
Despite accounting for more than one in six students in the five boroughs, Mamdani did not appoint a single charter school official to his transition Committee on Youth and Education—a team of nearly 400 members.
During his campaign, Mamdani actively opposed charter school expansion, objecting to raising the state cap on new schools and opposing the use of city-owned buildings for charter operations.
“Our Hands Are Raised”
Despite the cold shoulder, charter leaders are pledging to take the high road. In their letter, they offered to advocate for Mamdani’s proposed universal child care program, attempting to find common ground.
During his campaign, Mamdani actively opposed charter school expansion, objecting to raising the state cap on new schools and opposing the use of city-owned buildings for charter operations.
“Our Hands Are Raised”
Despite the cold shoulder, charter leaders are pledging to take the high road. In their letter, they offered to advocate for Mamdani’s proposed universal child care program, attempting to find common ground.
“To be clear: our hands are raised sir, and we stand ready to do more,” wrote Rafiq Kalam Id-Din II, founder of Ember Charter.
Even Moskowitz, often a lightning rod for union criticism, urged patience. “Let’s put petty politics aside,” she said, noting that Mamdani is still assembling his administration and has not yet named a Schools Chancellor. “I’m patient.”
Whether that patience will be rewarded—or if New York City is heading back to the “adversarial” days of the Bill de Blasio era—remains the biggest question in city education.