Why Has Mamdani Pushed Education to the Bottom of his Priority List?

It was a well-crafted targeted campaign. “Freeze the Rent,” “Fast, Free Buses,” “Free Childcare,” added up to::  “affordability.” 

Young voters, absent for years, jumped on board, an army of door knockers fanning out across the city. 

Opposition to mayoral control and including parents and teachers in the policy-making process, another winner.

In the primary a prediction: Cuomo winning in the last ranked choice voting round: Mamdani won in the first round. In November, in spite of millions from Bloomberg Mamdani won a majority, defeating Cuomo again.

The transition teams, a few zoom meetings, no actual policy setting roles, and, below the radar, fumbling his chance to influence the Speaker race.

Without a public process, announcing a change in position, now supporting mayoral control and choosing a chancellor from within the ranks, Kamar Samuels, an ultra insider. 

Was his original opposition to oppose mayoral control simply a ploy to attract parent and teacher voters, or did the whisperers prevail?

The new chancellor shuffles his cabinet to protect his flanks and embarks on a tour, visiting districts across the city. His policy initiatives: keep the train on the tracks.

Why did the Mamdani from candidate to mayor change his views on education?  Can he have to reestablish credibility among parents and teachers?

Mamdani and his inner circle crafted slogans: “freeze the rent” a winner, you control the Rent Guidelines Board, “fast free buses,” maybe a reduced fare based on income, “free childcare,” already in the works, “education” is not only not a winner, you have no control over increasing reading scores, Bloomberg closed 150 schools, antagonized parents and teachers. You have to control the chancellor, you need a scapegoat, if scores tank, fire the chancellor. 

At the top of the mayor’s list: keep the UFT happy, lower class size, sign the paraprofessional pay bump bill, stay away from toxic issues, like admission requirements at the Specialized High Schools. Support restructuring the PEP, as long as you keep control, reinvigorate the CECs, in other word, polish without restructuring, the illusion of change.

Every mayor has a coterie of advisors, whisperers, a few are deputy mayors and commissioners while others the untitled, the powerbrokers, some come and go, others survive administrations, the behind the scenes folks “…in the room where it happens.” Dean Fuiaihan is the Deputy Mayor, decades of high level government service, he knows where the bodies are buried, he buried a few himself.

Other advisers are from his Albany and campaign staff, very young, while passing the baton is vital, pushing the seniors out to sea on ice floes harsh, and institutional memory is a major plus and, a reminder,  there’s always a Brutus lurking in the shadows.