NYC Kids PAC is proud to endorse Zohran Mamdani as our #1 choice for Mayor. His survey responses blew us away with their consistent intelligence and progressive values. He was also the only candidate to express a willingness to significantly rethink our current system of Mayoral control, and to consider the option of a democratically elected school board in NYC, as 95% of the school districts throughout the country already enjoy. His responses on a range of questions ranging from class size to charter schools to how to improve the DOE contracting process were terrific as well.

Number two on our list is Brad Lander, who has an admirable record of promoting equitable public schools. Yet his responses to our survey were not as strong, including on Mayoral control. While he wrote that he supports “municipal control” to give the City Council more input, he said that the Mayor should retain the ability to appoint the majority of members on the Panel for Educational Policy. We are also disappointed that as Comptroller, he has carried out fewer DOE audits during his time in office than any other Comptroller in twenty years.

We are ranking Michael Blake as number three, as his survey responses were impressively  thoughtful on a range of education issues, especially on the need to bring more community involvement, transparency and accountability to DOE.

Neither Adrienne Adams nor Jessica Ramos completed our survey, which is a prerequisite for our support. The survey responses of the other two candidates who did, Scott Stringer and Zellnor Myrie, were so disappointing on issues like Mayoral control and charter schools that we cannot rank them. Stringer wrote that he supports raising the cap on charter schools, which are already draining more than $3.2 billion a year from the DOE budget; while Myrie was equivocal on the issue. The surveys of all candidates who filled them out are here.

Most importantly, we urge anyone who truly cares about the future of our public schools NOT TO RANK Andrew Cuomo or Whitney Tilson.  

Cuomo not only has supported charter schools expansion throughout his career to the detriment of our public schools, but also pushed through a 2014 law requiring NYC to give them space in our public school buildings or pay for their rent in private buildings – the only district in the state and indeed the nation with this onerous obligation.

He has repeatedly cut the budget for NYC public schools and insisted on imposing the defective Common Core, high stakes testing, and a teacher evaluation system based on test scores — all damaging policies that were widely despised and have now been reversed.

Cuomo now supports the increased use of Artificial Intelligence in the classroom, which risks further dehumanizing our schools, undermining privacy, and minimizing the personal connection between teacher and students key to a quality education.

Tilson is a former Wall Street financier, and the founder of Democrats for Education Reform, whose advocacy led directly to the lifting of the New York charter cap in 2007. He has also bragged that DFER did an “inside job” on the Democratic party to convince elected officials to support the privatization of our public schools

In short, we urge you to vote for Mamdani, Lander, and Blake as #1, #2, and #3 – and NOT to rank either Cuomo or Tilson.  

Please also check out our earlier endorsements for City Comptroller, Borough President, and City Council. The deadline to register to vote is June 14 – the same day that early voting begins; more information here.   You can also donate to our endorsed candidates here — or check out their websites to volunteer.