September 28, 2025
There is going to be a mayoral election in about 37 days. Since Eric Adams pulled out today, there are now three major candidates.
Andrew Cuomo, running as an Independent, has an education agenda focused on renewing Mayoral control, closing low-performing schools, expanding charter schools and gifted programs, and refusing to lower class size unless the state provides more funding specifically to implement the class size law. Here is a Power Point with more details on his positions on these and other education issues.
Curtis Sliwa, the Republican in the race, also wants to continue Mayoral control and expand charters, while continuing to co-locate charter schools in public school buildings. His website education page doesn't mention class size.
The proposals of both men are extremely reminiscent of the education policies during the twelve years the Bloomberg administration.
On many of these issues, they are diametrically opposed to Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee, who wants to amend Mayoral control to allow for more parent and community input, lower class size, and keep the number of charter schools as is, while auditing their practices to ensure more accountability. Here are his detailed responses on these and other education issues on the NYC Kids PAC survey.
Last Thursday, Cuomo answered questions via Zoom from NYC PLACE parent leaders, whose positions on most of these questions are aligned with his. There is a YouTube video of this forum here.
During the session, he seemed most passionate about the need to retain Mayoral control as is, several time saying it is "essential" and that "rolling back mayoral control is absurd". He argued the union is the biggest opponent to continuing the system unchanged, and he would need parents fighting with him to ensure that there are no governance changes when this comes to a vote in Albany.
While expressing support to fund all the programs that PLACE supports, including more gifted programs and selective schools, he was insistent that he strongly opposes lowering class size, unless the state specifically provides more funding for that purpose.
No mention was made of the fact that the state is providing nearly $2 billion per year in additional Foundation Aid annually in part for this purpose, as a result of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity lawsuit, or that Cuomo himself refused to fund the CFE settlement and for years denied NYC schools full funding while he was Governor.
Though Alex Zimmerman of Chalkbeat reported that during the session Cuomo asserted that he would not cap enrollment at lower levels at “desirable” schools to reduce class size as a page on his website says -- a special priority of PLACE -- his answer to this question during the forum was actually somewhat different.
He repeated that he would exempt all schools from having to lower class size unless the city received more funding for that purpose, and didn't make any distinction for so-called "desirable” schools. Even after being pressed on this matter, he said, "Either they have to give you the money or they have to give you an exemption."
Cuomo also said he would expand the police force and the number of School Safety Agents in schools. Strangely, he wrongly claimed School Safety Agents were currently under the control of DOE rather than police.
Perhaps the biggest news from the night was that he said he would consult with PLACE leaders before selecting a new Chancellor. For those who would rather not watch the entire video, a transcript of his remarks is below.
