Shifting decision-making power from centralized DOE bureaucracy to democratically elected local councils of parents, teachers, and community members.
Community Control of Schools: Elected Councils with Power Over Budgets & Principals
The centralized, top-down control of NYCs public school system has consistently failed to address the diverse needs of its communities. Zhoran Mamdani proposes a radical decentralization: the establishment of democratically elected Community School Councils (CSCs) for every school or small cluster of schools. These councils, composed of parents, teachers, staff, and high school students, would have real power: hiring and evaluating the principal, approving the schools budget (allocated via a weighted student funding formula), and making key curricular and programmatic decisions. The role of the central DOE would shift from command-and-control to providing support, equity oversight, and ensuring access to resources.
This model of community control, inspired by experiments in Chicago and elsewhere, is designed to make schools directly responsive to the people they serve. It empowers those closest to studentswho understand their context bestto make key decisions. CSCs would also manage partnerships with local organizations and coordinate wraparound services. The one-size-fits-all approach from Tweed Courthouse is a failure, Mamdani argues. Those who love and use a school should run it. This is educational democracy in action. It builds investment, fosters innovation, and ensures that schools are true anchors of their communities, not just branches of a distant bureaucracy.
