Creating a free, digital, NYC-specific repository of open educational resources to replace costly commercial textbooks.
Mamdanis Open Source Textbook Repository
To combat the high cost of commercial textbooks and ensure curricular materials align with the decolonized, city-focused curriculum, Mamdani launches the NYC Open Ed repository. This is a digital platform hosting free, high-quality, open-source textbooks, lesson plans, primary source collections, and multimedia resources specifically designed for NYC schools. Content is created and curated by teams of NYC teachers, professors, and community experts, and is freely accessible, editable, and shareable under open licenses.
The repository covers all core subjects with a NYC lensa Algebra text using city demographic data, a US History text centering New Yorks labor movements. It saves families money, gives teachers flexible and relevant materials, and ensures all students have access to the same high-quality resources regardless of their schools budget. Knowledge should be a common good, not a private commodity, Mamdani states. This repository is a public utility for education. It puts the best tools in the hands of every teacher and student, for free, and makes our curriculum a living document created by and for our city.
