Kamar Samuels should go too bad Mamdani wont hire anyone better to run NYCs schools

We’re glad to hear that Mayor Zohran Mamdani has his minions looking to replace his tainted schools chancellor, Kamar Samuels, but we have little hope the mayor will actually choose anyone good for the job.The immediate cause for Samuels’ ouster would be The Post’s reporting on how he approved a $180,000 no-bid contract (to provide temporary foreign-language teachers) with a non-DOE-approved vendor when he was a Manhattan district superintendent.Some efforts are in train to paint these violations as no big deal, with media reports suggesting the city Department of Education’s “cumbersome” and “dysfunctional” procurement process excuses Samuels’ breach of the rules.Hmm: We don’t see how that could also excuse the subsequent coverup, as his No.2 took the blame when the special commissioner of investigation came calling, and Samuels then rewarded that fall gal once he became chancellor.The rules sure had some function: The vendor Samuels wrongly used wound up supplying a teacher who’d been been pushed out of city schools over charges of sexual misconduct with a 15-year-old, which is why the SCI got called in.City Councilman Phil Wong (D-Brooklyn) has urged Samuels to resign (with some colleagues agreeing), but the mayor is standing by him publicly .

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even as Mamdani’s people vet possible replacements.Problem is, the hacks they’re looking at don’t look much cleaner: Meisha Ross Porter, Mayor Bill de Blasio’s last chancellor, is pushing to return, but City Hall chose Samuels over her because she’s tainted by financial scandals at a Bronx charity she ran.Meanwhile, the Council of School Supervisors and Administrators (the principals union) has advised its members to stonewall SCI investigators probing school-procurement practices, which suggests Samuels wasn’t remotely the only one ignoring the contracting rules.Subscribe to our daily Post Opinion newsletter! Please provide a valid email.

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