Mamdani quietly adds $700M to NYC public schools already bloated budget

The Big Apple’s beleaguered Department of Education quietly got even more money in this year’s massive $126 billion budget — pushing public school funding to nearly a third of all planned city spending.City documents show the DOE got $680 million more for its fiscal year 2027 budget than what Mayor Zohran Mamdani originally proposed earlier this year.That brings the DOE’s budget to an eye-watering $38.6 billion — an increase of almost $4 billion from last year, according to docs released without fanfare detailing the city’s adopted spending plan.The funding spike comes despite the school system’s continued declines in enrollment — and a vow from Mamdani to get contract spending at the agency under control.Some of the under-the-radar adds to the DOE budget included:“Not only is budgeting to pay for students that don’t exist unfair, it means you miss the opportunity to spend those dollars on programs to help New Yorkers … or building reserves that help New Yorkers weather a rainy day,” said Andrew Rein, the head of the fiscally conservative group, Citizens Budget Commission.Follow live updates on Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s socialist agenda and the latest in NYC politicsNew York City already spends 50% more per student than the other largest urban school districts in the country: Los Angeles and Chicago, according to federal data.The spending hasn’t necessarily yielded better results, according to the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress.The so-called “Nation’s Report Card” found that only a third of fourth-grade students were rated “proficient” in math and only 28% were proficient in reading.For eighth graders, 23% of city students were proficient in math and 29% in reading.The city’s ever-increasing education spending also comes as fewer and fewer students are actually in classrooms, with the latest projections showing the system losing another 153,000 over the next decade.There are currently 780,000 students enrolled ...