Heres an easy way for cash-squeezed Mamdani to save on DOEs monster budget

Mayor Zohran Mamdani campaigned on cleaning up the Department of Education’s bloated contracting — promising to audit its biggest vendors and root out deals built on who you know instead of what you do.So, it’s odd that four months after the City Council asked to see DOE’s contracts, it still hasn’t gotten them all.This month, Speaker Julie Menin threatened subpoenas over the hundreds of missing contracts.Mamdani says the council will have them “in the coming weeks.”For a mayor who ran on following the money, it’s a strange thing to slow-walk.Much of the school system runs on outside vendors.The DOE spends nearly $13 billion a year contracting out busing, cleaning, food, technology and special-education services.It buys the same services year after year.

When a contract expires, the city can rebid it or renew with the same vendor.It usually renews.The problem is the billions of taxpayer dollars flowing through decades-old contracts that get renewed, extended and expanded without ever being tested against a competitor.Last year, only about 13% of the DOE’s newly registered contract dollars were competitively awarded; 57% of that — about $1.06 billion of $1.87 billion — consisted of renewals or other awards whose terms had already been established under earlier contracts.These deals are perfectly legal.

And that is exactly the problem. The city reviews whether contracts meet legal and procedural requirements — not whether another vendor can provide the same or better service for less. Unlike nearly every other city agency, the DOE doesn’t have to follow the Procurement Policy Board rules — the citywide standards that promote competition and help ensure taxpayers get the best value. State law exempts it.Contracts over $1 million still go before the Panel for Educational Policy, and the comptroller registers them.But none of those steps asks whether another vendor could deliver the same or better services at a lower cost.The sc...