Mamdanis top task to fix NYC schools: make kids show up

New York City’s students will return to school this week — sort of: One in three of them will miss at least 10% of the school year.Chronic absenteeism is the most obvious obstacle to student achievement.Even if the city Department of Education boasted the best curriculum, the most qualified teachers and limitless cash, kids can’t learn if they’re not physically present.Is it any wonder half won’t finish the school year reading at grade level?Chronic absenteeism exploded during the COVID-19 pandemic and remains stubbornly high.In the 2018-19 academic year it stood at 26.5%, only to spike to 34.8% five years later.The bad habits start young: 37.8% of kindergarteners were chronically absent in the 2024-25 school year.A robust body of research correlates absenteeism, especially in early grades, with negative outcomes in school and later in life, including poorer standardized test scores and greater likelihood of drug use and criminal-justice involvement.Unexcused absences, which make up the largest share of overall absenteeism, have the biggest impact on academic performance.High rates of absenteeism can disrupt classroom instruction and make it harder for peers with consistent attendance to learn.Asking taxpayers to spend record sums on public education, only to have a third of students miss large chunks of the school year, is the ultimate indictment of the poor value proposition city schools offer.The DOE will spend more than $42,000 on each student, yet even those who attend will spend 130 fewer hours in classrooms than the national average.This dysfunction is one reason why so many families are opting out of the system.K-12 enrollment in New York City public schools has plummeted by over a tenth since 2020, or over 100,000 students.Many families enroll in pre-K, only to flee before kindergarten: 52,400 children applied for pre-K seats in 2024–25, but only 46,370 later applied for kindergarten.The School Construction Authority predicts the system wil...