Back-to-school in Mamdanis NYC means back to the same old failure its all in the plan

It’s back-to-school time in New York City — and while the names at the top this year have changed, the path to improvement has not.Last fall, the city Department of Education wasn’t ready.Student performance was appalling, as the National Assessment of Educational Progress made clear, and the plan to fix it? Absent.One year later, under a new mayor, Zohran Mamdani, and new Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels, it’s the same plan.Official results released in August show that on the state’s 2026 standardized tests for grades 3-8, citywide English Language Arts proficiency fell to 50.3% — a six-point drop from the 56.3% scored in 2025.Math scores were flat, up a meaningless 0.1 point to 57%.Third-grade reading cratered 13.8 points, to 44.2%; fifth-grade reading scores fell 13.1 points, to 46.6%.In class, 65% is passing — but when only half the kids achieve state “proficiency,” the system earns a big F.And the state’s assessments are inflated when compared to NAEP results, the test that measures performance across the country.The NAEP show just 29% of NYC eighth-grade students proficient in English and 23% in math — a huge gap compared to the state’s results.Note to Albany educrats: “Passing” more students by lowering the performance bar doesn’t mean they’re learning.Chronic absenteeism remains a stubborn problem —  more than 30% of students are frequent no-shows.But fear not: Starting this year, every school will have a “school avoidance liaison.”You can’t make these terms up, but education experts do.If you can’t fix truancy, no problem — just call it something else.“School avoidance” is the current preferred term; expect “school refusal” or “school phobia” to follow.When an organization can’t deliver a product? Change the name!That’s what the system as a whole is attempting to do, with an ongoing rebrand of America’s largest school district that began quietly three years ago.The legal name remains the New Yo...