A quiet accounting maneuver just handed New York City’s public school system an extra $680 million that nobody outside City Hall saw coming.
City documents detailing the adopted fiscal year 2027 budget reveal the Department of Education walked away with far more money than Mayor Zohran Mamdani had originally proposed.
The final tally now stands at $38.6 billion for the DOE alone, representing a nearly $4 billion jump from the prior year’s spending. Education funding alone now consumes close to one-third of the entire $126 billion city budget.
Nobody made a public announcement when the paperwork detailing these figures became available. Days passed before the scale of the funding increase came to light, buried among routine budget documentation.
Three distinct pots of money accounted for the surge. Schools facing enrollment declines received at least $400 million simply to maintain their existing funding levels, regardless of how many students actually remained.
A separate $100 million materialized for school cleaning expenses that had been missing entirely from the mayor’s original executive budget. City Council layered on an additional $42 million of its own, funneling dollars toward emotional support initiatives and arts programming.
Fiscal watchdogs took issue with the practice of funding schools for students who no longer attend them. Andrew Rein, who leads the Citizens Budget Commission, framed the tradeoff in stark terms.
“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,” Rein said.
Comparisons to other major cities make New York’s spending look even more extreme. Per federal figures, New York City now spends 50% more per pupil than either Los Angeles or Chicago, the two next-largest school systems in the country.
Yet none of that extra spending appears to be translating into better student performance.
The 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress, widely known as the “Nation’s Report Card,” showed just a third of fourth graders reaching proficiency in math, with reading proficiency sitting even lower at 28%.
Older students showed similarly weak results. Eighth graders posted a 23% proficiency rate in math and 29% in reading on the same national exam.
Behind the rising costs lies a shrinking student population. New projections show the district losing another 153,000 students over the coming decade, continuing a trend that has plagued the system for years.
Enrollment currently sits at 780,000 students, making it the largest public school district in the nation. Dividing the new budget total across that student population puts per-pupil spending at roughly $49,500.
Absenteeism compounds the district’s troubles. Close to 35% of students, an estimated 300,000 children, have been chronically absent from class in recent years.
Before taking office, Mamdani promised voters he would tighten control over DOE contract and consulting spending. Speaking at the SOMOS conference in Puerto Rico on Nov. 6, he laid out his reasoning directly.
“When you look at the DOE with a $40 billion budget, about $10 billion goes to contracts and consultants, some of those are for incredibly important things, and some of that spending is also spending that can be reduced when you take a real look at the duplicative processes,” Mamdani said. He continued, “We have to always ensure that every dollar of that budget is being spent effectively.”
City Council gave final approval to Mamdani’s first budget on June 29, though it’s not clear every member understood the full scope of what they were voting for.
Whether lawmakers knew about the additional $680 million in DOE funding before the vote remains unanswered.
City Hall spokesperson Jenna Lyle responded to questions about the spending after the documents became public.
“Our children deserve a city that invests in them, not one that balances its books on their backs,” Lyle said, insisting the administration’s approach reflected “fiscal responsibility.”
Other elements of the budget process drew bipartisan frustration as last-minute changes reshuffled funding commitments.
Chief among them was Mamdani’s retreat from a pledge to add 580 new police officers, a plan meant to relieve staffing pressure and accelerate de-escalation training within the NYPD.
That reversal followed earlier pressure from progressive council members and allies in the Democratic Socialists of America, who had objected to the police staffing increase.
Despite defending the officer expansion just two weeks earlier, Mamdani’s finalized budget ultimately cut $29 million from the NYPD.
Not every Democrat backed the final spending plan. Bronx Councilwoman Althea Stevens cast the lone Democratic vote against the budget, citing unequal distribution of resources.
“Equity cannot simply be a word we use in speeches or campaign slogans. Equity means directing resources where the needs are greatest,” Stevens told The Post, arguing the Bronx was shortchanged in the final allocation.
