Zohran's policy changes

By Max Duffey

Mayor Mamdani’s inauguration was on January 1, 2026. He was sworn in front of 4,000 people inside the gates and 40,000 people outside in freezing temperatures to bear witness for the historical day. He was sworn in by Senator Bernie Sanders, the most widely known Democratic Socialist. Some of what he talked about in his inauguration speech included lowering child care prices, free buses and freezing rent for some tenants in New York City. He promised to tax richer residents to pay for this. 

Some big moments in Mamdani’s first 30 days as mayor were the large snow storm which forced him to make a decision on whether to do a snow day for all schools or not. The clean up process after the storm has been very difficult for him. Also, the City has a budget gap of $15 billion dollars. He has requested every department to appoint one person to help save as much money as they can. 

Of interest to our student body is the appointment of the New York City public schools’ chancellor, Kamar Samuels because Mamdani is the boss of the NYC Department of Education. Samuels has spent over 20 years in public education. Before working in education, Samuels was a finance manager for the NBA.  Some of his objectives are to change the gifted and talented program, aiming for school wide enrichment, rather than focusing on special education . As an immigrant, he has talked about how to help immigrant students.  

Ms Zaretsky, a 7th grade math teacher, remarked, “I have faith in Mayor Mamdani and hope that there will be more flexibility in the curriculum and more funding. Also, I hope we get reduced class sizes.” 

Jack Castanza, 701, said, “I hope Mamdani works to give us better school lunches.”