New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani proposes to spend $38 billion on the city’s Department of Education (DOE) next year. That’s $3 billion more than in 2026 and represents nearly 30 percent of the entire city budget—despite declining enrollment.
New York City Public Schools don’t need more money. The system is rife with waste, which could be reduced at no cost to taxpayers. In particular, the administration should focus on three areas: administrative growth, vendor contracting, and “due process cases,” also known as Carter cases. Addressing these three problems will not only cut costs but also ensure that the city’s education dollars actually benefit students.
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Start with administration. The DOE’s central office—administrative staff responsible for human resources, technology, legal services, and school planning—has grown far beyond what the system needs. That’s thanks largely to former Mayor Bill de Blasio, who added hundreds of jobs even as student enrollment fell. De Blasio’s successor, Eric Adams, made some reductions in central office staffing but not enough to keep pace with declining student enrollment. Today, the DOE’s central office is roughly the same size as it was 15 years ago, despite serving about 150,000 fewer students.
To cut administrative costs, New York City should follow the lead of other large school districts. Los Angeles Unified School District recently issued layoff notices for 657 central office and centrally funded positions, saving the district an estimated $150 million without removing teachers. The Philadelphia School District is cutting 130 vacant central office positions as part of a plan to close a $300 million deficit. Copying Los Angeles and Philadelphia would save New York money, and would also mean a more focused administration, with fewer people doing the same job and offering clearer lines of responsibility.
Vendor contracts—agreements that the DOE signs with outside companies and organizations to provide services—offer another opportunity for potential savings. These contracts account for 34 percent of the DOE’s budget, totaling nearly $13 billion in Mamdani’s demands for next year—an increase of $1.4 billion from 2026. More than half of active vendor contracts are renewals, and only about a third went through open, competitive bidding.
By automatically renewing so many contracts year after year, the DOE fails to ensure that it is getting the best service at the best price. New York State law requires other school districts to get competitive bids for contracts over $20,000. For some reason, the DOE’s oversight body reviews only contracts exceeding $1 million. The city should make its contracting standards consistent with those across New York State.
More waste can be found in special education and Carter-case spending. When the DOE fails to provide children with disabilities the services to which they are legally entitled, families can sue for reimbursement for private school tuition. The city spent $1.3 billion on Carter cases in 2025—up from just $47 million in 2005. For 2027, the city has budgeted approximately $1.5 billion.
New York City now accounts for 98 percent of all special education due-process filings in New York State, while it has just 36 percent of the state’s student population. Worse, private schools where students get placed are not required to report outcomes, so the DOE has no way of knowing whether the students are making more progress than they would have done in the public school system.
Fixing Carter case spending begins with reversing a de Blasio-era policy that requires the DOE to make a one-time determination about its ability to meet a student’s educational needs. If the DOE finds that it cannot, then it automatically renews private school reimbursements each year—rather than reassessing the public school system’s ability to meet the child’s needs.
The average annual Carter settlement per student exceeds $100,000, more than three times what the DOE spends per pupil in its own schools. Reassessing annually would create an opportunity—and an incentive—to fix special-education programs so that students can return to the public school system.
The DOE has grown its central office while serving fewer students, renewed the same vendor contracts without asking whether they work, and allowed Carter case spending to grow unchecked. Cutting central-office staff, fixing the contracting threshold, and conducting annual due-process reviews are three basic fixes that the city should have implemented years ago.
Mayor Mamdani has talked about raising taxes to close the city’s budget gap. Before asking New Yorkers to pay still more, he should demonstrate that the city is spending its tax dollars wisely.
Photo by Michael Loccisano/Getty Images