NYC NOW - NYC Schools Chancellor Aviles-Ramos Wants to Keep Her Job, But Will Mayor-elect Mamdani Keep Her?

Episode Date: December 12, 2025

Schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos is making her case to keep the top job overseeing the nation’s largest school system. Meanwhile, Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani says he’s still interviewing candidates to be part of his new administration at City Hall next month.

Schools Chancellor Melissa Obelis Ramos wants to keep her job, but will Mayor-elect Mamdani keep her? From WNYC, this is NYC Now. I'm Jenae Pierre. The Adams administration is making a billion-dollar investment in Coney Island's waterfront. City officials say this will include new affordable housing, restoring the world-famous regalman boardwalk, and renovating the abysdark ice rink. Here's Parks Commissioner Iris Rodriguez Rosa. We are making investments in Abe Stark and the boardwalk because great public spaces are not just a luxury.

They are essential for the city that is livable. The boardwalk first opened back in the 1920s. The city's Economic Development Corporation says it'll issue a request for proposals for boardwalk improvements earlier next year. Officials also say they're factoring in climate resiliency in the future of the boardwalk, which was dead. damage by Hurricane Sandy. DoorDash and Uber are suing to overturn a New York City law requiring food delivery services to let customers tip at checkout rather than after the delivery. Local law 108 was passed in July.

It goes into effect next month. In its announcement about the suit, DoorDash says it disagrees with, quote, policies that unfairly pressure consumers. Council member Shauna Brayu sponsored the bill. He says ending the law would make it more difficult for customers to tip the workers. New York City set the minimum wage for app-based delivery workers at just over $21 an hour earlier this year. New York City Schools Chancellor Melissa Auvilis Ramos is making her case to keep the job, as Mayor Alex Zora Mamdani names his new administration. More on that after the break.

All eyes are on Mayor Alexora Mumdani these days, as he announces who will be part of his new administration at City Hall next month. Mamdani says he's still interviewing candidates for the top job overseeing the nation's largest school system. But current school's chancellor, Melissa Obulus Ramos, is making her case to stay. reporter Jessica Gould set down with the chancellor, and she joins me now to talk about that conversation. So Jessica, the chancellor, spoke to you about what she'd like to do if she stays in her job. What did she say? She says she wants to build on what she's been doing in the Adams administration with literacy reform and math reform. In literacy, they've been focusing on the fundamentals of reading, like phonics, and reading and math scores have gone up a bit.

experts say the literacy effort in particular is on the right track. And they actually consider these education reforms to be one of the brighter spots in the Adams administration. There's also an initiative she launched for homeless children where there are school personnel assigned to check in regularly with children who live in shelter. And that's a program that Mamdani has actually singled out and said he supports. She says she wants to improve and expand these programs. Those are two initiatives that have really shown improvement. Our test scores, when I want to accelerate the system in a very big way. But Mamdani is still interviewing candidates for the job.

And if he kept Chancellor of Yulus Ramos, it would be the first time that a mayor kept a chancellor from the previous administration. Now, Mamdani was very clear in his campaign about his focus on affordability, right? And he says universal child care for the youngest kids in the city is his top priority. And he's pretty much been less focused on the city's public schools, which serve about 900,000 kids, which I said is the largest school system in this country. One of the most notable things, though, he has said about education is that the mayor should have less control over the school system, a really different tone than what we've heard from Mayor Eric Adams. Tell us about that. Yeah, so we're talking about something called mayoral control, and that refers to the way the school system has been run for the last 20 years or so since former mayor Michael Bloomberg gave the mayor full authority over the schools with the legislature in Albany. They worked on that together. It was a big deal at the time, and it was to make unified a more diffuse structure of school boards.

People who were in favor of mayoral control, and there are a lot of those people, say that the old school board. system had a lot of corruption and it was dysfunctional and that mayoral control makes it possible to really make reforms shift policy. And then if it doesn't work, voters can hold the mayor accountable and vote somebody else in. But in recent years, parents and educators have criticized mayoral control as being too top down and not as democratic or transparent. And a lot of Educators actually say that it's divorced from the reality on the ground and in the classrooms. So Mamdania said he opposes mayoral control, at least in its current form. I'm still in favor of creating a system that has more involvement for parents, for students, and teachers.

I'm still just as critical as I have been. And frankly, it's a criticism that comes out of an exhaustion of having seen so many try to participate in a system of our public education only to see decisions, being made without any of their input taken into account. But what that would look like, that's a 40-plus billion-dollar question, because that's what the city's education budget is, just over $40 billion. Yeah, but what would that look like? What would Mayor Elect Mumdani want to see instead? He hasn't said exactly. Some experts I talked to said they could envision giving more power to the current oversight body that exists, which is called the panel for educational policy, and then also local education councils, which are parent councils in each school district around

the city. But we've seen some infighting and culture war controversies in some of those education councils. I talked to Esther Fuchs, a Columbia University professor who helped create the model of mayoral control under former mayor Bloomberg. She says there is more room for input, but she did not think it was a good idea to give up too much power. He can fix it in a way that expands engagement by other stakeholders. But to give up this idea that in the end, the mayor is responsible for education policy would be an enormous mistake. She said a mayor has to retain enough control to push policy through and not get bogged down in endless debate. So let's get back to your conversation with the school's chancellor.

what does she think about this idea of changing mayoral control? We talked about that, and she says she would be in favor of giving parents and educators more of a say, especially in creating policy at the front end. But she doesn't support getting rid of mayoral control altogether. And she says she doesn't think that's what Mamdani wants either. But keep in mind, Chancellor of Vilas Ramos has a tightrope to walk here because she's trying to make her case to keep her job in this new administration. And she's not the only one in the running.

We've heard Misha Porter, who was the chancellor for the last year of the de Blasio administration, is a frontrunner. And there are some others. Now, Misha Porter led the full reopening of schools during COVID. The current chancellor has been clear and outspoken, though, about wanting to stay in this role, even if the role changes under the new mayor. And like anyone in a job interview, she's been very careful about how she's talking. That's WMYC's Jessica Gould. Before we go, a quick heads up.

New York City's Emergency Management Agency says the city is activating its winter weather emergency plan ahead of expected snow this weekend. Snow is forecast for Saturday night into Sunday for the region. The National Weather Service says accumulation of one to three inches is possible. The city says agencies are sending sanitation trucks

out ahead of the weather to pre-treat roadways. and encouraging people not to drive if they can avoid it. But hey, if you're like me, you still have some holiday shopping to do. So just be careful, okay? All right. Thanks for listening to NYC now from WNYC. I'm Jene Pierre. Have a nice weekend.

We'll be back on Monday.