Zohran Mamdani’s stunning election as mayor of New York City marks a watershed moment for the Empire State. As a self-described democratic socialist and member of the Democratic Socialists of America, Mamdani rode a wave of progressive activism to City Hall, promising revolutionary change. It all spells potential disaster for the city’s public schools, already beleaguered by stratospheric costs and dismal performance. This is why state lawmakers must act with urgency to introduce and pass legislation for mandatory inter-district school open enrollment across New York.
Let’s be clear: Mamdani’s education agenda is a blueprint for regression, not progress. His tapping of Manhattan District 3 Superintendent Kamar Samuels—an avowed opponent of gifted and talented programs— as Schools Chancellor indicates that Mamdani was serious in previous calls for phasing out these initiatives. This anti-merit stance will inflict real harm and accelerate the flight from the city’s public school system. Add to this his socialist leanings—evident in past support for policies like rent control and defunding the police—and it’s easy to foresee a school system bloated by progressive mandates and wilted by the exodus of families who want better for their kids.
Albany lawmakers can’t fully save New Yorkers from Mamdani’s destructive designs, but certain policy levers could help. School inter-district open enrollment stands out as particularly important. Inter-district school open enrollment allows students to attend a public school in a different school district from the one where they live, rather than being limited to their assigned resident district. This form of school choice breaks down traditional geographic boundaries, enabling families to apply for transfer to another district’s schools, often to access better academic programs, specialized offerings, or safer environments. Policies vary by state—some make inter-district transfers mandatory (requiring districts to accept non-resident students under certain conditions), while others are voluntary, allowing districts to decide whether and how many out-of-district students to admit based on available space or other criteria. Transportation is typically the family’s responsibility, and acceptance often depends on capacity, with priority sometimes given to certain groups like siblings or employees’ children.
Currently, New York operates under a voluntary system where districts can choose to accept out-of-district students, but participation is spotty and often limited to intra-district transfers. Bills like A8133 and A8975, introduced in recent sessions, hint at momentum for change, but they fall short of mandating the type of statewide access now available to students in the 16 states with robust cross-district open enrollment laws.
Universal open enrollment would allow families in underperforming areas—like those in Mamdani’s NYC—to enroll their children in better-rated schools in adjacent suburbs. That would allow ambitious families without the means to afford private school to remain in New York City, decreasing the odds that the city becomes the crime-ridden dystopian hellscape that it was during the 1970s and 1980s.
Studies from states like Florida and Arizona, where robust open enrollment exists, show that such policies are overwhelmingly used to send students to districts with better performance than the district to which they are residentially assigned. That means better results for students in the short run and better results for taxpayers in the long run by reducing reliance on welfare programs tied to educational failure.
Mamdani and ideological allies will cry foul, claiming open enrollment will be detrimental to the students left behind. But this argument rings hollow. Studies indicate that districts that lose students to open enrollment policies tend to improve (as measured by state test scores) due to the competitive pressure created by the policy.
Albany Republicans, alongside moderate Democrats weary of socialist overreach, have a golden opportunity. They can introduce legislation mandating inter-district open enrollment, with safeguards like capacity limits and transportation aid for needy families.The urgency is now—before Mamdani’s administration entrenches policies that accelerate an exodus of families from New York City.
In the end, Mamdani’s victory is sure to usher in a period of decline for Gotham. But how dramatic and long-lasting that decline proves to be is largely up to lawmakers in Albany. They surely lack the political courage to adopt private school choice, but open enrollment allows them to keep the teacher’s union monopoly intact while protecting students and families from the very worst ideas that Mamdani has to offer.
