NYC’s Small Schools Crisis Puts Mamdani’s Education Agenda to the Test

New York City’s small schools crisis is becoming a test of whether Mayor Zohran Mamdani and schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels can turn a broad commitment to community-led decisions into action at citywide scale. Enrollment is falling, hundreds of schools have fewer than 250 students, and officials have yet to explain how they’ll address the growing mismatch between school buildings and the number of children who need them.

The choices carry consequences beyond budgets. School mergers, proponents say, can bring students access to more advanced classes, arts, sports, and a wider range of peers. But consolidation demands time with families and educators, and past proposals have drawn intense opposition. Mamdani’s administration must decide how to balance that local engagement with the scale of the problem.

“The city must choose between managing quiet decline — or leading a bold, community-driven project of renewal,” wrote Marielys Divanne, a longtime education leader and former adviser to Mayor Eric Adams, in a report released last year.

The numbers give that argument urgency. The number of city schools with fewer than 250 students—an enrollment level at which Education Department leaders say it’s difficult to provide a full education—has risen eightfold in 25 years, from 42 to 335, according to a Chalkbeat analysis. At the same time, public K-12 enrollment has dropped by 187,000 over the past 12 years, to 790,000. Falling birth rates and families leaving the city are behind the decline, which is projected to continue over the coming decade.

Murry Bergtraum High School for Business Careers illustrates what low enrollment can mean in practice. It serves about 90 students, some of whom attend night school to meet graduation requirements. Last year, the school received more than $46,000 per student—about twice the citywide average.

“The challenge now is that there is such a backlog of tough decisions,” said Karin Goldmark, a former deputy chancellor who oversaw closures and mergers under Mayor Bill de Blasio. “The sheer volume of action required means superintendents and principals will have to do heavy lifting.”

A system built to open schools

The current shortage of students in many schools partly reflects how the city expanded its options. Mayor Michael Bloomberg opened hundreds of schools in the early 2000s, pursuing a market-based approach meant to increase family choice and allow weaker schools to close. But opening schools proved easier than shutting them down.

“What’s happened is an embrace of the marketplace on the front end of the process but an unwillingness to pull the thread through on the back end,” said Jennifer Jennings, a Princeton University sociology professor whose recent book examines the history of New York City’s high school admissions system.

Successive administrations have struggled to reduce the number of underenrolled schools. De Blasio treated closure as a last resort and closed or merged some schools, but that work slowed after the COVID pandemic began in 2020. The Adams administration gave local superintendents much of the responsibility for consolidation while also opening schools in an effort to respond to enrollment losses.

The financial structure made it easier for schools to keep operating as their student counts shrank. Since 2010, the number of principals has increased 11% to 1,610, while assistant principals rose 31% to 3,518, according to data the Independent Budget Office provided to Chalkbeat. A policy called “hold harmless,” introduced by de Blasio in 2020, kept school budgets stable despite falling enrollment. Each mayor since has continued it, and the policy has cost nearly $2 billion.

Mamdani’s community-led approach

Nearly a year into his administration, Mamdani has not laid out a plan for several major school system challenges, including the small schools problem. Samuels has signaled that he doesn’t favor a systemwide consolidation plan imposed from City Hall. Instead, he wants proposals to come from communities.

He launched working groups in five districts to develop local plans and has said the effort will expand citywide. Officials have not set a timeline. In the meantime, superintendents have recently floated proposals to close at least two underenrolled schools: a Harlem high school and a South Bronx middle school.

“The data shows that schools with larger enrollment can offer more advanced coursework, more enrichment like arts and sports, and more opportunities our students deserve,” Education Department spokesperson Nicole Brownstein said. “At the same time, every school community is unique, and this work must be led locally.”

Samuels has experience with mergers that sought to improve integration and academic opportunities. As a superintendent, he oversaw the combination of Arts & Letters 305 United in Brooklyn, bringing together a largely Black, low-income, underenrolled elementary school and a more affluent, predominantly white school that had more applicants than seats.

At a recent town hall, Samuels called the resulting school “truly integrated.” More than one-third of its students are Black and more than one-third are white, he said. The school is outperforming citywide averages in math and reading and attracting families even as enrollment in its district has fallen.

Some mergers may create academic benefits even where they don’t significantly change a school’s racial or economic composition. That was the experience of Health, Education, Research Occupations High School, or HERO, in the Bronx, which merged in 2021 with a small neighboring school focused on hospitality and tourism.

The hospitality school had 173 students. Fewer than half graduated on time, and just 15% enrolled in college. At HERO, 90% of students graduated on time, often earning an associate degree or career training in health and education. Principal Kristin Cahill said the merger helped HERO grow from about 500 students to more than 700.

Combining the schools also gave teachers a larger group of students ready for advanced classes, Cahill said, making it possible to raise the challenge across courses. She sees mid-sized high schools as a way to retain the close-knit feel of smaller schools while offering students more choices.

“This is a model that students and families can get excited about, while providing a pathway out of segregation and dwindling school size,” Cahill wrote in policy recommendations she hopes will inform Mamdani’s education agenda.

Scale will test the process

Even supporters of consolidation acknowledge the strain of doing it well. If Samuels aims to make a substantial difference, officials may have to consider dozens of mergers or closures. Each proposal must win approval from the Panel for Educational Policy, the body that votes on school consolidation plans, and requires officials to show they understand the communities affected.

“The amount of time and attention required at the leadership and staff levels to do even one school closure or merger makes it unfeasible to do at scale,” said Dan Weisberg, a former first deputy chancellor under Adams who oversaw closures and mergers for four years.

Adriana Alicea, a Queens parent who chairs the panel’s school utilization committee, said officials need to look beyond enrollment figures: they should learn about each school, consider alternatives, and make sure students have access to better opportunities if a school closes.

“The more you’re in the community, the more you understand the little nuances, and that goes a long way,” she said.

When families feel ignored, opposition can lead the Education Department to withdraw a proposal before it reaches a panel vote. That happened last spring, when Samuels reversed plans to close three small Upper West Side middle schools after community members mobilized.

Goldmark said community input matters, though city leaders can’t assume every proposal will win broad support. She described Samuels as skilled at building consensus, while noting that he has also been willing to proceed without it when he believes students would benefit.

Alicea argues the city can pursue major changes while keeping communities involved. “It is possible for us to do both,” she said. “It is possible to make grand sweeping changes and to let the community be the ones holding the broom.”

For Mamdani and Samuels, the next test is whether the district working groups produce a clear path from local conversations to decisions across the city. Enrollment projections leave little reason to delay that work, while the history of withdrawn proposals shows that process will shape whether consolidation can happen at all.

This is the third story in a three-part series. Read parts one and two here. And keep Chalkbeat’s valuable education coverage at the top of your feeds by clicking here and checking the box next to our name.

Michael Elsen-Rooney is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Michael at [email protected]