Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Monday outlined a wide-ranging education plan he says would remake New York City’s public schools, pledging to use mayoral authority to close and replace low-performing schools, expand early-childhood and specialized programs, and align curriculum with high-demand jobs.
Cuomo, who is running for mayor, framed the proposals in an opinion essay and argued that despite spending nearly double the national average per pupil, the city’s outcomes remain poor: in 40% of schools fewer than half of students are proficient in math and in 43% fewer than half are proficient in English, he said. He said the problems are especially acute for Black and Latino students and that the city must stop "lowering standards to inflate passing rates."
The plan, which Cuomo has labeled the "Overhaul NYC Schools Plan," rests on three pillars: excellence, access and innovation. Under the excellence pillar, Cuomo proposes replacing any school that lands in the bottom 5% on state exams over a five-year period or graduates fewer than 60% of its students. Those schools would be reopened under five-year contracts with proven, high-performing models tailored to the community, such as charter or specialized schools, and contracts would be tied to measures including proficiency, graduation and college- and career-readiness. Cuomo said parents and community groups would have a voice in redesigns and that students from closing schools would be guaranteed placement in the new model or a nearby higher-quality school.
Under access, the plan guarantees universal full-day 3-K for every three-year-old within the public system and calls for doubling the number of specialized high schools offering rigorous STEM and emerging-field training from nine to 18. The Specialized High School Admissions Test would remain the admissions standard, Cuomo said, while prep programs would be expanded in underserved neighborhoods. He also proposed raising the charter-school cap and enlarging community schools into hubs that provide academics, mental health services, afterschool programming and job training.
The innovation pillar emphasizes curriculum modernization and workforce alignment. Cuomo proposed expanded instruction in coding, robotics, financial literacy, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity, and a new teacher incentive program — the "Teach Where It Counts" Fund — offering $5,000 to $10,000 stipends to educators in shortage areas such as STEM and special education or in schools with high turnover. The plan would double Early College and P-TECH programs by 2029, guarantee dual-enrollment opportunities by 10th grade, and ensure every 11th-grader has access to internships or apprenticeships. Cuomo also called for a High-Demand Jobs Accelerator Program developed with educators, employers and labor leaders and a unified Birth-to-Career Data and Accountability System linking education, workforce and health outcomes across city agencies.
Cuomo, who noted that his mother was a teacher, said the city cannot accept the current bureaucracy’s results and pledged that "the buck will stop with me" as mayor. He pointed to state law that grants the mayor authority over city schools and said he would use those powers to implement the plan.
The announcement came as Cuomo seeks to make education a central plank of his mayoral campaign. In his essay he criticized elected officials who oppose strong mayoral authority over schools, singling out Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani as opposing mayoral control. Cuomo characterized that opposition as defending the bureaucracy rather than students.
The proposals would touch on areas long contested in New York City politics: charter-school expansion, the future of specialized high schools, mayoral control, and how to measure and intervene in struggling schools. Implementation would likely require negotiations with the school system’s leadership, charter authorizers, unions and state education authorities, and would involve statutory and contractual changes for some elements.
Cuomo’s timetable includes specific near-term targets, such as doubling Early College and P-TECH programs by 2029 and increasing the number of specialized high schools. He framed the plan as an effort to prepare students for a labor market shaped by green energy, technology and cybersecurity while addressing disparities that he said the current system has failed to correct.
Opposition to mayoral control and to aggressive school-replacement policies has been voiced previously by community advocates, some elected officials and teachers’ groups, who argue such moves can be disruptive and may not address underlying inequities. Cuomo’s essay did not include endorsements from education stakeholders in the city, and his proposals did not include full cost estimates or a detailed implementation schedule beyond some program timelines.
Cuomo’s education overhaul is likely to become a major issue in the mayoral campaign as candidates debate accountability, school choice and how to improve outcomes for the city’s roughly 1 million public school students. The former governor’s stewardship of the state and his record on education will be scrutinized by voters and political opponents as the plan moves into the public and political arena.