While New York City’s public school children struggle with skyrocketing illiteracy rates, Mayor Zohran Mamdani apparently believes the most pressing concern is to install radical left-wing "commissars" on the Panel for Education Policy. Because, of course, actual education can wait.

The mayor’s recent slate of 13 appointees to the Panel for Education Policy reveals a stunning commitment to ideological purity over student achievement, with at least three individuals standing out as glaring examples of the progressive agenda run amok. Consider Lucas Koehler, City College’s CFO. During his tenure at the city Department of Education from 2014 to 2022, Koehler notoriously pushed for segregated "antiracism struggle sessions" within city schools. This isn't about learning; it’s about division and radical re-education. Then there’s Raysa Rodriguez, who leads the Citizens Committee for Children – an organization that has repeatedly championed the dangerous, defund-the-police movement. It begs the question: What does advocating to dismantle law enforcement have to do with improving reading scores? Apparently, everything, in Mayor Mamdani’s vision for education. And as if to complete the trifecta of ideological extremism, Madeline Fox, a CUNY Graduate Center professor, publicly joined other faculty in signing a letter that not only denied the existence of antisemitism on US campuses but also baselessly accused Israel of genocide. These are the voices now shaping the future of NYC’s schoolchildren. These alarming appointments come at a time when the share of city schoolchildren failing state reading tests has just surged by roughly 10 points, leaving more than half of all 3rd- to 5th-graders struggling to read. Meanwhile, the mayor's priorities seem fixed on anything but basic literacy. A recent Empire Center poll confirms what every parent knows: 95% of New Yorkers demand that the Department of Education improve reading and math scores. Yet, Mayor Mamdani’s response is to empower more "social justice"-obsessed overseers instead of focusing on fundamental skills. It is abundantly clear that Mayor Mamdani exhibits no genuine interest in boosting student proficiency in reading, math, or science – let alone tackling the soaring numbers of chronic absenteeism. The only "education" that seems to matter to these Democratic Socialists is outright indoctrination. This is the tragic, radical stamp Mamdani is eager to leave on New York City's public schools, sacrificing a generation of children at the altar of woke ideology and ensuring that America First values like academic excellence and common sense are left behind.