NYC Has 335 Underenrolled Schools — Will Mayor Mamdani Tackle the Crisis?

A Chalkbeat New York analysis reveals that New York City now has 335 schools enrolling fewer than 250 students — an eightfold increase from 42 such schools 25 years ago. Over the same period, citywide public school enrollment has dropped by 187,000 students and is projected to continue declining at a similar pace over the next decade. Since 2020, the city has spent a cumulative total of almost $2 billion on a "hold harmless" policy that shields shrinking schools from funding cuts tied to enrollment losses, even as the number of principals has grown 11% and assistant principals 31% since 2010. Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels have chosen a community-driven approach rather than top-down mandates: Samuels has launched working groups in five districts to develop voluntary consolidation plans, but no timeline has been announced for expanding the effort citywide. Proponents of mergers argue they would allow schools to offer more advanced coursework, richer arts and sports programmes, and greater demographic integration. Critics warn that scaling such a politically sensitive process to hundreds of schools would require enormous political capital and administrative capacity that the administration has yet to commit.