![\"man](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/IMG_3304-copy.jpg\" "\\"NYC")
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Democratic mayoral nominee and frontrunner Zohran Mamdani pitched a plan to reform the city Education Department\u2019s contracting system. Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025.<\/p>\n
Photo by Ethan Stark-Miller<\/p>\n
Democratic mayoral nominee and frontrunner Zohran Mamdani<\/a> on Tuesday rolled out a plan to overhaul how the city\u2019s Education Department<\/a> inks contracts with outside vendors \u2014 a policy designed to address what he labeled as the agency\u2019s \u201credundant and duplicative spending\u201d and a \u201clack of accountability.\u201d<\/p>\n Mamdani pitched \u201ccuring procurement\u201d as a three-pronged plan, he said, which would cut \u201cwasteful spending,\u201d overhaul the agency\u2019s current procurement architecture, and hold vendors accountable.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we are going to do through this agenda of curing procurement is to ensure that every single dollar we spend within the Department of Education is $1 that is furthering our mission of delivering excellent education to students across the five boroughs,\u201d he said, during a Tuesday news conference on the Upper West Side in which he unveiled the plan.<\/p>\n Mamdani charged that the DOE\u2019s current procurement processes are poorly managed. He charged that the department uses outdated systems that are \u201cincompatible\u201d with those employed by the rest of the city government, is short-staffed and faces delays in hiring, and is overwhelmed by the sheer volume of contractors with whom it works.<\/p>\n City Council Contract Committee Chair Julie Won (D-Queens), who joined Mamdani at the event along with state Sen. Robert Jackson, stated that out of the DOE\u2019s $40 billion budget, it spends roughly $10 billion on contracts annually.<\/p>\n Mamdani\u2019s education math<\/p>\n Outside contracts have been scrutinized before. In August, for example, City Comptroller Brad Lander revealed in a report that the DOE<\/a> had spent more than $750,000 for catering provided by a Brooklyn restaurant, an amount that exceeded what the comptroller deemed to be an acceptable amount.<\/p>\n Under the first prong of Mamdani\u2019s plan, the next DOE chancellor will conduct audits of the department\u2019s top 50 vendors and its 25 largest contracts, he said. The department will also review each new contract as it comes up for renewal.<\/p>\n \u201cWe expect that these measures alone will result in at least a 10% reduction in redundant spending and a 30% decrease in retroactive and emergency procurement,\u201d Mamdani said.\n<\/p>\n Under those projections, that would translate to an annual savings of between $1 billion and $3 billion.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n As an example of the wasteful spending Mamdani says his plan would curtail, he pointed to hundreds of millions of dollars in technology contracts he said the DOE inked during the COVID-19 pandemic. The department did that, he said, without coordinating inventory, resulting in \u201cduplicative practices\u201d and \u201credundancies\u201d that led to wasteful spending.<\/p>\n The second plank of Mamdani\u2019s plan involves reconfiguring the DOE\u2019s vendor system by merging its two separate internal procurement offices, establishing a contracting hub in each of the five boroughs, and utilizing the city\u2019s PassPort online portal<\/a> for the agency\u2019s contracts.<\/p>\n \u201cThis will be done in addition to mandating fiscal training and certification for every single staffer who works on procurement,\u201d Mamdani said. \u201cThese measures are expected to accelerate the procurement cycle by 40%.\u201d<\/p>\n Council Member Won stated that placing DOE contracts in PassPort will make it far easier for the city to track its spending on vendors and adjust its expenditures accordingly.\n<\/p>\n The last piece of Mamdani\u2019s plan involves introducing a \u201cvendor rating dashboard\u201d to boost accountability.\n<\/p>\n