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Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the City Council are going to war in court over payments to Department of Education paraprofessionals — even though they agreed on the issue not long ago.
At a 2025 press conference where the 200,000-member teachers’ union endorsed him, Mamdani touted his support for giving paraprofessionals $10,000 checks.
Last month, the council unanimously passed the union-driven and branded “Respect for Paraprofessionals” bill, at an expected cost of $325 million.
Mamdani, however, didn’t sign or veto it but instead let it become law automatically, citing concerns about its legality. Hours later, his lawyers ran to court to block it.
Whether paraprofessionals deserve more pay isn’t the issue. Virtually everyone can agree that they do very difficult work, and a starting salary of about $33,000 doesn’t go far in the highest cost-of-living city in the nation.
Continue reading the entire piece here at The New York Post
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Jennifer Weber is a fellow for K-12 Education Policy at the Manhattan Institute. John Ketcham is a legal policy fellow and director of Cities at the Manhattan Institute. His areas of expertise include housing, local elections, infrastructure, parental rights, and more, particularly in New York City and State.