Ex-‘Squad' Rep. Jamaal Bowman could become NYC schools chancellor under Zohran Mamdani: sources
Former 'Squad' Rep. Jamaal Bowman could land on the short list to be the city's next schools chancellor if his pal Zohran Mamdani is elected mayor, sources told The Post.
A source close to United Federation Teachers said the former middle school principal's name is already circulating within the Mamdani camp as a potential candidate to head the nation's largest public school system with more than 900,000 students in 1,596 schools.
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3 Ex-'Squad' Rep. Jamaal Bowman, a former Bronx middle school principal and lefty soulmate of Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani, could land on a short list to be the next New York City schools chancellor.
Courtesy of the Mamdani Campaign
Bowman — who infamously pulled a fire alarm in a congressional office building and delayed a key House vote — was voted out of office by Democrats in party primary last year.
He sidestepped whether he was interested in the role, saying he was focusing on helping Mamdani win the general election for mayor.
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'I am not thinking about any of that. I want to help my brother get elected,' Bowman, 44, said of Mamdani.
'I am exceptional in compartmentalizing. Right now, I want to help Zohran win the general election.'
Bowman endorsed Mamdani in May, one of the few black leaders to do so.
The Mamdani campaign had no immediate comment.
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Bowman lost his Democratic primary re-election bid last year to former Westchester County Executive George Latimer in the 16th House District that takes in parts of Westchester and The Bronx, in large part because of voters' disgust over his anti-Israel positions and a series of missteps that even riled members of his own party.
3 Bowman was voted out of office in last year's primary after he infamously pulled a fire alarm in a congressional office building.
Instagram/@zohrankmamdani
He accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza and belatedly apologized for denying the horrific rapes of Israeli women during the Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas that killed an estimated 1,200 people — including 33 Americans.
The left-leaning 'Squad' representative had pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count for falsely pulling the fire alarm in the Cannon House Office Building in September 2023 ahead of a vote to avert a partial government shutdown, and agreed to pay a $1,000 fine.
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The House of Representatives later voted to censure Bowman for the fire alarm fiasco.
He also was forced to apologize after it was revealed that he espoused conspiracy theories about the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks while serving as a school principal of Cornerstone Academy for Social Action in the Bronx in 2014..
One Jewish leader denounced the possibility of Bowman being considered for the top leadership post.
3 Bowman said his goal is to help Mamdani win the general election for mayor in November.
Courtesy of the Mamdani Campaign
'We wouldn't accept the appointment of a racist. Why would we consider a person who has expressed hateful rhetoric against the Jewish people?' said Rabbi Joseph Potasnik, executive vice president of the New York Board of Rabbis.
Even some of Bowman's views on education have been considered controversial.
In 2015, then principal of Cornerstone Academy, Bowman called standardized testing of students racist or the modern version of slavery, The Post reported at the time.
'Public school high-stakes standardized testing is a form of modern-day slavery, and it is designed to continue the proliferation of inequality,' Bowman said in a blog entry titled 'The Tyranny of Standardized Testing.'
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'America was born of horror for black people and that horror continues today for brown and poor people as well,' he went on.
'Slavery, Jim Crow, redlining, crack cocaine and now standardized testing were all sanctioned by the American government. All designed to destroy the mind, body and soul of black and brown people.'
Bowman also once put a fugitive convicted cop killer — Joanne Chesimard aka Assata Shakur — on his Bronx middle school's 'Wall of Honor.' Shakur was convicted with two others in the execution-style slaying of New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster in 1973 before she escaped jail and fled to Cuba.
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Mamdani, who supports the boycott divestment and sanctions movement against Israel, and has refused to denounce the violent slogan 'globalize the intifada,' have said he and his team are conducting outreach to Jewish leaders and vowed to fight antisemitism as mayor.
Mamdani, 33, won a crowded Democratic Party primary last week to earn the party line in November.
He's considered the frontrunner in the deeply blue Big Apple, but will still face several candidates on the general election ballot, including Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa.
Current Mayor Eric Adams is running as an independent after foregoing the Democratic Party primary, while former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and lawyer Jim Walden will also appear on the ballot.
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