Jamaal Bowman, the disgraced fire alarm-pulling former congressman who illegally managed a middle school without a principal’s license, is “pushing hard” to be the city’s next schools chancellor and is vowing to lead a “revolution in our public schools,” The Post has learned.
The bombastic ex-“Squad” member sounded like he had already won the appointment from his socialist soulmate Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani Thursday night, when he addressed comrades at the Democratic Socialists of America’s NYC chapter on Zoom.
“I’m an educator, lifelong educator. When we get universal child care y’all it’s going to lead to a revolution in our public schools!” he thundered.
“Let’s continue building power. . . . Winning this election gives us and Zohran the right to govern but it doesn’t give us the power.”
Bowman, 49, who campaigned heavily for Mamdani, has been leaning on close comrade Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to lobby the incoming mayor to get him the city’s top education gig, a source told The Post.
Bowman did some lobbying himself this weekend — he was spotted strolling with two United Federation of Teachers officials at the SOMOS conference in Puerto Rico Friday.
The powerful teachers’ union endorsed Mamdani and is heavily involved in crafting his education policy.
“He’s been pushing for this job for a long time,” the insider said of Bowman’s desire to become chancellor.
However, Bowman has run into opposition from another avowed Marxist, former Mayor Bill de Blasio, who doesn’t believe he has the necessary experience for the role.
Bowman served as principal of the Bronx Cornerstone Academy for Social Action from 2009 to 2019. State records indicate Bowman was issued a School Building Leader Initial Certificate on Feb. 1, 2009, The Post reported, but he allowed the certificate to expire on Jan. 31, 2014, and did not re-establish his certification until Dec. 16, 2015.
In other words, for a period of nearly two years, Bowman operated a public school without a license — a violation of New York law.
Bowman has been a vocal supporter of the opt-out movement, which encourages parents to block their kids from taking state exams, calling it necessary “civil disobedience.”
The Westchester pol has been hounded by other controversies.
He was censured after infamously pulling a fire alarm in 2023 to delay a House spending vote. Bowman also has denied that Hamas raped Israeli women on Oct. 7 and once touted 9/11 conspiracy theories, claiming on his personal blog that Osama Bin Laden was blamed for the terrorist attack to justify war in Afghanistan.
“This is beyond evil, all New Yorkers have something to worry about here, but especially Jews,” City University trustee Jeffrey Wiesenfeld told The Post of the prospect of a Chancellor Bowman.
Bowman is only of at least four other chancellor candidates, all of whom carry baggage.
Mamdani has not shown his hand so far in who will lead the nation’s biggest school system — which faces plummeting student enrollment, chronic absenteeism and lackluster test scores on reading and math.
“We are going to be making appointments over the course of the next 50 days,” he said Saturday.
Other candidates include:
Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos
The current schools chancellor wants to stay on the job, sources told The Post.
At SOMOS, she joined a Mamdani transition event at a San Juan mosque.
She told The Post that she and the mayor-elect have not discussed whether she’ll stay in her role, but touted her background.
“I’m a New Yorker, I’m a New York City public school mom. It’s important to me that the system runs well,” Aviles-Ramos said.
She is highest paid city employee, making even more than the mayor, with a salary of $414,799 a year.
Aviles-Ramos, 43, plans to “ride” recent modest gains in city test scores, the source said.
But state officials lowered the threshold for some students to get a passing grade, and a stunning two-thirds of city students are still not proficient in reading or math.
Keeping Aviles-Ramos would bring continuity in curriculum initiatives, but she hasn’t yet announced “a long-term vision for the schools,” David Bloomfield, a Brooklyn College and CUNY Grad School education professor, told The Post.
She is relying on State Sen. Luis Sepulveda, UFT President Mike Mulgrew and Bronx State Assemblywoman Chantel Jackson to advocate for her, an insider said.
City Councilwoman Rita Joseph
Longtime educator and Brooklyn City Councilwoman Rita Joseph also joined the SOMOS conference in Puerto Rico.
Joseph, whose district includes Windsor Terrace and Crown Heights, taught at PS 6 in Flatbush for 23 years and chairs the Council’s education committee.
Joseph lacks the necessary credentials to serve in the position — a chancellor needs either a state School District Administrator or School District Leader certification — but she could easily get a waiver from Albany, Bloomfield said.
Joseph was criticized after she “regretfully abstained” from voting for a measure declaring April 29 “End Jew Hatred Day” in April 2023.
Queens Councilman Robert Holden trashed the idea of Joseph serving as chancellor, saying she would just be “more of the same.”
“She would not break up or challenge the DOE bureaucracy. She always votes with the majority,” he said.
Meisha Ross Porter
Meisha Ross Porter was the first black woman to serve as schools chancellor after de Blasio tapped her to succeed scandal-plagued Richard Carranza, who abruptly resigned in 2021.
De Blasio is pushing Mamdani to reinstall her because she has served as a teacher, principal and superintendent as well as chancellor, an insider aid.
While in SOMOS, news broke that she is under consideration to become CEO of Chicago Public Schools, and will interview with the mayor and the Chicago Board of Education next week.
However, a source told The Post that she may be using the Chicago gig as leverage to sway Mamdani.
“She’s not a fan of Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson,” a source said.
Porter, 51, made news in 2015 when she celebrated her ascension to Bronx superintendent with a lavish $45,000 gala that cost attendees — including her subordinates — $110 a head.
She came to the party clad in a sparkling dress and tiara.
As superintendent, she boasted of hiring educators based on race and gender in a 2018 speech at Fordham University.
In 2021, she proposed eliminating the SHSAT — the exam that determines admission into eight elite NYC high schools — charging that it denies entry to many black and Hispanic students.
Kamar Samuels
The-Chancellor David Banks appointed Samuels superintendent of District 3 on the Upper West Side in 2022, saying he would “bring a spirit of innovation and out-of-the-box thinking.”
However, insiders familiar with Samuels’ tenure trashed his record and said they couldn’t understand why he was being considered for the role.
“He’s completely useless, no work ethic, always delegates responsibility, never takes any for himself. Tells everyone whatever he thinks they want to hear, and inevitably the lies blow up in his face,” one insider told The Post.
