The Department of Education is facing a full-blown crisis.
Embattled New York City Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels is scrambling to contain the fallout from his disastrous Tuesday forum with New York Times writer Nikole Hannah-Jones. According to a well-placed DOE insider, Samuels sought advice from the city’s unlikely expert on emergency exits: disgraced former “Squad” Congressman Jamaal Bowman, who once pulled a fire alarm.
Samuels’ latest controversy erupted Tuesday during the School Integration Town Hall at Washington Irving Campus High School in Manhattan. A left-leaning audience repeatedly booed the chancellor as he defended screened schools and failed to present a clear plan for advancing school integration, a longstanding priority of the political left.
The event came weeks after Hannah-Jones, author of the “1619 Project,” published a widely circulated essay describing how she chose to send her daughter to struggling schools in Brooklyn’s District 13, where Samuels served as superintendent from 2019 to 2022. Hannah-Jones wrote that she could have used her connections to secure a spot at a better school but instead prioritized her ideology.
Multiple sources told The Post that Samuels’ performance angered City Hall, prompting the chancellor to launch an immediate damage-control effort.
He reportedly turned to Bowman, whom critics have accused of promoting conspiracy theories and antisemitic rhetoric, for guidance on managing the backlash. Samuels’ confidante, NYC Schools Chief of External Affairs Sadye Campoamor, also attended the meeting and was said by sources to have helped arrange the forum.
“Ironically, Jamaal Bowman was here meeting with Kamar trying to figure out a fix strategy. . . . It’s really bad,” the DOE insider said.
Bowman made national headlines in September 2023 when he pulled a fire alarm inside the Cannon Office Building in Washington, DC, in an attempt to delay a vote aimed at preventing a government shutdown.
He also promoted 9/11 conspiracy theories on his blog, writing that Osama bin Laden had been blamed for the attacks as a pretext for war in Afghanistan. Bowman was principal of the Cornerstone Academy for Social Action in the Bronx at the time.
Bowman also denied that Hamas carried out mass rapes during its Oct. 7 attacks, though he later apologized for the remarks.
“If Samuels is turning to Jamaal Bowman for a lifeline, it raises a serious question about how far off course he’s drifted,” the DOE insider said.
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City Hall, meanwhile, may be reaching its limit with the scandal-plagued chancellor. Samuels is under investigation over a no-bid contract with a vendor that had not been approved by the DOE, which he signed in 2023 while serving as superintendent of District 3 on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.
“They’re livid, annoyed and pissed off,” a City Hall insider said of Mayor Mamdani’s team.
The mayor’s team is seeking to hold Campoamor responsible and is “actively thinking about a future without Samuels,” the insider said.
The Samuels administration has also endured several high-profile departures in recent months, including Chief of Staff Kenita Lloyd and NYC Public Schools Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel Liz Vladeck. Mamdani recently appointed Vladeck to lead the Office of Labor Relations.
Multiple sources told The Post that Vladeck’s departure from the DOE was driven by growing frustration with Samuels’ leadership.
The City Hall insider said Vladeck, 49, who teaches labor law as an adjunct professor at New York Law School, “ran out of patience with Kamar’s foolishness.”
Following Samuels’ dismal performance Tuesday, the atmosphere inside Tweed, the DOE headquarters, has been bleak, according to the well-placed DOE insider.
“There’s a general feeling of defeat, despair and low morale,” the source said.
“Everyone is looking to jump ship, senior leaders have no faith in Kamar,” the well-placed DOE insider said.
A DOE spokesperson claimed that the Bowman meeting was scheduled a month prior to the event and focused on “school climate in general.”
“The mayor is proud of the work the Chancellor has done on this issue and in his willingness to engage directly with parents, teachers and advocates — just as he did at Tuesday night’s forum,” a City Hall spokesperson said.
Bowman could not be reached for comment.
