Jamaal Bowman, the scandal-plagued former congressman and fire safety enthusiast, is reportedly on the shortlist to become New York City’s next schools chancellor.
If Zohran Mamdani wins the mayoral race later this year, analysts believe Bowman is likely to be tapped to oversee America’s largest public school system, with nearly 1 million students in more than 1,000 schools.
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But a new controversy, tracing back to his days as a school principal, should be enough to put such an appointment on pause: Bowman violated state education law.
Prior to being elected to Congress, a position he held from 2021 to 2025, Bowman was the founder of the Cornerstone Academy for Social Action, a public middle school in the Bronx, and served as principal from 2009 to 2019.
To legally serve as a public school principal, “an individual must hold a valid certificate authorizing such service,” according to the New York State Department of Education. State records indicate that Bowman was issued a School Building Leader Initial Certificate on February 1, 2009. But Bowman allowed the certificate to expire on Jan. 31, 2014, and did not reestablish his certification until Dec. 16, 2015.
In other words, for a period of nearly two years, Jamaal Bowman operated a public school without a license — a violation of New York law.
Bowman ignored multiple requests for comment.
This is hardly the first time Bowman has been in trouble for bending the rules. As we reported last year, Bowman appears to have plagiarized multiple passages of his Ed.D. dissertation.
After that, while serving in Congress, Bowman pulled a fire alarm as Democrats were attempting to delay a vote on a bill, resulting in an unnecessary evacuation. Initially, Bowman claimed to have pulled the alarm by accident. His office distributed suggested “talking points” to political allies, including a reference to Republicans as “Nazis.” Bowman later admitted to falsely pulling the alarm and agreed to pay a fine and write a letter of apology to first responders.
His record as principal at Cornerstone Academy was also checkered with controversy and failure. During his tenure, Bowman likened standardized testing to “modern-day slavery.” He caused outrage by commissioning a “Wall of Honor” that featured portraits of black militants Mutulu Shakur and Assata Shakur, both convicted of murdering police officers.
In his spare time, Bowman also wrote rambling, paranoid, and incoherent poems that promoted 9/11 conspiracy theories.
Student outcomes at Cornerstone were no better than Bowman’s poetry. In 2019, after a decade under Bowman’s leadership, only 26 percent of Cornerstone students were proficient in English and only 30 percent were proficient in math.
Why, then, is Bowman being considered for New York City schools chancellor? Ideology.
Bowman is a committed socialist, anti-Israel militant, and left-wing racialist, who is ready and willing to turn public schools into centers for far-left political propaganda.
For his supporters, the lawbreaking, plagiarism, and history of academic failure are a small price to pay. The ideology rules.
Photo by Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images
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