Mayor Zohran Mamdani casts doubt on NYC Council plan to bolster pay of school paraprofessionals

Cayla Bamberger, New York Daily News on Jul 13, 2026

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NEW YORK — A controversial bill to provide each New York City school paraprofessional with a $10,000 “workforce stabilization” payment — outside of the standard collective bargaining process — will go before the full City Council for a vote later this week, but Mayor Zohran Mamdani Monday said he has misgivings about the plan.

The proposed law has 47 co-sponsors, a veto-proof majority, and is expected to head to the council for a Thursday vote.

“This is the furthest this legislation has ever gone,” the United Federation of Teachers wrote on social media on Friday night, “but we know it’s not done until it’s signed into law.”

Mamdani, at an unrelated news conference Monday flanked by Councilwoman Carmen de la Rosa, D-Manhattan, — the lead sponsor and former chair of the labor committee — continued to cast doubt on pay raises outside of collective bargaining.

“Paraprofessionals are a critically important part of our workforce, and I appreciate the Councilwomen’s leadership on highlighting that,” Mamdani said in Brooklyn. “I do also believe that the conversations around compensation are ones to be had at the negotiating table, and that’ll continue.”

Mamdani supported an earlier version of the paraprofessional check bill on the campaign trail, which would’ve had even greater implications for the city budget.

The latest revision of the bill would authorize the supplemental payments as a one-year program, instead of recurring annual checks as envisioned in the first draft. The incentive would be broken down into four installments of $2,500 to be paid quarterly in 2027.

The Council can reauthorize the program if it so chooses. The law would be repealed if it is absorbed by a collective bargaining agreement that gives the special education teacher aides equal to or better than a $10,000 pay raise.

The scheduled vote was first reported by The City Reporter.

The bill aims to address persistent paraprofessional staffing shortages — a problem that disproportionately affects students with disabilities, who rely on teacher aides for one-on-one support, such as riding the bus to school or participating in their classes.

There are at least 1,600 paraprofessional vacancies across the city’s school system, according to the UFT — a rough tally the union believes is an undercount when considering the numbers of not only approved yet unfilled positions, but also students legally entitled to aides without them staffed.

The starting salary for a paraprofessional is just over $32,600 next school year, the UFT said.

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