It’s a five-alarm fire at the Department of Education.
Embattled New York City Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels is so desperate to put out the flames of his disastrous Tuesday forum with New York Times writer Nikole Hannah-Jones that he called in the city’s ultimate expert on emergency exits: disgraced, fire-alarm-pulling ex-“Squad” Congressman Jamaal Bowman, a well-placed DOE insider told The Post.
Samuels’ latest dumpster fire came Tuesday as he sat down with Hannah-Jones for the School Integration Town Hall at the Washington Irving Campus HS in Manhattan, where he was repeatedly booed by the lefty crowd after he defended screened schools and failing to articulate a plan for school integration, a long-term leftist priority.
The sitdown was weeks after the “1619 Project” author published a viral essay detailing how she sacrificed her daughter for ideology by sending her to struggling schools in District 13 in Brooklyn — where Samuels was superintendent from 2019-2022 — even when she could have used her connections to send her to a better school.
Samuels’ widely panned performance infuriated City Hall, multiple sources told The Post, and the chancellor quickly went into damage control mode.
He apparently turned to Bowman, a known conspiracy theorist who has trafficked in antisemitism, for advice on how to manage the fallout. Also present at the meeting was Samuels’ confidante, NYC Schools Chief of External Affairs Sadye Campoamor, who sources said helped facilitate 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 notoriously pulled the fire alarm in the Cannon Office Building in DC an unhinged play to stall a vote to avert a government shutdown in September 2023.
He also spread 9/11 conspiracies on his blog, saying the Bin Laden was blamed for the attacks as a pretext to wage war in Afghanistan. He was principal at the Cornerstone Academy for Social Action in the Bronx at the time.
He denied that Hamas engaged in mass rapes in its barbaric Oct. 7 attacks, but later apologized.
“If Samuels is turning to Jamaal Bowman for a lifeline, it raises a serious question about how far off course he’s drifted,” a DOE insider said.
But City Hall may have hit their limit with the scandal-plagued chancellor, who is currently under investigation for a shady no-bid contract with a non-DOE-approved vendor he signed in 2023 when he was superintendent of District 3 on the Upper West Side.
“They’re livid, annoyed and pissed off,” a City Hall insider said of Mamdani’s team.
The Mayor’s team is looking to put Campoamor’s head on a pike, and is “actively thinking about a future without Samuels,” the City Hall insider said.
The Samuels administration has seen a string of high-profile departures in recent months, including Chief of Staff Kenita Lloyd and Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel at NYC Public Schools Liz Vladeck, who Mamdani recently appointed to head the Office of Labor Relations.
Vladeck’s decision to exit the DOE was fueled by her increasing frustration with Samuels’ leadership, multiple sources told The Post.
The City Hall insider said Vladeck, 49, an adjunct professor of labor law at New York Law School, “ran out of patience with Kamar’s foolishness.”
After Samuels’ embarrassing display on Tuesday, the mood inside of Tweed has been abysmal, the well-placed DOE insider said.
“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.
