Mayor Zohran Mamdani's education team has pulled the plug on the city's contract with Cornerstone Day Care Center, a Bedford-Stuyvesant nonprofit run by Jasmine Ray, a former City Hall appointee who was romantically linked to ex-mayor Eric Adams. The decision bumps Cornerstone's pre-K and 3-K program off the Department of Education roster and ranks as one of Mamdani's first public contract moves involving a provider connected to the prior administration.
According to The New York Times, the Department of Education informed Ray in May that it would not renew a roughly $933,000-a-year contract, then followed up by terminating the agreement after flagging unpaid rent and charges it described as potentially unreasonable. The Times reviewed a March 31 letter from the agency's chief procurement officer that questioned consulting fees and billing linked to the center.
Ray, who served as the city's director of the Mayor's Office of Sports, Wellness and Recreation under Eric Adams, had been allowed to maintain a consulting relationship with Cornerstone while on the city payroll under a conflicts-of-interest waiver. The NBC New York I-Team reported that the waiver permitted her to keep consulting for the Brooklyn center after her City Hall appointment, a setup critics argue can give the impression that loyalties are being split.
Documents obtained by The Times show the waiver capped Ray's Cornerstone work at 10 hours a week and required her to give up the title of executive director, limits the education department said were designed to head off conflicts. Ray told The New York Times she had been "unfairly targeted" because of her connection to former mayor Eric Adams.
Where Cornerstone Fit Into the System
Cornerstone has operated for years in Bedford-Stuyvesant and participates in the city's Pre-K and 3-K programs, according to the Department of Education's school listing. Community-based providers like Cornerstone are contracted to run early-childhood seats funded by the city, and disruption at even one of those sites can send families scrambling to secure new spots.
Legal and ethics questions
City ethics specialists say the situation underscores the ongoing tension between letting public employees hold outside roles and preventing conflicts of interest. An NBC New York investigation found that conflicts waivers increased under the Adams administration. The Conflicts of Interest Board must approve such waivers, but watchdogs argue those sign-offs can leave New Yorkers wondering whether city duties or outside paychecks come first.
What's next for families and programs
Mamdani has made expanding and reshaping early childhood care a central goal, and his office has framed contract reviews and provider shake-ups as part of that broader effort. In a city release, the mayor's office highlighted plans to grow 2-K and 3-K seats and recruit new providers as the administration works toward a universal child-care system.
Parents and neighborhood leaders are now watching to see how quickly the Department of Education can re-place affected students and whether the city follows through with stricter oversight of billing, leases and contractor costs. For the moment, the contract termination adds a political and bureaucratic wrinkle to Mamdani's larger push to remake New York City's early-childhood landscape.
