Bruce Blakeman stood in the Bronx and told voters that New York's public schools are failing despite spending more per student than any other state in the country. The Nassau County executive and Republican gubernatorial nominee said New York students' test scores have declined during Governor Kathy Hochul's five years in office, calling the situation unacceptable and vowing to make science, technology, engineering and math the backbone of the state's curriculum if elected.
A Campaign Stop Built Around Test Scores
Blakeman's remarks, delivered at a Bronx campaign event, were first reported by the New York Post. According to the newspaper, New York fourth graders rank 22nd nationally in reading and 38th in math on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, while eighth graders rank 24th in reading and 27th in math. Blakeman placed the blame on the state's curriculum, the Board of Regents, the education chancellor and Hochul herself, the paper reported.
The Post also reported that New York spent nearly $40,000 per pupil in 2025. That figure lines up with a January 2025 analysis from the Citizens Budget Commission, which found the state spent $36,293 per elementary and secondary public school student — 91% above the national average and the highest rate in the country, according to the Citizens Budget Commission. Long Island districts, which include Blakeman's home base of Nassau County, planned the highest regional per-pupil spending in the state for the 2026-27 school year at $41,934, compared with a statewide median exceeding $37,000, per figures from the Empire Center for Public Policy.
Blakeman's Bronx Partner and the Computer Comment
Blakeman said he would work closely with Bronx community leader Sheikh Musa Drammeh to roll out education initiatives in the borough, the Post reported. Drammeh, who co-founded the Islamic Leadership School in 2001 and created the STEM'd Up framework blending STEM instruction with interfaith dialogue and civic engagement, highlighted New York's 17th-place national education ranking in U.S. News & World Report and questioned why the state ranked there despite spending more per pupil than any other state, according to the same report. Background on Drammeh's two-decade record leading Muslim and interfaith education programs in the Bronx comes from the Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center of Nassau County.
Blakeman also revived criticism of a comment Hochul made in 2024 about young Black children in the Bronx and computers, claiming the borough's young people know more about computers than Hochul ever will and saying she does not understand local communities or the school system, per the Post's account. Hochul made the original remark at the Milken Institute Global Conference while promoting state funding for artificial intelligence, telling the California audience that young Black kids in the Bronx “don't even know what the word computer is,” according to The Guardian. She later issued a public apology acknowledging that she misspoke.
Who Actually Controls the Curriculum
New York's governance structure complicates any governor's ability to unilaterally overhaul school curricula. Public education policy is set by a 17-member Board of Regents elected by the state Legislature, which appoints the state education commissioner — meaning a governor's direct authority is largely limited to budget allocations and proposed legislation, according to the New York State Education Department. New York is one of the few states where the governor does not appoint the state board of education or its chief school officer.
Hochul has already pursued her own literacy push. In January 2024 she launched a $10 million Back to Basics reading plan requiring every public school district to shift to phonics-based instruction grounded in the science of reading by September 2025, according to the New York State Executive Chamber. But implementation has been uneven: an investigation published in May 2026 by New York Focus found more than 130 districts were still using discredited balanced literacy programs despite the state directive, since local school boards retain statutory independence over textbook and reading material choices.
Shrinking Enrollment, Growing Budgets
The spending debate is also tangled up with demographic shifts. New York City public schools lost nearly 70,000 K-12 students between 2020 and 2025, an 8% enrollment decline, even as the city Department of Education's budget grew from $34.5 billion to $40 billion, according to City Journal. That combination of shrinking enrollment and expanding budgets has pushed per-pupil costs higher statewide.
Blakeman's Bronx stop also fits a broader strategy of courting voters in a traditionally Democratic stronghold. The borough voted 69% for Joe Biden in 2020 but just 22% for Kamala Harris in 2024, a shift Blakeman's campaign has leaned on as it pushes into territory Republicans rarely contest. Hoodline previously reported that an October Marist Poll showed Hochul leading Blakeman statewide by 11 points, 53% to 42%, among registered voters, though the Post noted Blakeman polled about 10 points behind Hochul earlier in the week — a tighter margin than the Marist survey found.
Debate Already Behind Them, Election Weeks Away
Blakeman and Hochul held their sole debate this past Tuesday, just three days before his Bronx appearance. Hochul is seeking a second full four-year term in the November 3 election, and Blakeman has said he plans to make STEM the core of the state's curriculum if he wins. The education push is one piece of a broader platform; Blakeman also unveiled a plan this month pledging to sign a first-day executive order banning transgender K-12 students from girls' bathrooms, locker rooms and overnight trip accommodations in public schools.
Hochul's team did not immediately comment on Blakeman's Bronx remarks, according to the Post's reporting.
