Jeff Bezos shines a light on Mamdani by pouring $43B into underserved NYC schools
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos fired Mayor Zohran Mamdani because of the skyrocketing school fees of the Big Apple – he said that if his behemoth retail business goes like the city’s public school system, New Yorkers will wait for weeks to receive their packages.
A billionaire on Wednesday blasted the Democratic mayor for throwing a record $43 billion into a mismanaged education system, angry that New York City is spending a whopping $44,000 per student — about 30% more than other major American cities — despite dismal test scores and declining enrollment.
Bezos said even doubling his multi-billion dollar tax bill won’t help a Queens teacher – and Mamdani responded by saying he knows some teachers who “would be different.”
“If we run Amazon the way New York City runs their school system — your packages will take six weeks to arrive,” the Amazon honcho told Andrew Ross Sorkin during a sit-down on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
“We’re going to have to charge you a $100 delivery fee. And then when the package finally arrives, it’s going to have something wrong with it.”
The harsh rebuke of Mamdani – often criticized as a clueless baby boomer who didn’t quit before taking over in January – comes after the Bezos family pledged $150 million to early childhood education in the Big Apple.
Bezos – who was raised by a young mother and a Cuban immigrant father – said the city officials calling for more money for schools are not even going to teachers – but to senior positions.
“There is no money for the teachers, I promise you,” he stressed.
“If you charge $44,000 per student, how much of that money do you think goes to the teachers?
The tech titan — a “self-made” billionaire Forbes says is worth $269 billion — defended his tax bill and criticized Mamdani’s signature wealth tax agenda, including a proposed tax on luxury second homes that has left wealthy business owners angry.
The Blue Origin founder insisted that the 34-year-old failed rapper-turned-mayor could swindle Bezos’ billions in taxpayer dollars and still not help “that teacher from Queens.”
Hizzoner disagreed, firing back on social media Wednesday afternoon.
Follow live updates on Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s Socialist agenda and the latest in NYC politics
“I know a few teachers in Queens who want to be different,” said Mamdani to X.
City Hall did not immediately respond to The Post’s request.
Bezos, the world’s fourth-richest person, said raising taxes on the wealthy and throwing money at an issue won’t fix it, insisting it requires skills he believes the Mayor lacks.
“What’s happening here is that politicians are using old tactics … you know, picking a bad guy and pointing fingers,” he said, calling the financial crisis “a case of two economies.”
“But the problem is that that doesn’t solve anything. So, if you want to help a group of people who are struggling, you have to find the real causes and solutions. And that requires skill.”
At Amazon, Bezos said employees use “five reasons” when problems arise to get to the “root cause” and find a permanent fix.
“What we don’t do, because it doesn’t work, is to point fingers at people,” he added after Mamdani pointed to billionaire Citadel CEO Ken Griffin.
“It might feel good for 10 seconds, but it doesn’t accomplish anything.”
Bezos’ sharp criticism of Mamdani and his hacked school system comes after the Bezos Family Foundation pledged to donate up to $150 million to fund the education of young children in New York – as the mayor pushes his global agenda for free childcare.
The charity Robin Hood last week launched a campaign to give 1 billion dollars to strengthen its campaign against poverty, funded by a donation of $ 100 million from the Bezos family to create the Jackie Bezos Endowment for Early Childhood.
The billionaire’s family also pledged another $25 million, in line with the match, for a total of $150 million for a charity named after Bezos’ late mother.
The gift positions Robin Hood, which has invested $3 billion to fight poverty in the Big Apple, as a key player in the city’s growing battle for affordable child care.
Hizzoner hopes to raise $20 million for a “childcare action fund” within the Mayor’s Fund to improve New York City — and has raised only $3.5 million from the fund so far, the New York Times reports.
In his interview on Wednesday, Bezos also called for changes to the US tax system, which he said saw the top 1% of taxpayers pay 40% of all tax revenue and the bottom 3%.
He said it shouldn’t be 3%, but instead “zero.”
“If people are just starting out and struggling, stop taxing them. We don’t need it. We live in the richest country in the world,” Bezos told CNBC.
He also talked about his parents’ success stories in America, discussing how his adoptive father came to the US from Cuba in the 1960s and his mother was still a teenager when he lived with him in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
“I look at that and I think, I want to make sure that people who are struggling today have the opportunity to do that too, to grow themselves and maybe they will be the next Steve Jobs,” said Bezos, 62, who serves as the executive chairman of Amazon, the country’s largest parcel delivery company.
“Maybe one of their kids will be the next Steve Jobs, I don’t know. But we can give them a better chance by eliminating their tax debt. And I don’t want to lower it, I want to eliminate it.”
