Overview
- Public filings show Simons gave $250,000 to New Yorkers for Lower Costs, a super PAC supporting Zohran Mamdani’s NYC mayoral bid, which had raised more than $2.1 million as of Friday.
- The Heising‑Simons Foundation, co‑founded by Simons, has provided $1.7 million since 2023 to the Racial Justice in Early Mathematics project at Chicago’s Erikson Institute, including $800,000 in March for seminars, toolkits, and teacher support.
- Earlier grants included $900,000 in 2021 for teacher mini‑grants, and at least $4 million in 2022–2023 to other math‑education groups such as Tandem Partners in Early Learning and Illustrative Mathematics, according to tax filings.
- Coverage cites classroom examples and policy splits, noting a funded Alexandria, Va., activity that had K–2 students tally picture‑book characters by race, with approaches embraced in California and rejected in Florida.
- Parent advocates quoted in the reports question the academic benefits and point to a RealClearInvestigations finding of no credible evidence of achievement gains, while representatives for Mamdani and the foundation did not immediately comment and no change to his stated education platform was reported.