Jeff Bezos has taken aim at New York City's public school system, questioning how the city spends roughly $44,000 per student each year while academic outcomes remain poor and teacher pay stays low. The Amazon founder made the remarks during an interview on CNBC's Squawk Box, comparing the city's education administration to Amazon's operations, arguing that such inefficiency would not survive in a private business environment.
"If we ran Amazon the way New York City runs their school system, your packages would take six weeks to arrive. We'd have to charge you a $100 delivery fee. And then when the package did finally arrive, it'd have the wrong item in it anyway," Bezos told CNBC.
Despite the city spending around $44,000 per student annually, Bezos argued that very little reaches classrooms or teachers, with the bulk absorbed by administrative layers instead.
"None of this money is getting to the teachers, I promise you. If you're charging $44,000 per student, how much of that money do you think is trickling down to teachers? Not much," he said.
His comments drew a response from New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who replied on X, formerly Twitter: "I know a few teachers in Queens who would beg to differ."
Bezos also pushed back on raising taxes on wealthy individuals, arguing that political discussions often fall into blame rather than problem-solving.
"What's happening here is politicians are using the kind of age-old techniques, you know, picking a villain and pointing fingers," he said, describing inequality as a "tale of two economies."
On taxation, he said lower-income Americans should not be taxed at all. "When people are starting out, and they're struggling, stop taxing them. We don't need it. We live in the wealthiest country in the world," Bezos said.
The remarks came shortly after the Bezos family pledged up to $150 million toward early childhood education in New York City.
