Last week, the Rent Guidelines Board voted for a freeze on the rent for New York City’s one million rent-regulated apartments, fulfilling one of Mayor Mamdani’s defining campaign promises.
There has been plenty of discussion of the decision, both supportive and critical. But there’s one aspect of it, of particular interest to me, that has not been mentioned: Two out of the mayor’s six appointees to the board are recent graduates of the John Jay MA program in economics, where I teach.
I’m very proud of Sina Sinai and Lauren Melodia, who I know carefully studied the evidence and considered the full range of options before voting for the freeze. Lauren is also doing important work as the Director of Economic and Fiscal Policy at the Center for New York City Affairs, where she is producing a great deal of valuable research, most recently on working conditions in childcare. She’s recently been joined by David Lee, another John Jay graduate, who formerly worked as Legislative Director for New York Assemblymember Ron Kim and is now writing about fiscal policy at the Center.
Meanwhile on the rent regulation front, Anisha Steephen, a current student at John Jay, just released a major report from the Roosevelt Institute on rent regulation as financial regulation, which I hope to be writing more about soon.
This is what students from the John Jay economics program do. For a small program that’s existed for less than ten years, we have an impressive number of students out in the world contributing to progressive political projects.
Also in the housing space, consider Paul Williams. After finishing his MA with us a few years ago, he established the Center for Public Enterprise, where he now has a dozen staff, and has done as much as anyone to make the case that local government can be a major investor in housing, as well as in energy and other areas. This is a critical part of the both-and approach — boost supply and protect tenants — that defines the Mamdani agenda on housing.
Other current and former John Jay MA students include policy staff for socialist elected officials like State Senator Julia Salazar and former Representative Jamaal Bowman; the legislative director for the UAW; the chief of staff for former New York City Councilmember Carlina Rivera and State Senator Kristen Gonzalez; and analysts and researchers at various government agencies, including several at the Bureau of labor Statistics. Journalists like Aída Chavez (of The Intercept and The Nation) and Kate Aronoff (of The New Republic, and author of A Planet to Win: Why We Need a Green New Deal) were also students here. Jack Gross, founder of the outstanding web journal Phenomenal World, and Nathan Tankus, of the essential newsletter Notes on the Crises, were also briefly students here. (Neither got degrees, but the work and the community matter more than the credential.)
Why am I sharing this? Is it just to brag? Well, partially. I am very proud of what we’ve done with this program over the past decade, and of the students who have passed through it. And to update Hillel, if you don’t talk about your own work, who will talk about it?
But there’s also a more specific and timely reason: For the next two weeks, we are still accepting applications for Fall 2026. And I suspect that readers of this blog must know a few young (or not so young) people interested in studying heterodox economics at a public university in New York City.
If you do know someone who might fit that description, here is the pitch.
Unlike most economics programs, John Jay is unapologetically committed to a progressive, policy-oriented approach, and to the heterodox traditions of Marxian, Keynesian and feminist economics. Our students and faculty see the study of economics both as an end in itself and as a way of contributing to the most pressing struggles in our society.
While many of ours students take up roles in politics, advocacy, journalism and policy research (like on the Rent Guidelines Board) many others continue on to PhD programs. In one recent year, we had an entering class of 15 and eight students who went on to PhD programs, a proportion I suspect very few other MA programs in the country could match, even at much more prestigious institutions.
John Jay College is located at 59th St. and 10th Ave., near Columbus Circle in the heart of Manhattan. All classes in the MA program meet in person one day a week in the evening. Most students take three classes per semester and finish the program in two years, but there is no penalty for going at a different pace.
For anyone who has lived in New York State for at least one year as of September, full-time tuition is $5,545 per semester. This is pro-rated for those taking fewer classes, so the total cost for the program is approximately $22,000 regardless of the time over which it is completed. (This is less than a quarter the tuition at many comparable programs.) For non-resident full time students tuition is somewhat higher, but still cheap compared with most graduate programs.
There’s an online application here. Only the statement of purpose and transcript is required by July 15; recommendation letters can come in later.
There is no requirement to have previously studied economics; our students come from a wide range of backgrounds and many have undergraduate degrees in the humanities, physical sciences or other fields. We are less interested in what classes people have taken than in their intellectual curiosity, a willingness to work hard, and a commitment to using economics training to help change the world.
Does coming to John Jay guarantee that you’ll play a leading role in building municipal socialism? Obviously not. But based on our track record, it does seem to improve the odds.
