NYC Schools Chief Announces Retirement Amid Federal Investigations

David Banks, chancellor of New York public schools, announces on Aug. 19 in Manhattan a plan to enroll migrant students in the current school year. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

New York City Schools Chancellor David Banks is retiring amid a series of federal investigations that continue to rock Mayor Eric Adams’s administration.

Banks, appointed two years ago by Adams to lead the nation’s largest public school system, said Tuesday that he will step down at the end of this year.

“I want to thank Mayor Adams for giving me the opportunity to serve as chancellor, and I am immensely proud of the progress we’ve made together,” Banks said in a statement, highlighting his signature policies such as an ongoing overhaul of the way the city’s more than 910,000 students are taught to read.

“I grew up in our public schools and spent most of my adult life serving the students and families of our city, and I have every confidence that the work we’ve started will continue to thrive and benefit generations to come,” the 62-year-old schools chief wrote.

In his own statement, Adams said he was “immensely grateful and proud of the work accomplished” during Banks’s tenure.

Banks is the fourth high-ranking city official to resign this month. Health Commissioner Dr. Ashwin Vasan announced his resignation for personal and family reasons the day before Banks’s announcement, and NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban and Chief Counsel Lisa Zornberg left their posts about two weeks ago.

The exodus of New York City’s top cabinet members underscores the mounting crisis facing the mayor’s inner circle, which is now the target of at least four federal investigations, including one involving Banks and his brothers.

On Sept. 4, the FBI seized Banks’s personal and work phones during a search of the home he shares with his partner, Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright. Agents also seized electronics from Banks’s two brothers: Deputy Mayor Phil Banks, who served as NYPD’s highest-ranking uniformed officer from 2013 to 2014; and Terence Banks, a retired MTA supervisor who recently started a lobbying firm.

As for now, none of the Banks brothers has been accused of any wrongdoing.

In addition to the Banks probe, federal agents are investigating Edward Caban’s twin brother, James, a former NYPD sergeant who operates a nightclub security business. The Caban brothers own houses close to each other, both of which were visited by investigators who seized electronic devices during their searches.

Edward Caban resigned Sept. 12, a week after the visits. In his resignation letter to the NYPD, Caban wrote that “news around recent developments has created a distraction for our department” and that he doesn’t want to put attention on anything other than the NYPD’s work.

Separately, federal prosecutors are investigating Adams’s 2021 campaign finances. Last November, FBI agents stopped the mayor in a Manhattan street as he left an event and seized his phones and an iPad, days after they raided the homes of his close advisors, including Brianna Suggs, his chief political fundraiser, and Rana Abbasova, a longtime Adams aide who used to serve as his liaison to New York’s Turkish diaspora communities.

The FBI has not made public details of that investigation, but a search warrant obtained by the New York Times in 2023 indicated that investigators are looking into whether the Adams campaign conspired with the Turkish government to receive donations from foreign sources.

Additionally, federal prosecutors are investigating Winnie Greco, the city’s director of Asian Affairs and prominent fundraiser for Adams.

And on Sept. 16, federal agents arrested the New York City Fire Department’s two high-ranking fire chiefs, Anthony Saccavino and Brian Cordasco, on charges that they solicited tens of thousands of dollars in bribes from people seeking expedited fire safety inspections. Both have pleaded not guilty.