New York Daily News

Education emergency

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An unholy alliance of state Senate Republican­s who like to see Mayor de Blasio twist in the wind and Assembly Democrats doing the anti-charter-school bidding of the teachers union have just put New York City’s public education system on the edge of a cesspit of corruption and dysfunctio­n.

With 1.1 million kids soon to feel the pain, parents must let legislativ­e leaders know there will be consequenc­es for this juvenile game of chicken.

Majority Leader John Flanagan — whose Senate Republican­s gladly backed long renewals of mayoral control for generous political donor Mayor Michael Bloomberg — refused to extend it on de Blasio’s watch.

Shame him for his craven reversal, a finger in the eye of a city that wants only to guide its own fate. Call Flanagan’s office: (518) 455-2071. Email him at flanagan@nysenate.gov.

Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, a Bronx Democrat who claims to believe deeply in mayoral control, wouldn’t budge on having the authority linked to a small increase in the cap on the number of charter schools, a threat to no one but the teachers’ unions.

Shame him for putting narrow interests firsts. Call Heastie’s office: (518) 455-3791. Email him at speaker@nyassembly.gov.

Gov. Cuomo was dead right Thursday to call the failure a “derelictio­n of their duty,” and to point out that, whatever qualms the Senate may have had with de Blasio, they “voted for the Board of Education” — the bad old Board — adding, “You should come back as soon as possible and fix it.”

That means now. Come July 1, the monstrous old Board of Education will return. An unelected, unaccounta­ble, unresponsi­ve school governance panel will rise from the grave. Then, next year, 32 community school boards, mini-fiefdoms that were swamps of patronage and thievery, return.

Into those citywide and neighborho­od vacuums of power will rush the teachers union, the single most potent institutio­nal force. It protects benefits and advances its members interests above all else.

A decade of steady progress in schools that still need to make far more will be in jeopardy.

By any honest measure, New York City’s public education system has made remarkable strides since being made responsive to the people it serves.

Families have more options of where to send their children. Graduation rates are steadily rising. Scores on state tests are steadily improving — SAT scores, too — and the gap with the rest of New York’s schools is all but closed. Schools are far safer than before. Four-year-olds across the city have access to free prekinderg­arten.

Love or loathe the exact direction Bloomberg or de Blasio have taken the schools, there’s consistent pressure on the city’s top elected official to deliver real results.

So pressure must now rain down on Flanagan and Heastie to fix what they’ve chosen to break.

Meantime, the city’s five borough presidents, who under the old system were each responsibl­e for appointing one member to the central board — the mayor had two appointees — must step up.

Gale Brewer of Manhattan, Eric Adams of Brooklyn, Melinda Katz of Queens, Ruben Diaz of the Bronx and Jimmy Oddo of Staten Island are all on record supporting mayoral control.

In a joint letter this month, they just put it plainly: “We remember the bad old days. There was confusion, chaos, dysfunctio­n and a total lack accountabi­lity.”

Now, without delay, all five must sign over their appointees to the mayor. If the Board really returns, they must ensure it reports to the elected official who ought to be in charge.

This is an emergency.

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