More charters, more hope

One week after the state Legislature officially extended mayoral control of the New York school system, having brought Mayor de Blasio needlessly to the brink of disempowerment, the other shoe dropped. As the price for two years of peace, the mayor had to make way for more charter schools to thrive, never mind his lukewarm-on-a-good-day views of their merits.

That’s a win for the kids lining up to get into the city’s charter schools, still too few in number.

Despite vociferous opposition from the United Federation of Teachers, a staunch ally of the mayor’s, charters educate about 10% of New York City school kids — often with dramatically stronger results than district schools.

So successful are charters that more open each year — leaving the city perilously close to hitting a cap on the number allowed under state law. Prior to the deal, just 23 such authorizations remained. Post-deal, the number is 45. That’s big.

Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan drove the bargain here. Partly from principle (he believes in charters), but primarily from pique (sticking it to the mayor), he made raising the cap on the number of charter schools in New York City his price for the renewal of mayoral control.

Shame on him for playing kids as pawns — a game the Assembly refused to play along with.

It was Gov. Cuomo who forged a compromise allowing New York City to repurpose permits for closed or never-opened charter schools, on the pretense that it’s different from an expansion.

No one’s fooled. Give the mayor credit here. No fan of charters, he kept his mouth shut even as his frenemy Cuomo foisted this bureaucratic concoction upon him.

To get needed stability in school governance for two years, his restraint is mayoral control at its most admirable.