The Insider Track

Deputy Mayor Richard Buery, according to the city’s Web site, “leads priority interagency efforts to increase educational opportunity for New Yorkers,” among other duties. He sure seems to have increased opportunity for his own child — by exploiting his status as a City Hall insider.

Certainly, Buery got plenty of assistance from the Department of Education back in 2014 when he was trying to get the kid into one of the most sought-after middle schools in affluent Park Slope.

You can see why parents want their kids to attend: William Alexander Middle School calls itself “a gifted and talented school . . . uniquely committed to a balance of both an intensive accelerated academic program and an in-depth, three-year arts program.”

That year, 1,729 kids were in competition for just 380 seats at MS 51, which made the odds of getting in about 1 in 5.

But, as The Post’s Yoav Gonen and Lorena Mongelli report, you can improve those odds if you’re connected. The special assistant to schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña got Buery the cellphone numbers for many of the school’s leaders — who then arranged special tours of the school for the Buerys.

In the end, Buery’s son got in — though the family moved into the district (indeed, to the city) just weeks before the start of the school year. In the next two years, only one other applicant was accepted so late in the process, according to the school’s parent coordinator.

Fariña’s folks plainly realized that all the unusual assistance wouldn’t look good: They talked Buery out of pushing his kid into an orientation session for accepted students (which took place months before the family moved to the district and so qualified the child to apply) by warning that the special treatment might get noticed.

Well, now the favoritism is a matter of public record — just the latest example of how political insiders jump to the head of the line, past countless regular citizens.

Call it a Tale of Two New Yorks.