Pay Up, Mr. Mayor

Mayor de Blasio and state Education Commissioner Mary Ellen Elia got blown away in court last week, and city 4-year-olds are the big winners.

At issue was de Blasio’s insistence that charter schools would lose their state pre-K funding if they didn’t let City Hall micromanage the toddlers’ classes. Success Academy argued that state law clearly doesn’t let the city give such orders: The only institution that’s empowered to regulate such a school is the one that issued its charter — SUNY, in Success’ case.

The school first asked Elia to set the mayor straight. At the time, we urged her to “stand with 4-year-olds and their families, and with the clear letter of the law” and not “with the special interests that already dominate New York’s public schools.”

Instead, Elia sided with de Blasio — so now they both have egg on their faces after the Appellate Division ruled in Success’ favor.

And it was a slam dunk. The five justices unanimously joined in the opinion written by Justice William McCarthy faulting Elia’s “erroneous interpretation” of the relevant statutes.

Indeed, the opinion was chock-full of phrases like “unambiguously,” “plain meaning,” “there can be no doubt,” “plain reading” and “the Legislature’s announced purpose.” In other words, Elia without question should have slapped de Blasio down back when Success first asked her to.

All of which leaves neither Elia nor the city with any good reason to further appeal: Again, all five judges joined in a definitive ruling.

Dragging it out would simply delay the day the city has to send Success the several hundred grand it owes for last year’s pre-K classes and waste the time of taxpayer-supported lawyers.

All to serve the anti-charter vendetta.