Carl, Dean and the kids

The thousands of New York schoolchildren trapped in failing schools stand no chance of rescue unless Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and his members shake free of the teachers unions’ grip. Following squarely in the tradition of former Speaker Sheldon Silver, Assembly Democrats are the leading force opposed to creation of a meaningful teacher evaluation system.

New York parents are left no choice but to conclude that Heastie & Co. are perfectly OK with a status quo that deems 95% of teachers to be “effective” or “highly effective” — even as barely one-third of students are meeting state standards on reading and math.

They also look to be fine with laws that protect even the lowest-performing classroom duds from dismissal — a system the teachers unions cherish and Gov. Cuomo is fighting to change.

Heastie has also allied with Mayor de Blasio in rejecting Cuomo’s proposal for state intervention to turn around the worst of the worst of the public schools — even though the city has allowed some to persist as failure factories for a decade or more.

Heastie is thus standing in defense of a status quo where only 77% of students graduate high school, and where 60% of the kids who do get diplomas still aren’t ready for college.

Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos and his Republicans, meantime, pay lip service to supporting Cuomo’s reforms — but go mushy on the details instead of lending real muscle to the cause.

Seemingly alone among Albany’s top leaders, Cuomo is putting his focus where it belongs — on the unmet needs of the children attending the schools rather than the self-interest of the adults who work in them.

Recognizing that his agenda would be a hard sell, Cuomo committed to provide an extra $700 million in school aid — on top of a generous standard increase — as an incentive for lawmakers to give their approval.

But let no lawmakers kid themselves that more money, by itself, is any kind of answer. New York already spends more than any other state on education and gets results that are mediocre overall — and deplorable for many of the kids who could benefit most from a decent education.

Cuomo, at least, recognizes that more of the same is unacceptable. Heastie and Skelos must wake up to the same reality.