A raw deal

It’s bad enough that the Legislature extended mayoral control of the public schools, which is actually voter control, for a measly two years. What’s worse still is that the extension substantially weakens the mayor’s hand, giving him 13 of 23 appointees on an enlarged Panel for Educational Policy that’ll be augmented with five parent representatives, and empowered to buck the mayor by barring him from removing his appointees except for “good cause” — “provided that voting against the appointing authority’s direction shall not be cause for removal.”

Let that sink in. The mayor can yank someone off the school governance board only for a decent reason, but the definition of a decent reason explicitly rules out contradicting him on important policy matters.

Madness. Mayoral control’s entire purpose is to give the city’s chief elected official, who is answerable to voters, authority over what previously had been a diffuse, unaccountable bureaucratic blob. The blob now creeps back, with a vengeance.

But that’s not even the worst of it. Driven by state Sen. John Liu, the Legislature yoked renewal on a new mandate to dramatically lower class sizes, capping K-through-third grade classes at 20 students, fourth-through-eighth at 23, and high school at 25.

Lower class sizes are nice, especially in the early grades. But caps are bad when used as a blunt policy instrument — because, as principals understand well, an outstanding teacher in front of a slightly larger class is far preferable to a lower-quality teacher before a smaller class. What’s more, by propping up demand for teachers even as enrollment declines, the unfunded mandate will cost the city a half-billion dollars annually in the elementary grades alone, not including the capital costs that will come with having to build new classrooms.

Everyone who wants schools to hire guidance counselors, social workers and more — and anyone who cares about the fact that New York City schools, despite America’s highest per-pupil spending, often yield subpar results — should be screaming hell no. And Gov. Hochul must get out her veto pen.