Charter ire risks mayoral control

The standoff over mayoral control of city schools looks as if it could come down to the wire, with state Republicans slamming Mayor de Blasio on Sunday for his resistance to more charter schools and the mayor arguing that charters shouldn’t be part of negotiations.

De Blasio has just three days to persuade Albany lawmakers to grant him an extension of mayoral control, which began under Mayor Mike Bloomberg as a means of curbing rampant corruption under the previous system of schoolboard oversight.

De Blasio’s latest one-year term is set to expire shortly after the current legislative sessions ends Wednesday.

The biggest sticking point for Republicans deciding whether to grant an extension has been de Blasio’s refusal to allow more charter schools in the city.

“The clear overall policy mes- sage of this administration is an unwillingness to advocate for charter-school progress — a decision that negatively impacts nearly 110,000 students,” Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan (R-LI) said, referring to the number of city kids in charters. “Mayor de Blasio is wrong.”

Charter schools have submitted 171 requests for space to the city during de Blasio’s tenure. Of them, 39 have been granted, 39 are pending and 93 were rejected due to lack of space, according to a City Hall spokeswoman.

“I’m very concerned because I’m not seeing a lot of movement in Albany,” de Blasio said Sunday on John Catsimatidis’ radio show.

If mayoral control is not renewed, oversight would revert to the 32 school boards that controlled schools 15 years ago, a system Hizzoner described as rife with “chaos,” “corruption” and “patronage.”

If Senate Republicans don’t grant an extension at all, charter advocates are ready to pounce. They would back pro-charter candidates to serve on the city’s 32 community school boards, which are involved in selecting school district superintendents.

But de Blasio suggested he might be ready to blink on charters — as long as concessions on his part are not tied directly to control.

“There’s plenty of issues we can work on together on charter schools, but it’s not fair to link the charter-school issue to something as fundamental as how we run our schools every day,” de Blasio said.

[There] re] is an unwillingness lingness to advocate ocate for charter-school er-school progress. gress. — Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan, on Mayor de Blasio