Kathy goes to school: Gov. Hochul makes some wise decisions in per budget — and sidesteps some important fights

We don’t know whether to chalk it up to early gubernatorial-mayoral bonhomie or what, but Gov. Hochul’s executive budget calls for extending mayoral control over the city public school system for four full years, and that’s a very good thing. After two terms in which Albany, Gov. Cuomo included, made Mayor de Blasio beg in order to get a year or two of additional authority over running the schools, there will be no such silly gamesmanship in Mayor Adams’ first term if Hochul gets her way.

Mayoral control of the nation’s largest school district, in place since 2002 and set to expire in June, is a tremendous innovation, enabling voters to hold their top elected official, rather than 32 corrupt mini-fiefdoms, accountable for one of the most important jobs their government does. It should be written into law with no expiration date.

That aside, Hochul’s budget missed a big opportunity to do right by city students and their families. Despite outstanding student achievement results and strong demand for more seats, New York City stopped adding charters in 2019. The cap on these independently run, open-to-all public schools should be lifted or nixed entirely. Hochul, who once went so far as to support tax credits for low-income families who send their children to non-public schools, sidestepped the fight.

Fortunately, she wants to hike city charter school funding, which got frozen two years ago, by nearly 5%. So flush with cash were Albany’s coffers this year, that happened along with a 7% hike in K-12 public schools overall, which will further increase school investment in the U.S. state with the largest per-pupil spending in America.

All that cash should be focused not on reinforcing the status quo but on delivering real, demonstrable gains in reading, math, science and more. Money without smart plans, like words without thoughts, never to heaven go.