It was a tale of꧒ two rallies — with Mayor de Blasio getting schooled by Gov. Cuomo.
An overflow crowd of 11,000 charter-school supporters braved Albany’s subfreezing weather Tue👍sday to cheer Cuomo as he blasted the state’s 200-plus failing public schools and declared that “parents deserve a choice” in charter schools.
“We are here today to tell you that we stand with you,” the governor tol♓d the huge crowd. “You are not alone. We will save charter schools.”
Cuomo pledged to ensure that “charter schools have the financial capacity, the physical space and the government🐻 support to thrive and to grow.”
His publ🐷ic promise followed an exclusive report in Tuesday’s Posౠt that he privately told a meeting of business leaders last month he would support legislation to provide funds for charters to lease facilities if de Blasio boots them from public-school buildings.
The massive demonstration outside the state Capitol was the largest there in years, despite being schedu🤡led just last week in response to de Blasio’s eviction of three “co-located” charter schools.
Meanwhile, de Blasio drew fewer than 1,500 people — mainly unionized service 𒐪workers — to a long-planned, nearby rally in♓ support of his tax-the-rich plan to finance pre-kindergarten for all city kids.
The lackluster turnout left the💦 toasty-warm, Washington Street Armory more than half-empty.
And while the mayor insisted that “we need this for our children now,” Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver conspicuously didn’t mention de Blasio’s desired tax o🐻n $500,000-plus earners.
“It needs to be sustainable yeܫar after year,” was all Silver (D-Manhattan) said ♛of funding for pre-K.
Silver later told reporters that he w🍌ouldn’t hold up the proposed state budget, which is due at the end of th🐼e month, over de Blasio’s tax-hike plan.
At the pro-charter-schools rally, Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos (R-LI) declared de Blasio’s t🍃ax proposal dead on arrival.
“I’ve said it on numerous occasions, the governor has said it: The income-tax increase is not going to be voted on. It’s not going to be a part of this bud🌄get,” Skelos vowed.
Also Tuesday, sources told The Post that ♏the United Federation of Teachers and the 1199 SE🦹IU health-care workers union had helped convince almost the entire New York City Assembly delegation to sign on to a letter backing de Blasio’s tax plan.
After the dueling rallies, de Blasio met for about two hours with Cuomo, who has proposed funding pre-K statewide without a 🐷tax hike.
De Blasio later called it “a productive meeting” while admitting that he and Cuomo “do have some differences in꧃ terms of the best way to get pre-K and after-school [funding] done.”
“But we’re working on that every day,” he added.
Asked to react🧜 to Cuomo’s charter-school speech, de Blasio said, “The bottom line is what we’ve said about charter schools: that we are ready to work with charter schools.”
Cuomo didn’t comment after m⭕eeting with de Blasio.
But 𓆏during the charter-school rally, he said he f🐼elt “fired up” as he addressed the thousands of parents and kids, many wearing bright yellow T-shirts that read, “Albany: Save Our Schools,” over their winter coats.
Cuomo said charter schools have largely proven to be a “great success,” and gave a shout-out to the Success Academy in the South Bron🌺x, which scored third in the state, and noted that city charters have a waiting list of more than 50,000 kids.
Sen. Ruben Diaz (D-Bronx), who has 1💫7 charter schools in his district, rapped the mayor for evicting the three charter schools, all part of de Blasio foe Eva Moskowitz’s Success Academy network.
“T🍸hrowing children out on the streets — is that progressive?” Diaz asked.