In the 21 years since the state Legislature handed over control of New York City public schools to the city’s mayor, three vastly different mayors have held office — Michael Bloomberg, Bill de Blasio and Eric Adams — but they have all exercised their power over schools in arbitrary ways. They appoint chancellors, but they act as if they are the schools chancellor. They override the expertise of educators and ignore input from parents when it suits them.

The New York City school governance law is due to sunset on June 30, giving state lawmakers another opportunity to establish real checks and balances as part of any deal to renew the law. One obvious fix is to no longer give the mayor the authority to appoint the majority of the 23 members of the citywide Panel for Educational Policy, which now serves as his rubber stamp.

Mayor Adams’ unchecked power over city schools has allowed him to slash education funding by as much as 15% this year. The mayor is also dragging his feet on the state’s landmark class size law. His ill-advised decisions on school construction and charter school co-locations now will affect the city’s ability in the later years of the law’s five-year phase-in to find the space to accommodate smaller classes in all schools.

State elected officials must carefully consider the mayor’s record on school funding and class size as they decide their next steps. At the state Education Department’s public hearings on mayoral control, frustrated parents and educators are demanding a more democratic and accountable school governance system that gives parents, educators and other stakeholders a real voice. It is simply not acceptable that one person has blanket authority over the country’s largest school system.