Cuomo’s education plan filled with goodies for powerful teachers’ union — as he tones down support of charter schools

What a teacher’s pet.

Ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo released a 25-point education plan Tuesday — boosting several policies backed by the New York teachers’ union while toning down his support for charter schools hated by the labor group.

The press release from Cuomo’s New York City mayoral campaign outlining his educational platform makes no mention of charters — the popular privately-managed, publicly-funded alternative schools that are fiercely opposed by the United Federation of Teachers and its boss Mike Mulgrew.

The Democratic primary frontrunner buried mention of his support of charters — which are mostly staffed by non-union members — in bullet point 16, under the heading “Support Diverse High Impact School Models.”

“Specialized high schools and public charter schools that demonstrate strong results for students — especially those of color or from underserved communities — must be supported and expanded, not politicized or undermined,” Cuomo said.

“Access to excellence should be available in every neighborhood for students.”

Cuomo’s soft-pedaling on the school networks was a far cry from his aggressive pro-charter advocacy days as governor, when he boasted of being the “students’ lobbyist.”

In a rebuke of then-Mayor Bill de Blasio, he rammed through a state law that required the city to pick up the rental costs of charter schools to lease space in private buildings if the mayor and city Department of Education refused to allow them to co-locate in public school facilities.

“Cuomo is definitely playing ball with the teachers’ union,” said a longtime political insider.

His plan does promote other initiatives backed by the UFT and public school teachers, such as more early childhood education programs and “community schools” with wraparound health services.

He also backed implementing the UFT-backed class size reduction law with adequate state funding.

The Cuomo campaign would not explicitly say if he would support a state law to lift the cap on charter school openings, which he backed as governor.

The campaign referred The Post to comments he made on Bari Weiss’ podcast on Tuesday.

Pressed on whether he supported “school choice,” Cuomo said: “I believe in charter schools, but I believe we have so much work to do in the public school system now, which is educating like ninety-five percent of our students.”

“We have to focus on that, we have to fix that,” Cuomo said, in a line mouthed by other mayoral candidates.

During recent Post editorial board meetings, mayoral candidates Brad Lander and Jessica Ramos opposed lifting the cap on charters, and candidate Scott Stringer would not commit to doing so.

Financier Whitney Tilson is the only Democratic mayoral candidate who has promised to lobby Albany to lift the artificial cap that restricts the opening of new charter schools in the city if elected mayor.

Charter school advocates said they hope Cuomo does not abandon them.

“At least he’s on record supporting charter schools. That’s a positive,” said Raymond Rivera, founder of the Family LIfe Academy Charter Schools network in the Bronx.

“I’m hoping that Cuomo is not backing down. We support lifting the charter school cap,” added Rivera, vice chairman of the Black, Latino, Asian Charter School Collaborative.

Cuomo spoke at the UFT’s mayoral forum last weekend, vowing to support a repeal of a controversial Tier 6 pension law he approved as governor in 2012 that slashed benefits to new hires as a cost saving measure, over the objections of the unions.

The UFT declined to comment on Cuomo’s educational platform.