Opinion

The bad-teacher test

Team Cuomo sounded upbeat yesterday about a deal for a new system for rating teachers — and, presumably, firing bad ones — as its self-imposed Thursday deadline nears.

Indeed, odds are good that New York’s biggest teachers union will strike an “agreement” with the State Education Department — or that Gov. Cuomo will keep his vow to impose teacher-evaluation guidelines as part of his budget.

But the devil resides very much in the details. Once the smoke clears, will public schools finally be able to easily rid themselves of incompetent teachers?

The depressing answer: Not likely.

The impediment, once again, is New York’s teachers unions.

Talks have been “fruitful,” top Cuomo aide Larry Schwartz said yesterday. “All parties are committed to reaching an agreement prior to Thursday.”

But what kind of an agreement?

To be sure, Cuomo has pushed the issue hard — not only by cleverly threatening to force the issue via his budget, but also by making a hike in funding dependent on whether a school district actually implements a new system within a year.

Yet history teaches that the unions will never — ever — sign on to rules that make it easy to fire bad teachers.

Nevertheless, Cuomo & Co. appear committed to a union role in the process — even though getting them to agree to meaningful evaluations is, again, vanishingly unlikely.

Cuomo said yesterday that “every school district [in the state] — 700-plus have to come up with their own version” of an evaluation plan, each one collectively bargained.

Fat chance.

Especially in New York City.

Where, as The Post has amply documented, the Department of Education desperately needs greater power to boot teachers who are ineffective — or worse.

Yes, existing political and legal realities make it difficult for Cuomo to cut out the unions.

But last month he promised either to deliver a clean, negotiated evaluation template by tomorrow, or to use his extraordinary budget powers to put one in place.

And the only way that will lead to real reform is if he separates the unions from the process.

He has a full plate, but he dished it out himself. We wish him the best.