The city’s public school system is the largest in the U.S., with over a million kids and upwards of 1,800 schools, and the mayor is responsible for setting the agenda.

It’s called mayoral control.

It replaced a controversial school boards system that hasn’t been around since before former Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

A new report dropped by the state Education Department indicates the future of mayoral control is up for grabs — although it’s not going anywhere just yet.

“Please! Can you please, ‘cause they won’t give it to us, please!” Mayor Eric Adams’ mockingly pleaded Tuesday during his weekly City Hall-based off topic press conference, for a glimpse at the SED’s long-awaited report assessing the life, or death, of his control over the city’s school system.

“The problem with the report is that it is ‘a on the one hand on the other hand’ kind of report and really advises is an extension of mayoral control, if only because we have no idea right now what the alternative ought to be,” said David Bloomfield, professor at CUNY Graduate Center and Brooklyn College.

The nearly 300-page report analyzes education policies under the three mayors who have operated with mayoral control: Michael Bloomberg, Bill de Blasio and Mayor Adams.

It compares the governance structure to seven U.S. cities that also use the system, including: Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles and Yonkers.

The analysis also considers input from teachers and parents who testified at five community hearings held in each one of the five boroughs before March 31.

Individuals complained the system is flawed because the mayor is too powerful and his board appointees are political.

But it also highlights bright spots.

“I think it probably doesn’t go far enough into pre-K, which is the singular success of mayoral control. And it’s hard to imagine how we would have universal pre-K to the degree that we have it without mayoral control,” said Bloomfield.

But despite six months of research and testimony, the department instead argues that a new commission be created to issue a final verdict.

“It’s what we asked them to do two years ago when we extended mayoral control at the time and it will be the basis for our decision going forward,” state Sen. John Liu, a Queens Democrat, told NY1.

But Adams criticized the report’s construction, arguing it doesn’t capture the full picture tied to the city’s over one million public school children.

“So I’m concerned: is this more political? Or is it about the way we have done it and what Chancellor [David] Banks has done?” he said Tuesday.

Mayoral control was extended by the state legislature in 2022.

But it came with a price.

The Panel for Educational Policy was expanded from 13 to 23 appointees. The city Department of Education also must comply with a state mandate to reduce the number of kids in classrooms, also known as the lower class size law — which the city says, is too expensive.

“When Mayor Adams came into office, when Chancellor Banks came into office, we were at the height of the omicron surge and there was a real question about whether the schools were going to reopen. Because we had accountability at the central level, we made sure the doors were open,” Dan Weisberg, the DOE’s First Deputy Chancellor, exclusively told NY1.

Experts argue, the report also missed important context.

Like, the mayor’s power to increase or cut school funding.

“The mayor determines not only what the school’s budget is going to be but what the capital budget for building new schools is going to be and union contracts,” said Bloomfield.

Meanwhile, it’s the state legislature who has the power to continue mayoral control in the near future.

Adams will likely travel to Albany to ask for an extension before the system expires in June.