Last week, when mayoral candidate Zohran Mandani disclosed plans to phase out Gifted & Talented programs in New York City’s public schools, he committed to finishing a job former Mayor Bill de Blasio started.

That is, to dismantling the city’s only tuition-free opportunity — apart from charter schools — for low- and middle-income parents to secure advanced education for their kids.

New York City has a large number of high-performing students, but cannot offer advanced seats to all of them.

Prior to 2021, when the city used a standardized test to screen for its G&T programs, 3,500 kindergarteners a year were deemed gifted.

Since then, the city has identified nearly 10,000 children as gifted each year, based on teacher referrals.

But only 2,500 G&T seats are available for kindergarteners, forcing the vast majority of gifted kids into classes beneath their academic level.

If anything, this mismatch suggests that the Department of Education should increase the number of advanced seats.

On the other hand, eliminating the program would accelerate declines in enrollment, with devastating........

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