New York’s Teacher Problem . . .

F ormer New York University President John Sexton isn’t the first to say that New York City has a problem finding competent teachers, but few have made the point so clearly.

Speaking last week at the Library of Congress, Sexton issued a broadside against the nation’s failing educational systems — especially the city’s.

“We know how to destroy educational systems,” he said. “You do what the New York City public-school system has done in the last five years: You hire teachers that have lower SAT scores than the students you are graduating.”

“That’s a ticket for failure,” added Sexton, “because you’re hiring from the bottom half of the existing class. How can they teach the [next] class?” How indeed?

That’s just one of the many recipes for what remains, despite some improvements, a failing system — fueled largely by unqualified teachers who are never held accountable for their incompetence.

It’s the reason the teachers unions have fought so hard to keep New York state and city from implementing any kind of meaningful teacher evaluations.

They prefer a system that rates nearly every teacher “effective,” even when barely one-third of high-school graduates score as ready for either college or a career.

When public-school teachers never face the risk of serious consequences for poor performance, kids aren’t going to learn.

Which is why the rush by increasingly desperate parents to enroll their kids in charter schools — where students do learn, and teachers are held accountable if they don’t — will only continue to grow.