NEW YORK – Republican Joe Lhota, a candidate for mayor of New York City, praised Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s education record Thursday and said his Democratic rivals are afraid of the teachers union.

In a speech to the Association for a Better New York, Lhota vowed to “double down” on many of Bloomberg’s school policies, including raising the cap on charter schools and giving teachers merit pay, reports the NY Daily News.

Lhota described Bloomberg’s success in education as “incredible” and said his Democratic rivals won’t admit it because they fear the United Federation of Teachers, the state’s largest teachers union.

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“They are afraid,” Lhota said in his speech Thursday. “If you support reform, then somehow you are painted as being anti-teacher.”

Lhota’s approach is refreshing, after weeks of listening to Democratic candidates bash Bloomberg in an attempt to gain the endorsement of the United Federation of Teachers.

In January, the UFT and the city failed to reach an agreement on new teacher evaluations, costing city schools hundreds of millions of dollars in state and federal aid.

Lhota said the union was to blame for the loss of money, and his Democratic rivals embarrassed themselves by siding with the UFT.

“On the very day that the city lost the state aid, three candidates for mayor – three individuals asking for your support to be our city’s chief executive, and manage our education system and assume responsibility for over a million students – ran to a press conference,” Lhota said.

“Not to stand with the mayor, not to stand with the children or the parents, but to stand with the UFT and its leadership,” he continued, saying the Democrats were “abandoning kids, abandoning their fiduciary duty to our city.”

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Lhota said the incident was one of the reasons he decided to run for mayor, according to the news site.

“I’m not going to pander to the union. We’ve just gone through that,” Lhota said. “I’m willing to cooperate with the UFT, I’m willing to sit down with them and to negotiate, but let me tell you, I’m not going to give them a back rub in an election year like so many other candidates.”

Lhota said as mayor he would push to raise the cap on charter schools. He called union and Democratic opposition to charter schools “insulting.”

“I am a big believer in charter public schools and so are parents, as evidenced by the wait lists to get in,” he said. “Parents want and deserve more choices. Charter schools have successfully improved the education of tens of thousands of New York City children.”

According to the New York City Charter School Center, there are 56,000 students enrolled in city charters and another 52,900 on waiting lists.

Lhota said he would be a stronger advocate for teachers than their union. He stressed the importance of evaluating teachers’ performance, but said he would not “demonize” them.

“I believe they are the solution, not the problem.”

Lhota also said teachers should be able to earn merit-based bonuses if they’re rated highly effective or if they’ve shown significant improvement.