Banning phones in New York schools shouldn’t cost a dime —let alone $13.5M — just do it!

Pathetic: Gov. Kathy Hochul wants the state to spend $13.5 million to help schools implement a cellphone ban.

More pathetic: City schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos calls that help “inadequate” — even though about half Gotham’s public schools already have bans in place

Why does it have to cost a dime?

Tell the kids they have to keep the phones in their lockers, or turned off in their knapsacks or left at home; if (when) you catch a student breaking the rules, discipline accordingly.

You don’t need to buy fancy, pricey Yondr bags or establish a whole new bureaucracy in each school or whatever it is Aviles-Ramos imagines she needs a ton of money for.

Yes, you do need to enforce basic discipline and general order: Perhaps the chancellor would like to list the schools where that’s now impossible, and her plans for restoring order?

Without it, after all, no amount of cash will make the ban workable — or, indeed, the whole school.

Perhaps state Education Commissioner Betty Rosa would like to celebrate her astonishing $150,000 raise (to $464,000 a year, nearly twice what the gov earns) by explaining all this away.

New York now spends over $36,000 per public-school student, but it’s beyond obvious that most of that isn’t actually going to ensure the kids get a decent education.