They’ve lost their train of thought.
It’s not the dire state of Williamsburg’s struggling Automotive HS that’s hurting attendance — it’s the L train, according to the Department of Education.
One of 86 teetering so-called “Renewal” schools that have been targeted for costly improvement by the de Blasio administration, Automotive failed to meet an attendance benchmark in February, a DOE report revealed.
But instead of citing all the internal problems at the school, the department linked attendance woes to the subway line, the report states.
The DOE had hoped to boost attendance at Automotive by 3 percent in February, but the number instead dropped slightly, by 0.1 percent, from the prior year, according to the quarterly report.
Teacher turnover at the school was also on the rise, the report noted.
Automotive High’s principal, Caterina Lafergola, also left at the end of the last school year, taking a $175,000-per-year gig at a Long Island school after a disastrous five-year stint that included the bad attendance record and flat test scores.
In assigning blame, the DOE said that none of the kids at Automotive HS actually lives in its ZIP code and are thus forced to endure a tough commute.
The swamped L line — which will be rebuilt in 2019 because of damage from Hurricane Sandy — is notoriously overcrowded with frazzled commuters each morning.
The line gets so packed during rush hours that straphangers are often forced to wait for several trains before boarding.
The department stated that 80 percent of the school’s kids have a commute time of more than 30 minutes, and 43 percent face at least a crushing 45-minute slog to their desks.
De Blasio and Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña said they hoped to see gains at “Renewal” schools last week but that closures were a possibility.
Critics assert that de Blasio’s expensive campaign to exhume sinking schools has fallen well short of expectations.