Mayor Bill de Blasio on Friday offered rare praise for The Post – urging New Yorkers to read the day’s front page story showing drivers are speeding again after 120 speed cameras in school zones were shut by state Senate inaction.

“I’m going to say a sentence that you will probably rarely hear from me, Brian — I urge all New Yorkers to look at the cover of the New York Post today because the New York Post did something I think very smart,” the mayor told WNYC radio’s Brian Lehrer.

“They went into speed zones with a … radar gun of their own to find out if people are speeding now that they think they can get away with it,” he added.

“Lo and behold, people are speeding again in school zones because they think there’s no enforcement.”

On Thursday, Post reporters using a hand-held radar gun spotted dozens of motorists driving above the 25 mph limit near PS 124 in Park Slope.

In fact, over just 20 minutes at the corner of Fourth Avenue and 19th Street, 51 out of 100 passing cars were observed defying the law.

The Assembly this year passed a law extending the use of the 120 speed cameras – and expanding the program even further — but the State Senate wouldn’t take up the bill.

De Blasio and other elected officials have been urging the Senate to return to Albany for a quick gavel in, vote on the measure, and gavel out, to protect the safety of children and other pedestrians.

“The specific fact that we don’t have these speed cameras at [120] schools — children were being protected that now are not because the state Senate hasn’t acted — there needs to be furor about this,” the mayor said. “And all it takes the state Senate to come back for a matter of hours and we can get these cameras back.”

The city still has 20 mobile cameras that it can place in school zones. But that program is set to sunset as well, at the end of August.