Mayor Bloomberg yesterday threw one of his hardest jabs yet at opponent Bill Thompson, challenging his education record just hours before the city comptroller delivered a major speech on schools.

“If you think the schools are better today than they were under my opponent’s leadership, then you should vote for me, and if you think they were better when he ran the Board of Education, then you should vote for him,” Bloomberg said.

Thompson was president of the Board of Education from 1996 through January 2001.

City Councilman Robert Jackson (D-Manhattan), who introduced Thompson before his speech at Pace University last night, retorted:

“Mayor Bloomberg has had total control of the system . . . You cannot compare when we had a Board of Education when there were appointees of the mayor and the borough presidents.”