Multiple progressive members of the New York City council on Monday admitted to helping pass a budget that slashed hundreds of millions in funding for schools — issuing apologies that some advocates slammed as “too little, too late.”

“I have been on the defensive side,” Councilmember Carmen de la Rosa said during a rally outside Department of Education headquarters at the old Tweed Courthouse.

“I apologize to my parents who are here, who I defended myself to. Our actions have no defense — because we were wrong,” said de la Rosa, whose district spans Upper Manhattan.

Several of the 44 representatives who voted to approve the reductions last month as part of the 2023 budget deal also fessed up alongside de la Rosa, including Queens councilmember Shekar Krishnan and Brooklyn’s Shahana Hanif, Jennifer Gutiérrez and Lincoln Restler.

“I am angry that these cuts are on the chopping block, angry at myself that I didn’t do more to stop,” said Restler, whose district stretches from Greenpoint to Boerum Hill and who had expressed concerns about the cuts during a budget hearing in May.

“And I’m sorry to every parent, to every teacher, to every student in my community that I didn’t step up and fight back the ways that I should have during this budget process,” he said.

But not all protesters at the rally, which included parents, teachers and advocates, swallowed the mea culpas. 

“City Council was complicit in this vote,” said Tajh Sutton, a parent of two students in public schools. “Not just 6, not just 10.”

“If 41 city council members can sign a letter asking to restore the cuts, then 41 members should’ve voted no,” said Sutton, referring to a memo the majority of the City Council sent last week demanding that Mayor Eric Adams “immediately restore” the funds slashed from next year’s school budgets.

“Now since we’re here,” the parent added, “I am putting my faith in City Council to get it right.”

One school administrator told The Post after the protest: “Too little, too late.”

“They should have asked questions and voted more judiciously,” the DOE staffer said of the apologetic council members.

The rally came after Speaker Adrienne Adams told The Post last week that the Council did not focus on the cuts to school budgets during negotiations, opting instead to prioritize the “really, really gigantic picture.”

“They absolutely were responsible for reading the whole budget before voting yes on something worth billions,” a Queens teacher told The Post.

“I’m sorry that the budget is long, I get that, but can I violate the Chancellor’s regs (regulations) and say, well, I did not read it, so I should not be responsible?” she said.

Some council members were more tuned into the DOE line item — but voted “aye” on the overall city budget anyway.

Among the critics was ex-Mayor Bill de Blasio, who is mounting a congressional run in swaths of downtown Manhattan and brownstone Brooklyn.

“Look, I’m glad council members are protesting,” de Blasio, who has spoken out against the cuts, told The Post at the rally. “I wish they had done their job when it mattered, but they can fix it now, the mayor can fix it now — but you have to get to the table and not just protest, like negotiate.”

“There’s still plenty of time to fix this. I know how the budget works, they can fix this,” de Blasio added. “But there has to be a sense of urgency.”

The council members at Monday’s protest applauded their six colleagues who had voted against the deal, including Alexa Avilés, Chi Ossé, Charles Barron, Sandy Nurse, Tiffany Cabán and Kristin Richardson Jordan.

“Over the past few weeks, I’ve come to understand the infuriating reality we are up against,” said Hanif, whose district covers Park Slope and other neighborhoods in central Brooklyn.

“We have a budget process that was rushed to stymie organizing efforts, and a series of backroom deals that attempted to mask critical informations about the devastating cuts to public education,” she said.

The council members and protesters called for a restoration of the school funds by August 1.

Many other council members who blasted the cuts in the memo to Adams and Schools Chancellor David Banks last week were not at Monday’s rally.

“Thing is, 40 members signed a letter last week stating that these cuts were unacceptable,” said Matt Gonzales, one of the protestors who was escorted out of a mayoral event last week. “I didn’t see 40 city council members on the steps of Tweed today. Where were they?”