No matter how much aid for education the Legislature adds at the 11th hour, school taxes still go up every year.

Only the tax cap stops it from being worse.

It was good to hear former Gov. David Paterson say over the weekend that using the Gap Elimination Adjustment was something he regretted, but even if those monies were miraculously restored, school spending would still be going up.

For all the talk about Common Core and state aid, the state will never be able to make the education system work without addressing legacy costs.

Teaching is a tough job, but the financial benefits are still great. And each year, schools are required to put more and more taxpayer money aside for teacher retirements. These are contractual obligations that have been agreed to over years and include all state workers.

The Empire Center has been calling it New York’s “Pension Bomb” for some time.

In a report three years ago, The Empire Center wrote:

“This figure represents a mammoth potential transfer of wealth from future taxpayers to current government employees and retirees — for a type of benefit that is not available to the vast majority of private-sector workers.”

But here is the most important part:

“The burden of retiree health care is clearly unsustainable and unaffordable.”

Yet the state has done nothing.

Thank the state’s unions for their considerable clout with politicians.

So here is what it has come down to:

In an effort to stay under the tax cap, Corinth Central School District has decided to offer up to $20,000 to eligible staff members to retire and help the district close a $250,000 budget gap.

Essentially, Corinth administrators hope to get older, more experienced teachers — the ones you would think are your best educators — and replace them with less experienced teachers they can pay less.

A quick look at the “SeeThroughNY” website shows that Corinth had 96 employees who made more than $50,000 in 2014. They had 42 employees who made more than $70,000.

Depending on who takes the deal, the plan is either brilliant or a way to erode the teacher standards.

But here is the more important point. While there are savings to be had for Corinth and a way to make up its budget shortfall, adding teachers to the pension system adds to the burden of taxpayers as well.

“SeeThroughNY” shows that Corinth has 17 retired teachers currently drawing retirement benefits of more than $50,000 a year. Corinth is neither unique nor unusual in this regard.

Each year, the amount of money needed to support the state retirement system continues to grow.

So while the retirement offer in Corinth will result in less spending in one way, it will actually result in more spending as the new retirees dip into the state system.

As we’ve said many times before, schools have been aggressive in cutting their budgets over the past five years, but despite declining enrollments and fewer employees, the tax bill continues to rise.

Until the Legislature addresses the legacy costs, it will cost more taxpayer money to educate fewer children and the quality will continue to erode.

That’s a wakeup call that should make us all forget about the controversy over Common Core.

© 2015 The Post-Star