Ex-state education czar John King — a devotee of Common Core curriculum and charter schools — was appointed head of the State University of New York on Monday.

King, who also served as US secretary of education under former President Obama, told The Post he hopes to close the achievement gap between white and minority SUNY students while addressing issues such as child care to help kids stay in school.

King also said he wants to build up SUNY’s research institutions, including at its Stony Brook, Buffalo, Albany campuses, in areas such as engineering, science and medicine.

“I’m excited about the opportunity to make the best public higher education system in the country,” King said.

He was tapped to permanently fill the spot vacated by ex-Chancellor James Malatras, a longtime aide to disgraced ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

Malatras resigned in December 2021 after maligning one of Cuomo’s sexual-harassment accusers.

King landed the top post at SUNY, the country’s largest system of higher-education institutions, at an annual salary of $750,000 and a slew of perks.

The extras include: a paid residence in Albany; an additional $150,000 a year for New York City housing; up to $4,000 monthly for travel expenses between New York and his current home in Maryland; a driver when on official SUNY business and a university-owned vehicle or a $1,000-a-month car allowance.

King also has been named a full professor at SUNY, although it is unclear what he might teach and whether he would receive an additional salary for that job.

He has been a big booster of charter schools, which are currently regulated in New York by SUNY’s board and the state Board of Regents.

SUNY’s chancellor and his staff make recommendations to SUNY’s board on charter-school applicants — New York City has pushed to get its charter school cap lifted or at least raised so that more of the high-performing operators can open them downstate.

“I have a long history of supporting good charter schools and not supporting bad charter schools,” King told The Post on Monday.

Gov. Kathy Hochul, referring to King, told reporters at an unrelated event in Rochester, “We are looking for a transformative figure, someone that will come here and reestablish the preeminence that I’ve always thought that SUNY should have.”

Merryl Tisch, chairwoman of SUNY’s board of trustees and a longtime pal of King’s, said in a statement announcing his appointment, “As we work to continue to transform SUNY to meet the needs of the next generation of students and New York’s economy, we need a leader who understands how to balance striving for both excellence and equity.

“John King has a proven record of doing both,’’ she added of the new chancellor, who was New York’s first black and Puerto Rican state education commissioner.

Valerie Jarrett, chief executive officer of the Obama Foundation, said in the same press release, “As President Obama’s Secretary of Education, John King … championed the role of Community Colleges, connected them to the needs of today’s workforce, and helped lead the effort across the administration to lift up young men and boys of color through President Obama’s My Brother’s Keeper initiative.’’

King recently ran in the Democratic primary for Maryland’s governor but lost, coming in sixth place, over the summer.

He has also has been a cheerleader for Common Core standardized testing, which critics say has failed to effectively measure student progress.

“As Education Commissioner, John King was a disaster, pushing the invalid Common Core standards and redesigning the state tests to be excessively long, with reading passages far above grade level, and full of ambiguous questions,’’ said Jeanette Deutermann, founder of Long Island Opt Out, in a statement.

“Many schools are still dealing with the destructive impact of his policies; I would be very sorry if SUNY students are faced with a similar fate,” said the activist, whose group includes parents who choose to have their kids “opt out’’ of standardized testing because of concerns about its effectiveness.

King, asked by The Post on Monday about his support for Common Core during the Obama years, replied, “The politics of the period were complicated.”

Deborah Stanley has been serving as interim chancellor of SUNY.