Mayor Michael Bloomberg helped open one of 23 new public school buildings Thursday as the city prepares to welcome back students for a new school year.

Speaking at an elementary school in Cypress Hills, Brooklyn, the mayor said that when the school year begins on September 9, there will be 13,000 additional seats available for public school students.

He said it is part of the largest school construction effort in the city's history, which will add 110,000 new school seats by 2012 and create more state-of-the-art facilities.

"Today parents are saying, 'Wait a second, New York is safer and I'd rather be here if I could.' I'd rather my kids grow up in the cosmopolitan society we have, but up until now the schools weren't good and now the schools are getting great," said Bloomberg. "You should try this, talk to people about where they're sending their kids. You'd be shocked at how many of them say, 'My kids are going to a great school.' And that's true no matter where these people live."

The mayor also said over the last two years, the city has added a record number of seats, more than any other time period over the last 20 years.

However, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer released a scathing report today criticizing the Bloomberg administration for using "flawed methodology" in calculating school overcrowding.

Stringer claimed as many as 13,000 Manhattan children will be without seats in public schools by 2016.