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Only one of these four state lawmakers had praise for Joel Klein today during his testimony on budget cuts: The woman on the bottom right, Assemblywoman Barbara Clark of Queens.

How much do lawmakers in Albany dislike Joel Klein? The chancellor fielded a flurry of criticisms today after his testimony before a joint session of the legislature. And only some of the criticisms had anything to do with the subject of the day, budget cuts. The rest politely slammed Klein on the one Albany fight where he’ll really need their help: mayoral control of the public schools.

Klein desperately wants to preserve control as it is, but many lawmakers said they aren’t happy with the law or with how he’s led as chancellor. The criticism was so persistent that, at one point, Klein plead with lawmakers to keep their opinion of him out of their thoughts on mayoral control. “Whatever you think about me personally,” he said, “you need the stability of that kind of leadership to transform education.”

Assemblyman Herman Farrell of Manhattan dedicated all of his questions for Klein to the mayoral control subject. “We’ve had what I call a silencing of the lambs,” he said. “I don’t know who speaks for the parents, who speaks on behalf of the parents.” Farrell then proposed a way to bring debate back to the running of the schools: He wants to create a second position called “sub-chancellor” or “uber-chancellor” — someone to take on the regular chancellor.

Assemblyman William Colton, who represents southern Brooklyn, made a similar complaint: “There seems to be a feeling among parents that they don’t have the input or the ability to be listened to,” he said.

Other lawmakers criticized Klein’s policies. State Senator Liz Krueger of Manhattan said she believes there is too much testing in schools, and she asked for a detailed estimate of how much tests and test prep cost the city. Another lawmaker asked that the chancellor add in the cost the city pays to implement testing mandated by the federal No Child Left Behind law. Klein promised to prepare such a document.

State Senator Suzi Oppenheimer, of Long Island, who is the new chair of the Senate education committee, asked Klein why advocates were reporting that class sizes had not dropped during the Klein administration, despite the fact that the state sent money to New York City for just that purpose. Klein said that class sizes have declined, adding that class size reduction should be just one of a menu of goals for the school system.

Klein did receive one set of positive comments, from Assemblywoman Barbara Clark, of Queens, who told Klein that he has done a good job of raising achievement. Klein seemed to have anticipated her warm words. When he first addressed her, he accidentally called her “Barbara.” Then, grinning, he apologized and addressed her as “Assemblywoman.”