Schools Chancellor Cathie Black joked that there's a simple solution to overcrowding in lower Manhattan - birth control.

"Could we just have some birth control for a while?" Black said Thursday night. "It would really help us."

Black earned chuckles for the joke at an overcrowding task force meeting, but downtown parents say the growing population of youngsters is no laughing matter.

"I always cringe when I hear that. Joel Klein said it a couple of years ago as well," said Public School 234 parent Tricia Joyce. "I understand the temptation to joke about it. But our situation isn't funny any more."

The problem, parents and advocates charge, is that the city offered incentives to developers to build without also increasing school seats.

Joyce was also upset that Black compared weighing the needs of different schools to the movie "Sophie's Choice."

"As we all know, one child dies (in the movie). This isn't optional," Joyce added. "We have a right to a public school seat."

Meanwhile, Mayor *la*hmberg on a Friday radio appearance defended Black's choice to attend a press conference on the snow instead of going on a scheduled visit to a Staten Island school.