The City Council is pressing the Department of Education to dial back its school cellphone ban.

All but four council members have signed a letter asking Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott to scrap the ban and allow phones in schools as long as they're turned off.

The letter, written by Brooklyn Councilman Lewis Fidler, calls the ban "totally out of touch."

He suggests the ban is inconsistent and discriminatory since it is largely enforced at schools with metal detectors -- typically in poor neighborhoods.

Fidler says the new push is in the hopes that Walcott will have a different view on a policy implemented by his predecessors.

The policy was put in place in 2006.