SYRACUSE - State Sen. David J. Valesky, D-Oneida, on Thursday called for increased funding for school districts throughout the state - a proposal with no sponsor in the state Legislature at the moment.

In the entryway to the Seymour Magnet School on Syracuse's Near West Side, Valesky criticized the governor's funding for schools in his district as “woefully inadequate,” and briefly discussed The Schools for New York's Future Act, which was introduced in the state Assembly last year by Assemblyman Steven Sanders, who resigned earlier this month.

“I assume someone's going to pick it up and run with it as soon as they get an education chair,” said Cort Ruddy, a spokesman for Valesky.

The Schools for New York's Future Act, developed by the Citizen Action of New York, a statewide lobbying organization, asks the governor for $8.6 billion in operating aid over four years.

Supported by the Alliance for Quality Education, a nonprofit statewide coalition that includes more than 230 parent, teacher and business organizations, the bill asks the state to disburse a quarter of that money to public schools in the first year.

The current budget proposal would see a $634 million increase for school districts.

“If you have the good fortune to be born in Scarsdale or Skaneateles, you get a good deal. If you're born on the Near West Side, you're out of luck,” said Margarit Deihl, an Alliance representative who said she thinks the governor's current budget proposal caters to the wealthy.

Under the governor's proposed state budget, the Skaneateles Central School District would see a nearly 2-percent increase in its current funding. But three of the Cayuga-Onondaga BOCES nine school districts - Southern Cayuga, Cato-Meridian and Port Byron - would see slight declines in state aid.

Valesky's support for the Alliance and Schools for New York was spurred by the State Court of Appeals' 2003 decision in the Campaign for Fiscal Equity, which ordered the governor and state Legislature to determine the cost of a basic education in New York City public schools and, with the city, provide that money.

When the state failed to calculate an amount, the lower courts ordered it to disburse, along with New York City, $5.6 billion to city public schools over four years.

Organizations like the Alliance for Quality Education and Citizen Action say that as a matter of principal, the governor should use a new formula to calculate a more generous budget for state schools as well. But Pataki administration officials disagree.

“The governor's recommended budget brings the total annual state spending on education to nearly $17 billion, or 72 percent higher than when he took office. As a result, today New Yorkers spend more than $12,000 per pupil to support public education - virtually the highest amount in the nation,” said John Sweeney from the state's Division of Budget.

But Valesky said 26 other states spend more on education in their budget than New York currently allots.

“We need to compete with other states and other countries, by investing in the public education system,” he said.

Staff writer Olivia Goldberg can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 235 or at olivia.goldberg@lee.ne