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NEW YORK, NY March 30, 2004 — A commission appointed by governor Pataki released its report on one of the most vexing matters facing the state: how much money will it take to educate all students? But as WNYC's Beth Fertig reports, there were no easy answers.

A commission appointed by governor Pataki released its report on one of the most vexing matters facing the state: how much money will it take to educate all students? But as WNYC's Beth Fertig reports, there were no easy answers.

The state was ordered to scrap its formula for school aid last year after a court found New York City wasn't able to provide an adequate education for its students. Yesterday, a panel appointed by governor Pataki agreed more money is needed throughout the state. But it couldn't say exactly how much. Instead, it came up with a pretty wide range. Anywhere from an additional 2 and a half to 5 and a half billion dollars in the next five years. The commission's chairman, Frank Zarb, says there's a reason why the estimates span 3 billion dollars.

ZARB: We were tempted and spent more than just a few hours looking at whether we should pick a number within that range. And we elected collectively as late as the weekend in this debate to decide not to do that because we'd be spending all our time today defending a specific number.

The numbers in the report were provided by Standard and Poors. The Wall Street agency looked at how much money successful school districts are spending. It also factored in the costs of educating kids in different parts of the state. But regardless of whether it takes an extra 3 or 5 billion dollars, overall, about 75 to 85 percent of that new school aid would go to New York City. William Cox is S&P's managing director of school evaluation services.

COX: What you see is there is a very, very high level of concentrated at-risk students in poverty, limited English proficient, or special education students in NYC.

Acknowledging these special needs would give New York City a much bigger share of the pie.

Upstate lawmakers may worry about that. Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the study proved how Albany had been shortchanging New York City schools for years. Even so, the study's estimate of how much money it would cost to raise the quality of public education falls far short of what some education advocates think is enough. The Campaign for Fiscal Equity, which is the group that filed the original lawsuit, estimates it would take over 8 billion dollars - with about 5 billion of that going to New York City.

Any decisions on the final number are up to Albany. The governor and the legislature will also decide how much of the extra money should come from local, state and federal sources. Governor Pataki said he hopes the new report will be useful in budget deliberations.

PATAKI: Let's deal with where we are financially this year. And let's look at the multi year approach. Because unless we are prepared to sit down and look at real reform and look at how we can structure the educational formula and the aid side and the accountability and delivery side as well we can end up putting billions more into an educational system and not seeing results improve.

Yesterday's report acknowledged money alone won't solve these problems. That's why it also proposed several reforms include eliminating tenure for principals, strengthening pre-kindergarten programs, and simplifying categories of school aid. The panel, which was appointed by governor Pataki, also included one of the governor's own proposals: raising new money for education with video lottery terminals.

That's why Democrats claim they aren't hearing anything new. With a state budget deadline of Thursday, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver called the report too little too late.

SILVER: Overall the Assembly majority gives this zarb commission a rating of D which stands for delay and denial.

The court gave the state until the end of July to implement a new funding formula. If nothing is settled by then the issue could go back to the court of the appeals, which could impose its own new funding plan. For WNYC I'm Beth Fertig.