Gov. David Paterson and the legislature restored $644 million in additional school funding. The city now has a record $8.3 billion education budget.

Geri Palast, of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity, which won a lawsuit last year to get a more equitable funding distribution for city schools, says Governor Eliot Spitzer had planned to cut the funding. But she says the current legislature came through.

PALAST: So, New York City public school children have made out extraordinarily well in this fight, as have districts around the state.

REPORTER: City and state teachers' unions also scored a victory when legislators did away with a Bloomberg administration measure that would have allowed student test scores to be a factor in whether teachers received tenure.

For WNYC, I'm Elaine Rivera.