In a few weeks, on May 21 to be exact, residents of Long Island's 125 school districts will go to the polls again and vote on budgets that will approve spending for their respective public schools.

This process of funding has had its share of criticism from sundry quarters, including the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) and the Campaign for Fiscal Equity (CFE). Last January, in a landmark decision, Justice Leyland DeGrasse ruled that the state education finance system was unconstitutional because it has 'failed for more than a decade to align funding with need, and thus has failed to provide a sound basic education to New York City school children.' For years, New York City received precisely 38.86 percent of any funding increase. This fixed share was given regardless of the city's student needs, wealth, enrollment or attendance rates.

Here on Long Island the situation is similar. In the case of Westbury for example, only 13.9 percent of funding comes from the state and an even leaner 3.4 percent from the federal government. Nevertheless, residents of the Westbury School District are some of the highest taxed on Long Island and the district has experienced a 42-percent growth of overall enrollment since 1990 and a 20 percent increase in the English Language Learners (ELL) population over the past two years. Other dubious distinctions that the district shares is that of all the districts in the Town of North Hempstead, its school tax is the highest per $100 of assessed value and its school tax rate ranks 11 out of 57 in Nassau County.

Westbury's property values are over-assessed by at least 25 percent, causing the district to look wealthier in the state aid formula. Therefore, the residents of the district pay more than their fair share. These are not facts that the governor and the legislature in Albany aren't aware of, yet Governor George Pataki appealed Justice DeGrasse's ruling and initially hired a law firm from Atlanta to fight it.

This is the same governor who repeatedly announced his commitment to education, and from all indications will be seeking a third term in 2004. Yet, his budget really doesn't bear out this commitment and actually speaks volumes as to what he is really about. The $399 million statewide increase in the education budget proposed by the governor in contrast with the $599 million by the Board of Regents provides some real insights. But perhaps what is really more telling is that when this is juxtaposed with a massive increase in the construction of juvenile jails, and knowing what we know about the correlation between the prison population and underperforming schools, the picture is not only clear, it is crystal clear.

School boards in some districts on the Island are being asked to perform miracles. They are being forced to walk a tight rope - appease an increasingly disgruntled voter population and at the same time present a budget that is fiscally responsible and caters to the growing needs of the children. All this can be avoided if the governor does what is morally right and deals with the issue of equitable funding for education by implementing the following recommendations presented by the CFE:

* appoint an independent panel of fiscal equity experts to assess the actual costs of providing a sound basic education for all New York students

* convene a statewide summit of school officials, teachers, parents, business leaders and other community members as well as legislators and other public officials, to deliberate openly about school funding needs and to develop a transparent formula that everyone can understand

* maintain at least the level of instructional support in place when the court issues its CFE ruling to ensure that instructional services are not reduced during this reform process

You can do your part to urge the governor to act on the above by writing the Honorable George E. Pataki, Governor, State Capitol, Albany, N Y 12224, or by calling (518) 474-1041.