Alliance for Quality Education, a labor-backed education advocacy group, is out with a "State of the Schools" video on the eve of Gov. Andrew Cuomo's State of the State.

The group wants the governor to follow what the Regents has recommended: More money directed toward poor school districts, like districts in the north country.

"We applaud Governor Cuomo on his many successes in his first year in office, but when it comes to equity and opportunity, there is more to be done," Nikki Jones, an AQE spokeswoman, says in the 7-minute YouTube video.

Mr. Cuomo himself hasn't shed much light on what's going to happen to the school aid formula. The state will increase education aid by 4 percent, but that doesn't mean each school will get 4 percent more than it did last year.

Ken Lovett at the New York Daily News reported that Mr. Cuomo will appoint a commission to study the issue from a student-centric perspective.

We'll see if that very Cuomo-esque approach will placate public school advocates (the early signs are no) or upstate legislators who have penned a letter on the matter asking for more money for their districts.

As RZA once noted, "Cash rules everything around me."

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