Nearly 64 percent of school districts would face cuts of more than $10,000 per classroom under Gov. David Paterson’s proposed budget, according to a report released today by the Alliance for Quality Education. The average elementary-school classroom in the state would receive $11,677 less than this year, the group said.

   The smallest cuts per classroom would be in wealthier districts, including Rye and Scarsdale, where reductions would be less than $3,000 per class. The largest ones would be more than $20,000 per class and would be in average-need upstate districts, such as Union Springs, Cayuga County.

   The governor is proposing reductions that total $1.4 billion. Lawmakers are supposed to pass a 2010-11 budget by April 1, the beginning of the new fiscal year.

   The Alliance for Quality Education, Citizen Action of New York and Education Voters of New York are recommending a number of measures to the Legislature that they said would generate more than $12 billion in savings and revenue. The proposals include:

  —Saving more than $1 billion by changing the state’s STAR—School Tax Relief—program to increase benefits for lower- and middle-income homeowners and eliminate them for high-income owners of expensive homes.

  —Saving $225 million by closing under-used juvenile facilities and using work-release programs more.

  —Eliminating Empire Zones, which the governor has proposed; refinancing state debt to take advantage of lower interest rates; bulk purchasing of prescription drugs; and other measures.

   The groups have made proposals for how the state could raise about $10 billion from Wall Street. They include a one-time bankers bonus tax, which could bring in about $6 billion, and a stock-transfer tax, which would raise $3.2 billion.

   “Governor Paterson’s proposed $1.4 billion dollar cut in school funding asks the 2.5 million students across the Empire State, particularly the neediest, to sacrifice their education and the economic futures of us all on the altar of the bad economy when alternatives exist,” said Geri Palast, executive director of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity.

   “The Campaign for Fiscal Equity urges the Senate and Assembly to adopt revenue generating and cost saving measures such as those we propose today, including a one-time tax on Wall Street bonuses, which would generate up to $10 billion dollars.  This is the best way to ensure progress rather than turn back the clock in achieving the constitutional promise of a sound basic education,” she said.