Last night on the show, Liz spoke with Michael Rebell, the New York City lawyer who successfully engineered a court victory that required the state to increase education aid by billions of dollars.

The Campaign For Fiscal Equity’s successful ruling in 2006 was considered a major victory by education advocates and now Rebell is at it again.

The lawyer is building a case that poor school districts — at least seven upstate — have not received adequate funding for a “sound, basic education.”

“We began in New York City, but we have been asked by many districts upstate and a lot of the statewide association to expand our operation,” Rebell said. “Starting in January we expect to look at what’s happening in seven districts upstate.”

He added that CFE has been getting “a lot of help” from the state School Boards Association and from the state United Teachers union.

Another lawsuit over education funding would reignite the debate in Albany over school aid.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo was able to get lawmakers to agree on his tax code overhaul that enabled him to keep his word on increasing education aid in the 2012-13 budget by 4 percent. Cuomo has also pointed to the amount of money spent in New York on education aid, saying that the state spends per pupil more than nearly every other state with less than satisfying results.

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