We hope the judges tasked with hearing the Maisto v. State of New York court case paid close attention to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s conference call last week with reporters and news editors.

It sounds as if the governor may have admitted the state’s arguments about how well the schools who filed the lawsuits are funded is a bunch of hooey.

During a conference call with reporters from across the state about the 2018-19 state budget, the governor talked about the “first-ever education transparency.” Cuomo is referring to a new financial reporting requirement for school districts to building-by-building spending. The governor argues that no one knows how much each school building receives, so there is no real way to measure how much poor schools get compared to rich schools.

“Because the way we distribute the education money for all the baloney CFE, Foundation Aid, blah blah blah, we distribute the money by regional shares,” Cuomo said according to a transcript of the call emailed by the governor’s press office. “That’s how the legislature does it. New York City gets 38 percent of whatever that number is, Long Island gets 18 percent of whatever that number is, Upstate gets the difference.”

Cuomo reasons that having building-by-building school spending statistics will allow the state to change the way state aid is distributed. “Long Island charges higher property taxes so they spend more for schools. But then shouldn’t you use the state education money as an equalizing formula?” Cuomo said, according to the transcript. “And that is a conversation that I am most eager to have because I believe the majority of people will be with us because education is the new civil right.”

Isn’t that what the eight small city school districts in the Maisto lawsuit have been arguing all along? Schools with low wealth ratios, like Jamestown, should receive more state fundng than schools with higher wealth ratios on Long Island because Jamestown’s populace can’t afford to spend as much in property taxes to support their schools as the wealthy residents of Long Island can afford to spend.

Cuomo’s reasoning doesn’t jive with the state’s filings in the Maisto lawsuit. The state’s defense has spent years arguing that schools suing the state have nothing to complain about. The state’s defense for claims of underfunded schools are, in a nutshell, that education aid has increased exponentially each and every year even with the Gap Elimination Adjustment and the state’s Recession-forced decision to back off on Foundation Aid promised to schools in 2007. Lawyers for New York state have argued that the eight small city school districts — which includes Jamestown — have more than adequate funding, facilities, teaching staff and administration to educate children.

Cuomo is right, of course, that state aid should be used to bring poorer school districts to the same funding levels as richer school districts. We’re sure Jamestown and the seven other school districts involved in the Maisto lawsuit would be in favor of changing school funding formulas in the way he seems to be describing. We just wonder where he’s been all these years?