The New York City public school system was and is supervised by the Board of Education and its Chancellor ( see Education Law §§ 2590-b (/nyctap-cgi/ez-nylaw?EDN+2590-b)[1]; 2590-g; 2590h).[2] The system is divided into 32 geographically-based community school districts to provide elementary and middle school education; six geographically-based high school districts; and four non- geographical districts. At the time of trial, elected community school boards supervised the community school districts, and had done so since 1969. Statewide, oversight of the public school system is vested in the Regents of the University of the State of New York ( see NY Const, art XI, § 2; Education Law § 207 (/nyctap-cgi/ez-nylaw?EDN+207)). The State Education Department (SED) and Commissioner of Education supervise and manage the State's public schools, promulgating regulations and determining teaching standards and curricula, among other things. Neither the Regents nor the SED is responsible, however, for the day-to-day operation of the schools or for their funding. Rather, a combination of local, State and Federal sources generate school funding. Almost half of the State aid component consists of operating aid, which is allocated using a complex statutory formula that apportions various categories of aid based on a district's Combined Wealth Ratio -- which measures its ability to generate revenue -- and student attendance ( see Education Law § 3602 (/nyctap-cgi/ez-nylaw?EDN+3602)). The statute contains extensive prescriptions regarding how districts may use funds, and it is perhaps the proliferation of highly specific aid categories that most differentiates the current section 3602 from its shorter, simpler predecessors ( see e.g. L 1962, ch 657). Every year, pursuant to Education Law § 215-a (/nyctap-cgi/eznylaw?EDN+215-a), the Board of Regents and the SED submit a report to the Governor and Legislature on the educational status of the State's schools. The most recent of these "655 Reports" at the time of trial -- that of April 1999 -- provides a comprehensive statistical view of the funding system as of the 1996-1997 school year, the last year for which the record provides such a complete picture. That year, Statewide, the State provided 39.9 percent of all public school funding -- $10.4 billion out of a total of $26 billion -- while districts provided 56 percent and the Federal government four percent. These figures represented an investment of $9321 per pupil, $3714 of it by the State. Per-pupil expenditures in the New York City public schools, at $8171, were lower than in three-quarters of the State's districts, including all the other "large city" districts, as classified by the SED. The State's dollar contribution to this figure was also lower, at $3562,