A trio of court-appointed “special masters” is to make its long-awaited recommendation this month on how much more money the state must spend on education in New York City to comply with a pending lawsuit.

Though many are looking to the panel’s decision and the court ruling that will follow as the end of an elongated budgetary tug-of-war centered on the city’s public-school system, the ruling will more than likely just begin a new round of wrangling over how to divvy up the added money the city will be getting. And sources predicted that the crafting of that plan would emerge as another major political wedge in next year’s mayoral race – that and the proposed West Side stadium.

“It’s going to be a big issue at the state level and at the city level,” a political science professor at Baruch College, Douglas Muzzio, said.

“Bloomberg has staked his mayoralty on reforming education, and the Democrats have criticized him for abdicating the bully pulpit in fighting Albany. You’re only going to see both sides continue that basic strategy,” he said.

Mayor Bloomberg, who in a landmark decision of the state Legislature won mayoral control of the city’s public school system in 2002, has already told voters to judge him on the improvements he and his schools chancellor, Joel Klein, make to city schools.

The mayor has demanded that Albany fork over an additional $5.3 billion in education money for schools in the five boroughs and has adamantly opposed more state oversight – which Governor Pataki is pushing in exchange for the increased state contribution. Mr. Bloomberg has said another layer of scrutiny would undermine the control he was granted and make it impossible to carry out his goals of school reform.

Those dueling ideas, plus recommendations by the state Senate, the Assembly, and the City Council on how to spend the expected infusion of cash, will undoubtedly make for an intensified round of political jockeying.

The council speaker, Gifford Miller, has, for example, convened a commission, which is holding its third hearing today, to make its own recommendations on how to spend the money.

Those suggestions are expected in January, possibly even after Mr. Miller, a Democrat who is expected to run for mayor next year, officially declares his candidacy. Depending on the court ruling, however, the city may not receive the money until after the mayoral election next November.

The debate over the money stems from the decision in a lawsuit filed by a group called the Campaign for Fiscal Equity, that required Mr. Pataki and the Legislature to retool the education financing formula to provide students at all New York City public schools with a “sound, basic education.”

When Mr. Pataki, the Republican controlled state Senate, and the Democratic-majority Assembly failed to reach an agreement on how much should be spent and where it was to come from, the case got bounced back to court.

Yesterday, the lead attorney for the plaintiffs, Michael Rebell, said he expected and welcomed competing recommendations on how best to spend the additional money that Justice Leland DeGrasse of the state Supreme Court will soon require Albany to send to the city. “I think this kind of public dialogue is needed,” Mr. Rebell said.

In the past, Mr. Rebell agreed with the mayor’s view that there was no need to introduce state oversight into the city’s mammoth school system, but he said the Bloomberg administration should not simply implement its own plans without public discussion.

When asked how much influence he thought Mr. Miller’s commission would ultimately have over the spending, he said: “When I first heard about the City Council commission, I thought it was just going to be another political football. … But I’ve been very impressed with the job that it’s doing.”

The president of the United Federation of Teachers, Randi Weingarten, and several academics are scheduled to testify in front of that commission today.

The chairwoman of the City Council’s education committee, Eva Moskowitz, said the city should learn from other cities that have been granted more education money through similar lawsuits but then failed to spend it wisely. The competing voices and recommendations already floating are, she said, a good thing.

“We should think very, very, very carefully about how to spend this money,” the council member said. “If we do not, children will not benefit. If we do same-old, same-old, other jurisdictions have shown that you can increase the amount of money by 30% and not have students benefiting by 30%.”

Fiscal conservatives argue that money is not the problem, but rather that the system is broken.

Ms. Moskowitz characterized the struggle for adequate funds as desperate but said, “You can’t pour money into a leaky bucket.”

Structural and policy changes are also necessary, she said.