ALBANY – Plaintiffs in a lawsuit demanding more money for New York City schools are pressing for quick action by a Manhattan judge now that state lawmakers have missed today’s deadline for complying with a court order.

The Campaign for Fiscal Equity, which won its landmark case before the state’s highest court last year, is urging Judge Leland DeGrasse to appoint a panel of experts to recommend a new funding scheme for the city schools within 90 days.

That would make it possible for the additional tax dollars to flow before the end of the 2004-05 academic year, said the executive director of the plaintiff group, Michael Rebell.

Mr. Rebell said his group might also seek a court order directing an immediate “down payment” by the Legislature before schools open in September.

Otherwise, the ongoing budget delay – largely because of a stalemate on the issue of school funding – could mean the city schools will receive less state funding, when corrected for inflation, than last year, he said.

“That would be horrendous to actually go backward at a time when the court was expecting we’d be moving forward toward compliance,” he said.

After a decade of litigation by the Campaign for Fiscal Equity, a coalition of education groups, the Court of Appeals ruled last June that the city schools are not providing the basic education mandated by the state constitution and blamed the problem on a chronic shortage of funding. The high court ordered state officials to implement a plan for improving the schools by July 30.

Governor Pataki and the Legislature have been unable to agree on how much to increase education aid, how to distribute it among different parts of the state, and what strings should be attached to the new money. Their inability to compromise means that decisions involving billions of dollars in education aid are likely to be made by the courts.

Judge DeGrasse is not expected to take action on the case until a hearing Tuesday, effectively giving officials a four-day extension. Lawmakers say there is little hope of reaching agreement before then.

“There is still a long shot possibility that there could be meaningful discussions over the next three or four days but I don’t see any sign that that is going to happen,” said the chairman of the Assembly Education Committee, Steven Sanders of Manhattan.

In the absence of a three-way agreement, Mr. Pataki and leaders of the Assembly and Senate have said they plan to present the court with their separate plans for overhauling education funding.

The least expensive is Mr. Pataki’s plan, which calls for increasing overall education aid by $4.5 billion over the next five years, raising most of the new money by expanded use of slot-machine-like video lottery games. The Assembly, by contrast, proposes to add $6.1 billion over five years. The Campaign for Fiscal Equity itself is calling for a five-year increase of about $10 billion.

Judge DeGrasse has announced that he plans to appoint a “special master” to recommend a compliance plan in the absence of action by Albany. Mr. Rebell said his group wants the special master, which is expected to take the form of a panel of experts, to report back to the judge after no more than 90 days of deliberations.

“We’re going to do everything to push this thing and not let it drag,” he said.