Governor Spitzer is attempting to make private school tuition tax deductible.

The executive budget he released yesterday would give middle-class parents a tax deduction of up to $1,000 for tuition. New York would be one of the few states to do so.

Speaking to reporters after a speech to the state Legislature, Mr. Spitzer said he would also dole out billions in extra aid to public school systems, totaling $7 billion statewide over the next four years, and for the first time would give the city schools chancellor sole authorizing powers over 50 new charter school slots under his proposal to lift the state cap on the number of charter schools to 250 from 100. Previously, the Board of Regents has had to approve the chancellor’s charter school choices.

The extra funds for public schools would be distributed largely through a “foundation formula,” which would allocate greater proportions of the money to school districts that have more low-income and special-needs children.

“The money is real. It is big,” Mr. Spitzer said. “This is a historic pivot in terms of state investment in our educational system.”

Even as traditional enemies such as voucher advocates and union leaders sang Mr. Spitzer’s praises — although for different reasons — some Republican senators warned that when the executive budget is presented to them for approval, they may fight it. The school aid plan would dismantle a tangle of funding streams that in the past tended to favor wealthier, politically connected school systems.

“I have made it very clear that the Senate supports a record investment in our schools, but the increases must be distributed fairly and equitably,” the state Senate majority leader, Joseph Bruno, said.

In an apparent effort to temper any opposition, Mr. Spitzer said he would link the change in school aid to a property tax relief plan, and said that all school districts would receive a funding increase of 3% next year under his foundation formula plan. According to Mr. Spitzer, the 3% increase would retain an unofficial rule, known as “hold harmless,” that prevents school districts from losing state funding aid. The total state school aid for some districts could decrease from their current levels, however, if separate funding streams that pay for such things as transportation and building expenses are reduced because of falling enrollments or other factors. Leaders of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity lawsuit said the governor’s proposed increase in school aid, including $2.2 billion to New York City over the next four years, matched the amount they had demanded during the 13-year effort to force the state to provide more school money to New York City. Previously they had said that $2 billion for the city was not enough. The Campaign for Fiscal Equity director, Geri Palast, said an extra $3.2 billion that the city will contribute to city schools over the next four years brought the total amount for the city to $5.4 billion, well above the $4.6 billion the plaintiffs had requested.

“Based on what we were originally looking for, this certainly hits the mark,” Ms. Palast said.

The president of the state teachers union, Richard Iannuzzi, also praised the governor’s school aid increases and reform plans, which include a proposal to fund universal pre-kindergarten using a version of the foundation formula and an expansion of teacher certification programs. But he said he was surprised and dismayed by the private school tuition tax deduction. “The language on tax credits and charter schools doesn’t seem to fit the rest of his reform agenda,” he said. “There’s no connection.”

Mr. Spitzer, who graduated from and sends his children to Horace Mann, an elite private school in the Bronx, is seeking to allow families with an annual income of $116,000 or less to deduct $1,000 from their state income taxes for tuition paid to public, private, or parochial schools. (Parents who live out of state and send their children to public schools here must pay tuition.) Families that earn between $116,000 and $125,000 a year also could take a deduction, although the amount of the deduction would be lower for higher salaries. Families that make more than $125,000 would be ineligible.

Advocates for private and parochial schools said they were thrilled by the announcement of the tuition deduction, which they said was as an improvement on the state child tax credit passed last year that gives $330 to all families with school-age children for unspecified use. Last year, Governor Pataki proposed a $500 tax credit that would have been specifically for educational purposes, but it was defeated in the Legislature.

Advocates of the tuition deduction said they would push the governor to transform the deduction into a refund, so families from the lowest income brackets could receive cash back from the state for tuition payments.

The executive director of TEACH NYS, a coalition of faith-based groups, Michael Tobman, criticized Mr. Iannuzzi for opposing the tuition deduction plan.

“In the context of a $120.6 billion budget that includes a $7 billion commitment to public education over the next four years, it’s upsetting to find NYSUT blasting a tax relief plan for tuition paying parents that comes in at less than $30 million,” Mr. Tobman said.

Teachers union leaders also criticized the governor’s charter school proposal, especially the plan to give Chancellor Joel Klein discretion over granting charters.

“The current chartering entities, SUNY and the Board of Regents, have strict accountability and there’s no reason to add another entity,” the president of the United Federation of Teachers, Randi Weingarten, said. “The DOE has a poor track record of listening to teachers and parents.”

Mayor Bloomberg is expected to testify on the budget in Albany next week, and said through a spokesman, John Gallagher, that he would not comment on the governor’s proposals until then.