Months before Cynthia Nixon, the actor and education activist, announced her candidacy for governor on Twitter, Gov. Andrew Cuomo was passionately making a case for educational equity.

“We must address education funding inequities and dedicate more of our state school aid to poorer districts,” he demanded during his State of the State address to the applause of lawmakers.

Budget watchdogs gave the new mandate mixed reviews.

“More disclosure? There’s nothing wrong with that,” said David Friedfel, director of state studies with the Citizens Budget Commission. But, he added after a moment, “We should probably deal with the problems we know about first.”