Throwing down the gauntlet before the governor’s budget address on Jan. 13, parents and other education advocates on Jan. 10 called on the state to pay the billions of dollars it owes New York City public schools.

“A decade ago, New York’s highest court ruled that our state must hand over billions of dollars to improve public education — but that money has not materialized,” said Zakiyah Ansari, the advocacy director of the Alliance for Quality Education, which organized the Jan. 10 press conference on the City Hall steps to kick off the lobbying push. “We need a budget proposal from the governor and Legislature that finally pays the money owed to our children and prioritizes schools that need funding the most.”

A new report from the group shows that the state still owes $4.8 billion to schools across New York State — including $2 billion to New York City schools alone — 10 years after the state’s highest court ruled that the state was failing to provide students with the classroom resources necessary to meet its obligation under the state constitution to provide all students with a “sound, basic education.”

Seventy-two percent of the schools owed money are high-needs schools, educating many students who live in poverty, speak English as a second language or have learning disabilities, according to the report.

Educators from Brooklyn Technical HS and Murrow HS attended the press conference to drive home what their students are missing as a result of the state’s failure to meet its financial obligation to public schools.

“We have smartphone children attending flip-phone schools,” said Theresa Ann Crivelli, whose school, Murrow HS, is owed $8.6 million from the state, according to the report.

Added Denis Rogers, a physics teacher at Brooklyn Technical HS, owed $11.8 million: “With the $11 million owed, we can do wonders.”

Queens Assemblywoman Catherine Nolan, the chair of the Assembly’s education committee, was on hand to lend her support.

“We must continue to keep the promises of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity decision and fully fund our public schools,” Nolan said. “As chair of the Assembly education committee, I know our majority and Speaker Carl E. Heastie have consistently fought for more state funding so that all of our students can finally receive the sound, basic education they desperately deserve.”

Assemblyman Nick Perry, the chair of the New York State Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian Caucus, said the time is now to pay the money owed.

“$4.8 billion dollars is a tremendously large amount of resources that would go a long way in ensuring our ability to address the inequities which remain across our public school system across our state,” Perry said. “With the budget surpluses we currently enjoy, we shouldn’t miss this opportunity to make a significant down payment on this debt in this year’s budget.”