PROVIDENCE — Given the $254-million budget shortfall the state is facing, education officials were pleased with Governor Carcieri’s proposed budget for public schools and colleges, and say the plan is consistent with the governor’s focus on improving education in Rhode Island.

The governor’s budget for fiscal 2008, which begins July 1, would give local communities a 3-percent increase — or a total of $19.4 million — in state financing over this year. Central Falls, which is entirely financed by the state, would receive $3 million more, for a total of $46.8 million. All combined, school districts would receive $712.2 million in aid.

“This is a pretty decent amount of money,” said Peter McWalters, commissioner of elementary and secondary education.

However, McWalters acknowledged the budget increase does not eliminate the underlying problem facing the state: developing a fair and equitable statewide financing formula to relieve the pressure on cities and towns. A joint General Assembly committee has been working on the issue for 18 months and was scheduled to announce its initial findings yesterday.

“If you are a Providence and you are already getting 60 percent of resources from the state, then a 3-percent increase is a large number. If you are a Barrington, and you are getting only 6 percent, then it is a small number,” McWalters said. “This budget increase doesn’t solve the problems of concentrated need [in poor districts], but it is an additional $19 million in state aid.”

North Kingstown Supt. James Halley, president of the Rhode Island School Superintendents Association, said, “I think a three-percent increase is better than a zero-percent increase.”

Halley applauded Carcieri’s call for a Comprehensive Education Fund, a panel that would study three key issues: school financing; teacher quality; and the challenges facing urban school districts. Carcieri would head the panel along with House Speaker William J. Murphy, D-West Warwick, and Senate President Joseph A. Montalbano, D-North Providence. The panel is budgeted for $2 million, according to the governor’s spending plan.

Other highlights of the governor’s $1-billion education proposal for elementary and secondary education include:

• Boosting charter school aid by $2.6 million to $28.2 million. Currently about 2,800 students attend 11 charter schools in the state.

• Adding $1 million to the state’s adult education initiative, which would expand programs to 500 more students.

THE STATE COLLEGE SYSTEM, which includes the University of Rhode Island, Rhode Island College, the Community College of Rhode Island and the Office of Higher Education, would essentially be level-funded next year, receiving about $181 million from the state toward operating costs, about the same as this year. The bulk of the colleges’ budgets come from tuition and fees, which are scheduled to rise by 6 percent at each of the colleges in the fall.

Carcieri scaled back an earlier proposal to boost the state scholarship fund by $20 million next year, but still committed $15 million from the state — $10 million for need-based scholarships and $5 million for a new merit-based scholarship program for low-income students who get high SAT scores and perform well on state tests.

Last year, the Rhode Island Higher Education Assistance Authority, which disperses the scholarships and helps finance them through proceeds from the CollegeBoundfund, gave out scholarships averaging $1,102 to 11,683 students.

It is unclear how many more students would receive scholarships next year under Carcieri’s proposal, but education officials said the boost would help make college more affordable for many needy students.

“We hope this year to help at least 12,500 students and we hope to offer bigger awards,” said Bill Hurry, executive director of the assistance authority. “We feel this is a significant increase from the governor and that we have been treated very generously.”