Google ’s chairman, Eric Schmidt , and Harlem education advocate Geoffrey Canada joined Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Monday in a push for a $2 billion bond intended to help New York schools improve their technology and Internet access.

Mr. Cuomo’s “smart schools commission,” which included Messrs. Schmidt and Canada as well as Constance Evelyn, superintendent of Auburn schools in Cayuga County, released a 56-page report on the need for the funds, a week before the bond act appears on ballots.

Supporters say the money would narrow the divide between the digital haves and have-nots, and help prepare students for high-skilled jobs. But opponents say there hasn’t been a systematic effort to evaluate schools’ needs for new technology, and the state has more urgent priorities for capital spending, such as repairing bridges and highways.

Mr. Schmidt, speaking at Mineola Middle School, said that what disturbed him the most after three public hearings was “the overwhelming and increasing gap” between those who have sufficient broadband access and those who don’t. He recalled teachers who wanted to give their motivated students online access to Advanced Placement courses but couldn’t.

“That’s a tragedy for the state, and a tragedy for the country,’’ he said.

Mr. Canada said that improving schools’ broadband infrastructure alone “won’t level the playing field, but it’s a necessary prerequisite” to doing so.

But E.J. McMahon, president of the Empire Center for Public Policy, a conservative think tank in Albany, said the state already had a generous tech budget for schools. He called the plan “probably the most ill-conceived and wasteful bond act that’s been proposed in New York for decades.”

If passed, the aid could also be used to install security upgrades and build new classrooms for prekindergarten. It would be allocated by a formula, so New York City would receive $783 million, for example, and a small district, such as Auburn, would get $3.5 million. Districts would have to get their visions for using the money approved by a state panel.

New York City Department of Education’s capital plan says that if the bond act is passed, the city would spend $310 million to add pre-K seats, and the rest to create 4,900 other seats to reduce class sizes.

The bond act will be on the Nov. 4 ballot. The Citizens Budget Commission, a watchdog group that follows local and state finances, advises voters to defeat it.

“The state has massive documented infrastructure needs that are unfunded,” Elizabeth Lynam, its director of state studies, said, “and this is not the best use of the remaining debt capacity.”

© 2014 Wall Street Journal