HARRISBURG, Pa. — Gov. Tom Wolf hit the road Wednesday to begin selling his proposal for what would be the largest-ever increase in aid for Pennsylvania’s public schools, several times over, as school officials digested the news and Republicans who control the Legislature warned that it will never happen.

The money — just over $1.5 billion in new dollars for instruction and operations — is almost a quarter of what the state sends now under a public school funding system that critics say has left the poorest public schools, including ones with large minority student bodies, underfunded for decades.

Wolf took his case to teachers and district officials in a news conference at Erie’s Pfeiffer-Burleigh Elementary School, while education groups said they hoped that lawmakers would at least approve close to what the Democrat requested in his budget proposal Tuesday.

That said, school boards and superintendents know Wolf has made big requests before that the Republican-controlled Legislature has turned down, in favor of a smaller sum.

“We understand that this is always a starting point and typically something less is approved than what the governor asks for,” said Mark DiRocco, executive director of the Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators. “The last few years it was significantly less than what he asked for, and this year we’re hoping it will be closer to what he asked for.”

Giving them hope is the state government’s cash cushion.

Mired since the recession in stubborn deficits, Pennsylvania is now projected to have more than $9 billion in surplus cash by July 1, largely thanks to federal pandemic aid covering Medicaid costs and federal subsidies juicing the economy.