Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s new school-funding plan drew instant fire as “a ploy” and “a shell game” from the woman who hopes to unseat him this fall, state Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka.

Speaking even before Mr. Blagojevich formally unveiled his plan, the GOP gubernatorial nominee charged that the proposal more was designed to boost Mr. Blagojevich’s re-election prospects than to improve education funding.

A spokeswoman for Mr. Blagojevich replied that Ms. Topinka is in no position to criticize the plan, having not even read it yet.

The plan calls for selling or leasing the Illinois Lottery for an estimated $10 billion. The governor says the proceeds would go to schools over the next 20 years, providing about $4 billion in extra funds that the state would not otherwise get from the lottery.

But Ms. Topinka, in a Loop press conference, noted that the state already gets $650 million a year from the lottery—money it wouldn’t get it the lottery was owned or leased by a private party.

The net addition of new funds to the state treasury is “miniscule,” Ms. Topinka charged, likely no more than $350 million, based on early media accounts of plan details.

Ms. Topinka reminded that the politicians who enacted the lottery decades ago promised that it would solve the state’s education funding woes. “We’ve heard this story before,” Ms. Topinka said, dubbing the Blagojevich plan “lottery shell game part two.”

Other comments at the press conference came from former Gov. Jim Edgar, who said he fears that the proposal will overextend the state’s resources.

“If I were in education, I wouldn’t spend this money yet,” said Mr. Edgar, charging that the proposal is the latest in a series of moves by the Blagojevich administration to finance more state spending with one-time revenue raisers.