"Our thinking and hope was that the economic situation was temporary and would improve sooner rather than later," state Supt. Tom Luna said as he began his public schools budget presentation. So various cuts were made, from transportation and maintenance to furloughs for teachers, and federal stimulus dollars and other one-time funds were plugged in to prop up the budget. Some districts went to four-day school weeks. "Today we now realize that ... what we have today is the 'new normal' and that we can't continue to rely on annual federal bailouts to prop up our education system," Luna told lawmakers. "Today is a different day. We are now three years into an economic crisis. And revenue forecasts do not paint a positive picture for our schools in the future."

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