“Very possibly” answers The Albuquerque Journal in a story today.

Reporter Andrea Schoellkopf writes that “Albuquerque Public Schools could face immediate cuts of $25 million to $30 million in its $668.5 million budget if the state orders budget cuts for public education.”

Gov. Bill Richardson and state lawmakers are beginning to negotiate how to close a projected $441 million budget gap for the year that ends June 30. And while the governor has come out against cutting public school spending, state lawmakers in on the negotiations say such an option must remain on the table.

If indeed the state’s public school spending is trimmed, “you’re in a heap of doo-doo,” Schoellkopf quotes Albuquerque Public Schools Superintendent Winston Brooks as telling the school board recently.

Schoellkopf goes on to write:

Brooks said layoffs are a possibility because the district already has agreed to tap into its $22 million reserve fund. Under recently approved labor agreements, the district will spend about $6 million from the reserve fund to pay all APS employees for one-time reimbursement for training outside the work day.

Districts were warned last month that the state’s tax base was deteriorating more quickly than expected, with a $433 million state budget gap. Brooks said legislators have told school districts they might see a 3 percent to 5 percent cut in this year’s budget.

But Albuquerque Teachers Federation president Ellen Bernstein tells the Journal that state law prevents class sizes from being increased, so the district could not cut “a bunch of teachers.”

“There’s a lot of ways to balance the budget without cutting education,” Bernstein said. “They already cut by $30 a student. School districts are dying… Programs are to the bare bones.”

The union has proposed rolling back tax cuts that were approved in 2003, closing corporate loopholes that cost the state $60 million to $80 million and investing $1.8 billion in federal stimulus dollars.

Whether or not the state’s public school spending is ultimately trimmed this year will depend on the final budget agreement the governor and the Legislature reach sometime in the next two months.

I suspect that like many teachers, teachers’ aides, school administrators and parents across the state are interested in what the state ultimately decides to do.