The State is not riding to the rescue this year

Should anyone try to tell you, "Oh, it always looks bad, but the state or someone always come through to rescue us. We don't need to worry about it!" you might tell them to look at today's Boston Globe:

As the sputtering economy sends shocks from Wall Street to Main Street, the reverberations are being felt on Beacon Hill, where key officials acknowledged yesterday that the signs are bad and the future may be even worse.
Income tax revenues are expected to shrink as the recession takes hold, worsening an anticipated $1.3 billion budget deficit. Municipal officials, heavily dependent on state aid, say their budget problems have already risen to crisis proportions.

You'll remember that 65% of our net school spending comes from the state.