Lincoln public schools could be on the chopping block for state funding next year. The Governor Dave Heineman and the State Legislature have targeted $40 million they want to cut from state aid to schools.

LPS is already trying to figure out how to work around whatever cuts the legislature may make to school aid, even though there's not a concrete plan for how many cuts each district will be responsible for.

Even so, LPS officials said they're used to working with less.

At the beginning of this school year, Lincoln Public Schools essentially absorbed a class B school, more than 940 new students.

"We stretched our text books... we made some other sacrifices with that, didn't do some things we would have liked to," said LPS Superintendent Susan Gourley.

Dr. Gourley expects more growth next year. But during its special session the State Legislature is asking LPS to do more with less, in the form of reduced school aid for 2010 - 2011.

"We have always tried to keep any cuts as far away from the classroom as possible," said Gourley.

Unfortunately, a smaller budget would mean more students in each classroom, which is already happening.

"What happens is you just put more students in the classroom and you don't do things for students who have particular needs, you don't start new programs," said Gourley.

The LPS Board of Education is used to working with tight budgets but said these cuts could be especially dicey.

"I don't think it's sustainable, the state aid formula used to take care of growth. I think if there's a reduction in the growth factor that hurts," said LPS board member Kathy Danek.

With the exact cuts still uncertain, Danek said cutting the projected growth is better than cutting actual aid.

"When you're a growing school district I don't know that you can sustain any actual reduction [in aid]," said Danek.

The only silver lining is that LPS will have a year to decide how to handle cuts.

"We've continued to improve student achievement, to work hard on graduation rates, and we're going to continue to do that," said Gourley.

Several senators asked for no education cuts at all. According to the State Legislature's records, Lincoln Senator Danielle Conrad asked the governor's staff if it could hit the targeted cuts without touching K-12 spending. The governors staff responded that the size of the budget gap leaves little room for exemptions.

LPS is the second largest district in the state. It's 14,000 students behind Omaha and 12,000 ahead of number three Millard. The cuts from those three could be a big chunk of that $40 million the state plans on cutting from across all districts.