lawmakers warn that without budget cuts to education, the rest of state government will pay a bitter and painful price.. stuart dyson is here with a look at that pricetag in tonight’s top story. huge cuts across the board - cuts in services - salary slashing for state employees - hard to see how furloughs and layoffs will be avoided. teachers at the capitol today - more than a thousand strong - don't cut school spending raise taxes instead - something the governor and state lawmakers have already agreed they won't do. " every educator i have ever met works long hours and we're not getting paid for that as it is - and my good friends the education assistants - many are barely making rent." i'm gonna teach whether i get a ten percent cut or not - i love children - that's why i've taught for 25 years." governor richardson insists public schools and medicaid can't be cut when lawmakers meet in special session later this month - but even lawmakers who agree with him say the cuts elsewhere will be even larger - like 16 percent. " some agencies are gonna have their budgets cut - there's just no two ways about it - as well as departments - and that is gonna be across the board in the state of new mexico and everyone's gonna have to learn to do more with less." but many lawmakers say we can't cut back on prisons - can't let dangerous criminals go free - hard to cut back on state police too - leave both of very those uncut - now you're talking cuts of 23 to 25 percent across the rest of state government. " when you look at those numbers - everybody has to have a cut - including education - and it hurts us as much as anyone to have to touch that." at the core of the arithmetic problem - the sheer size of school spending - 43 percent of the entire budget. in the special session lawmakers will tackle a projected 650 million dollar revenue shortfall in the current budget - plus a hangover from last fiscal year that now appears to be about 240 million dollars - new revenue fore...