Topeka ? A new revenue forecast that indicates Kansas will need to make $278 million in cuts in the current fiscal year has state education leaders and some lawmakers concerned that the deficit will require reductions in funding to already cash-strapped schools

The new forecast announced on Monday was drafted by legislative researchers, members of Gov. Sam Brownback’s budget staff, Department of Revenue officials and university economists. The governor and legislators must use the “consensus” numbers in budgeting.

State Board of Education member Janet Waugh on Tuesday expressed concerns about the possibility of education cuts, a topic the board is expected to discuss at a meeting on Wednesday, The Topeka Capital-Journal reported.

“We just don’t have (anything) frivolous anymore. We’re down to the bare bones,” Waugh said.

Board member Carolyn Wims-Campbell said she also fears education cuts.

“I’m afraid they’ll look at us again for another cut since the predictions are so sad for the state of Kansas. I guess we just have to wait and see what our legislators will be able to accomplish,” she said.

Brownback’s budget director, Shawn Sullivan, would not say Monday whether financing for K-12 public education would be on the table for cuts.

During Brownback’s successful bid for re-election, Sullivan unveiled slightly more than $100 million in proposed savings, though none have been vetted by the Legislature, nor have the cost-cutting ideas been fully explained publicly. Sullivan said an additional list of $50 million in cuts would be revealed in the near future.

“We’re going to focus in the next four to six weeks on where we can find efficiencies, where we can incur growth — those kinds of things,” Sullivan said Monday.

Some lawmakers involved in setting education policy and the education budget were not so sure school spending would survive without cuts. Rep. Melissa Rooker, a Fairway Republican who sits on the House Education Committee, said she was not surprised by the forecast but is worried about its impact.

The committee’s ranking Democrat, Rep. Valdenia Winn of Kansas City, acknowledged that supporters of the governor likely have enough votes to cut education funding, if that’s the course of action chosen.

But the Kansas Department of Education believes neither Brownback nor the Legislature plans to cut K-12 spending, said Dale Dennis, the department’s deputy commissioner.

“We believe that what’s been said — that they won’t cut K-12 — that that will be the case,” Dennis said.