Other states have their own problems. Kentucky has its largest budget crisis in state history, sparked by the movement of manufacturing jobs overseas. New York’s budget has felt the wounds delivered by its mercurial friend Wall Street.

Some states are filling holes in their current budgets as they look toward the next fiscal year  or in the case of states that operate on two-year budget cycles, in the face of dire predictions about future revenues.

In most cases, states have moved to cut state spending, particularly in education. Ms. Lav said that eight states are cutting into the budgets for higher education, and nine states are cutting into their financing for primary and secondary education. (There is some overlap between those two groups.)

Delaware will not finance new school construction, and in Arizona, where school enrollment continues to explode, the Legislature, which wants to continue to pay cash to build schools, is fighting the governor, who would prefer to borrow for that construction in light of the state’s woes.

“Most places don’t have to build a school every year,” said Barrett Marson, the spokesman for the Arizona House Republicans. “We have to.”

To help close a $600 million budget gap in Virginia, the state made hundreds of thousands of dollars in cuts at universities, including dorm cleaning staff, library budgets and graduate assistantships. (The governor wrote the state a check, giving back 5 percent of his salary, to help balance the books.)

In California, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposed budget for 2008-9 includes a $4.4 billion cut in public education, the largest ever considered in the state. School districts, preparing for next year’s budgets, are already contemplating cuts to their staff. In the Alameda school district in Northern California, trustees voted to reduce the $83.7 million budget by cutting $200,000 to the sports programs, eliminating music programs for all children below fourth grade and increasing class sizes in ninth grade to an average of 29 students, up from 20.