It's time to go get the back-to-school supplies: pencils, bags, books -- and this year, maybe some good walking shoes.

The Georgia budget is in such dire straits that school districts are taking new looks at their bus routes and whether they have to be picking up every kid they're picking up.

It's not just the high price of fuel that's inspiring the move: Gov. Sonny Perdue also has trimmed back school spending by millions -- $3.3 million in Richmond County and $2.1 million in Columbia County alone.

Even that is just a 2 percent cut -- and Perdue hit other spending harder, with 6 percent cuts in state agencies and 5 percent in Medicaid.

But the cuts, as necessary as they are, come at a time when school districts are already in the red -- in Richmond County, $13.4 million in the red, even before the latest Perdue cuts. To cover some of that, the Richmond County Board of Education recently voted to raise taxes to their maximum level. But even that didn't cover all the expected shortfall, and now the budget's been cut even more.

This year, school officials will have to be smarter and more efficient than they've been in perhaps decades.

The Richmond County Board of Education has awarded a modest $15,000 bonus to one-year Superintendent Dana Bedden, and we're all for it. He has stabilized a district that was constantly churning in turmoil under his predecessor.

Even so, Dr. Bedden can't be expected to have all the answers. And school board members ought to be humble enough to know the same about themselves.

Therefore, we suggest they seek the budget-cutting wisdom and experience of the private sector.

We encourage school officials to get the hard-won advice of area business owners and corporate managers who've been through similar tough times and have demonstrated an ability to survive and, often, to even make their companies stronger through the difficulties.

It wouldn't be a bad idea to seek that business-sector counsel in both good times and bad, either.

This isn't Bedden's or the board's problem. This is the community's problem. We need to be willing to help. And they need to be modest enough to accept it.