With the economy in recessionary chaos, it's only fair to spread the pain around.

Leaders of the Moore County schools system and Sandhills Community College have exhibited exceptional understanding and courage in submitting budget requests at the same level with the current year's budget.

When County Manager Cary McSwain issued his budget warning last fall, he directed his instructions to the schools and the college as well as to each department and agency funded by the county.

The public schools represent the largest single appropriation within the county's budget, and school requests traditionally climb each year. At times, the relationship between the county commissioners and the Board of Education has been uneasy. The commissioners want to keep the tax rate as low as possible, and the school board is responsible for providing the best possible education for the youth of Moore County.

But this year there was no hint of dissatisfaction. Both the public schools and the college presented budgets so restrained that belt-tightening is too mild a term to describe it.

Education leaders know that times are tough for everybody. Their cutbacks at the county level may well be the least of their woes, for the state is threatening severe reductions in appropriations for the new fiscal year.

Superintendent Dr. Susan Purser says the governor and the state Senate have prepared budgets that, if passed, would cut at least $2 million from the state allocation to the Moore County system. The state House has not completed its budget work yet, but things don't look much rosier over there either.

That's a tremendous reduction in education funding. Atop the cutbacks at the state and county levels, the public schools face an increase in expenses of $773,000. This is not money for raises or new programs or enhancements of old programs. This is money to cover cost increases over which the schools have no control.

The college faces similar cutbacks at both funding levels and must find means to meet the training needs of the newly unemployed, a field growing at a rapid pace. Dr. John Dempsey, the college president, says the cutbacks come at a time when the college is experiencing a 10 percent increase in enrollment, putting it in a particularly difficult pinch.

School and college leaders were gracious in acknowledging the constraints of economic conditions and delivering reasonable requests. They know that everyone's in the same boat -- and that it won't always be this painful.