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For once, the General Assembly did the right thing in passing the buck.

As part of protracted budget negotiations, Democrats in the House and Senate have decided to give the job of how to cut expenses to local school boards.

Of course, there are ground rules. Class sizes from kindergarten to third grade must be maintained.

That guarantees that, despite the welcome and unexpected autonomy, higher grade levels will feel a pinch.

Even so, local school boards are in the best position to set priorities and make agonizingly tough choices. That latitude brings accountability closer to home -- where it belongs.

Once state funding is in hand, local school officials can divvy it up as they see fit. For many, saving teaching jobs will be the goal. To accomplish that, money can be reallocated. For example, dollars earmarked for textbooks could be switched to teacher salaries.

Yet creative budgeting can't ignore an unpleasant reality. Public education statewide will see a 4.8 percent cut, or $1.8 billion, from last year.

To further complicate matters, time is running out. With public schools scheduled to reopen later this month, too many loose ends remain. Teaching and support staff jobs still might have to be added at the last-minute.

As Guilford County Schools Superintendent Maurice "Mo" Green noted, it's too early to tell how the budget, sidetracked in Raleigh, will shake out and what changes might result.

And public schools aren't alone being left in limbo. State-funded universities face similar uncertainties as the opening of the fall term bears down within weeks. For them, even if money belatedly becomes available, it may be too late to add classes or faculty.

Despite the state's unprecedented budget shortfall, legislators have taken far too long to confront school funding issues. Gov. Bev Perdue, a late-comer to the fray, could have played a larger role. It was only two weeks ago that she threatened a budget veto over classroom cuts.

While she probably will sign off on this version, Republicans in the General Assembly, who have mostly been shut out of the process, make a valid point that major cutbacks still can happen, but now by local school districts.

They see the hand-off as a cynical way of shirking responsibility and refusing to face the inevitable.

The bottom line: Funding problems of this magnitude simply don't vanish into thin air. Putting them on hold for months might seem like the expedient thing to do, but it accomplishes nothing.

In fairness to parents, students and local school systems, in the future, funding must be addressed well before the state's June 30 budget deadline.