The Board of Education announced Tuesday night that they have managed to carry more than $4 million from last year's budget over to this year. As we have to make more and more cuts to the education system, coming into this extra money is a godsend, but it does raise the complicated question of what to do with the funds.

The funds appeared due to our fiscally responsible Board of Education taking pains to keep costs as low as possible, and we're very proud of their efforts and results. We encourage them now to keep being as fiscally conservative as they were before and to keep hoarding the money for as long as possible.

There has been talk of giving some of these funds to the teachers as raises, and while our teachers are hard workers who are weathering this economic blight the same way everyone else has had to, we don't think now is the time to start distributing the money. We need to build up a buffer zone and can't afford to let these funds slip away at this time.

We recommend the BOE put the money in whatever account they can to get as much interest on it as possible. In a few years, once we have more money saved up, we can look again at giving the teachers the raises they definitely deserve.