Educating Zionsville students perhaps has become even more difficult in the face of state cuts in schools funding. Enrollment is up, as is attendance – now at a whopping 99.56 percent, according to the Zionsville Community Schools Board of Trustees. No matter how you slice it – and the state certainly has done that – our schools are living in the new reality. It looks like this: Do more with less. Or, perhaps in the state’s opinion: Deal with it. Everyone, we believe, most especially the parents that are responsible for the attendance achievement, wants the best for the students. The kids deserve nothing less. But even with what appears (for now) to be a rebounding economy, the state is cutting to pay for past sins. It’s wholly unfortunate, but it is what it is. Supt. Dr. Scott Robison and schools CFO Mike Schafer, we’re confident, continue to go at the budget with not only a scalpel but a fine-toothed comb, as well. Robison, for one, is widely known and respected for aggressively managing the district’s debt reduction and keeping a watchful eye on all expenses. That’s commendable, and we’re convinced enough to state here that such is not standard operating procedure at other districts in our region. Robison is undertaking what many of us must do in our households or businesses when times get tough, especially over an elongated span of time, and that is tighten the belt. That’s what the one-two punch of the economy and the state education czars have, in effect, mandated. It forces a deep examination, which is not all bad. Again, we do it at home and in business and find a way to make it. Still, we all want more for the students, so now is the time to figure that how to turn a sow’s ear into a silk purse.