The Laurel and Hardy routine going on in Montgomery does nothing but hurt the children and communities of Alabama.

People could look at Gov. Bob Riley and Attorney General Troy King and say, “This is another fine mess you’ve gotten us into.”

Here’s how it happened: BP says it won’t pay Alabama on its $148 million claim for tax revenue lost by the oil spill — at least for now. The governor turned around Thursday after hearing the news and cut 2 percent from education. That’s about a fourth of what local school systems would normally receive in September.

In Selma, the school system had expected to draw $1,519,557 this month. Take one-forth of that draw, and it amounts to about $380,000. Or as interim superintendent Don Jefferson said, “That’s the salaries of nine-to-10 teachers.”

Fortunately, Selma has enough in its reserves to cover this cut. But year-after-year of proration has whittled down reserves, too.

Meanwhile, back over in Montgomery, Riley blames the education cuts on King filing the lawsuit in spite of Riley’s vocal objections, saying King’s actions “paralyzed our negotiations.”

And King yells back that the governor is in the way of efforts to get payments from BP.

As the two bicker, some school systems will have to borrow money just to make their payrolls.

The future doesn’t look good either.

Craig Pouncey, assistant state school superintendent for financial services, has told school systems throughout the state to gird their loins. The same conditions that caused the 2 percent cut Thursday will be around Oct. 1.

“There is not a whole lot of difference between Sept. 30 and Oct. 1,” he said.

While nobody will go without pay, school systems will have to cut in other ways. That hurts communities and children.

But should we expect more from our leadership? After all, this is politics. Will Rogers said, “Politics is the art of choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable.”

Correct on both points, Mr. Rogers.