Ultimately, school budget votes determine who will pay.

Students or taxpayers.

In the Cato-Meridian district, next year's students will find themselves stripped of school activities that many districts take for granted. And teachers will lose jobs.

If Cato voters - who voted down the school's $13.9-million budget for the second time Tuesday - thought this was a schoolyard game of 'chicken,' they are wrong. These programs will be cut and a contingency budget will be put in place. The school district will have the next year to look for other possible cuts or savings, but likely will ask voters next year to support a sizeable tax increase if many of the program cuts are to be restored.

This deficit was likely not created by this year's Cato school board nor its school administration.

But they have been left to deal with it.

It's too bad that those school officials whose sloppy finances created this situation couldn't be forced to pay for the shortfall. An audit is expected to show that the previous school board and administration wrote checks for anticipated state funds that never materialized, then left this school district in more than $700,000 worth of grief.

We have faulted the present board and administration for their inability to hear their constituents. They presumed that the first budget vote was defeated because too many supporters of the budget stayed home.

They were wrong, and it was a costly assumption.

Plus, it signals they are out of touch with those they serve.

As sympathetic as school budget voters are to students, they won't tolerate children being held up as victims. Not for a huge tax increase, which came with little accountability nor enough explanation.

Cato schools will feel the devastating impact of this vote next year, which will significantly damage the quality of the education provided in the district.

But, ironically, this may provide a valuable education for others.