Recommendation Letters - Risk of not using current employer?

I am applying to b-school this fall for 2009, focusing primarily on top 10 schools. My question is regarding letters of recommnedation. I worked 2 years at a large company and did really well. My former director is now a VP and will give me a glowing recommendation. I've been at my current job at a smaller company for 9 months. I know my manager would write a great recommendation, however I also think that once word got out I was leaving to go back to school that there is a high probability they would fire me (happened a few years ago to someone else) since they are not doing well financially.

From looking at all of the applications from top schools, it looks like most schools STRONGLY recommend and even require one recommendation to be from your current employer. How much would it hurt not having a recommendation from my current employer? I could ask my manager to not say anything but that's still quite a risk as he may want to begin looking for my replacement now and if they find someone they would want to replace me sooner rather than later. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.