DATE: Saturday, November 29, 1997           TAG: 9711270007

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B8   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Editorial 

                                            LENGTH:   47 lines

SCHOOLS COME FIRST HARD LESSON FOR SUFFOLK

Every fund-strapped city is tempted to put off spending on schools in order to invest in economic development.

The reasoning goes like this: If we promote economic development now, our tax base will expand and then we'll have more money to invest in schools. Our schools will have to make do with less today in order that we might build a brighter tomorrow.

There are two obvious problems with that line of reasoning.

1. Children need to be educated right now, not at some point in the future when more tax money might be available.

2. Poor schools hinder economic development by failing to provide a trained work force and by keeping out people and businesses seeking to settle where schools are good.

In short, good schools are a necessity, not an option. They are an economic development tool. A city cannot prosper without them.

Pilot staff writers Matthew Bowers and Katrice Franklin reported recently on the tough choices facing Suffolk City Council.

The school system has asked for $142.2 million in construction money, including $35.3 million next year. School officials say they need the money to handle surging enrollment, as about 700 homes pop up each year.

What the schools can get by on, the city says, is $8.9 million next year.

But it isn't as though Suffolk schools are excellent and can endure more years of skimping. Suffolk regularly lags far behind the state average in standardized test scores. Its percentage of sixth-graders who passed all three parts of Virginia's Literacy Passport Test on the first try was the lowest in Hampton Roads and 17 points below the average statewide.

Companies eager to settle in cities with below-average schools are not the companies that pay high wages.

For a study in contrasts, one has to look no further than Fairfax County. In the 1970s city officials there chose to invest in public education. The dividends Fairfax has reaped from those farsighted spending decisions are stunning.

And business and political leaders who just visited Seattle to learn how to attract high-tech jobs heard the same refrain over and over. Build first-class schools, and high-wage jobs will follow.

For economic development to flourish in Suffolk and throughout Hampton Roads, schools have to be funded. They are the base on which prosperity is built. They are the egg that produces the chicken. Schools come first.

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