Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 15, 1990 TAG: 9003152502
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: MARGARET CAMLIN NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Every board member, superintendent and elected official in Virginia is being invited to attend the coalition's first meeting, March 26 at the Roanoke Marriott.
Superintendents from Sussex, Wise, Campbell, Wythe, Fluvanna, Pittsylvania, Smyth and Pulaski counties and from the Alleghany Highlands issued a position paper Wednesday that outlines the problem and proposes a plan of action.
"With the implementation of the new formula two years ago, which was supposed to address the issue of disparity, it's shown to have gotten worse, not better," said Alleghany Highlands Superintendent Mark Pace, the coalition's interim chairman.
Pace said not only Southwest Virginia school divisions are suffering. "Southside Virginia has lots of school divisions that have limited local tax bases," Pace said. "I would expect a number of them to join."
The superintendents want the General Assembly to act in 1991 to correct the wide disparities in education spending in Virginia.
Many schools in Southwest Virginia are struggling to educate their children on less than $3,500 per pupil while schools in Northern Virginia are spending as much as $7,100 per pupil.
Some of the superintendents don't want to wait until next February, when the Governor's Commission of Equal Educational Opportunity is to issue a report on the disparity.
Gov. Douglas Wilder appointed the 21-member commission last month to study the funding gap between the state's richer and poorer schools. Its first meeting is scheduled for April.
The commission's February deadline "is a signal that the governor didn't intend to deal with it in the next biennium," said Pulaski Superintendent James Burns. "For me, personally, it's certainly unsatisfactory. I don't think anybody's willing to wait two years."
Burns said he would not consider the coalition a watchdog group for the governor's commission.
"This is an action group," he said. "We will take whatever action is necessary."
Burns said the state's funding formula penalizes counties - such as Pulaski - that have a lower tax base from which to draw local school money. He said it would take an additional $4.5 million in local money to bring Pulaski County's per-pupil spending up to the state average.
The superintendents have not ruled out taking the battle to court if necessary, Burns said. "Many of us in this coalition are ready to go to court now," he said. "I'd much rather not do it. But we have to have the problem solved."
The position paper says coalition members hope the problem will be resolved through normal legislative processes, and that court action will be unnecesary.
"The courts would be on our side," Burns said. "It has been clear from cases in other states that the courts are willing to protect those of us whose rights under the constitutions are being violated."
The coalition will be watching the outcomes of lawsuits in several states challenging school-financing systems, Pace said.
Last year, supreme courts in Texas and Kentucky ordered their legislatures to devise more equitable ways of distributing funds, according to the American School Board Journal.
Similar lawsuits are pending in New Jersey, Alaska, Connecticut, Indiana, Minnesota, North Dakota, Oregon and Tennessee, according to the Journal.
Pace says the coalition's mission is positive.
"We applaud what the governor has done and we support his commission," he said. "We want to offer all help we can toward the favorable and timely resolution of the issue."
According to the position paper, the coalition will meet with Wilder, key leaders of the General Assembly and the Governor's Commission of Equal Educational Opportunity.
The coalition will first document exising educational inequities with help from education finance experts Richard Salmon and Kern Alexander, both education professors at Virginia Tech.
Its members will monitor all policy, committee reviews and legislative activities that relate to school funding.
They will also employ lawyers to help ensure that "constitutional guarantees of equal opportunity are properly interpreted and enforced."
Associated Press contributed some information for this story.
by CNB