Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 14, 1990 TAG: 9004160200
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The supervisors' vote this week to cut the rate by 2 cents, to $1.13 per $100 of assessed value, came within days of the disclosure that county schools were overspending their budget this year by $1 million. Half is to be recovered by freezing most spending through the remainder of the fiscal year. But without a $500,000 advance from the supervisors against next year's budget, school-system employees in June would have faced a delay in getting their full pay.
Granted, the shortfall was largely of school officials' own making: More money was spent than budgeted for a dropout-prevention program. Still, for the past few years belt-tightening has been the standard for county schools. The belt can't continue to be tightened without affecting the quality of education.
Already, there's evidence that some curriculums are suffering. The School Board on Thursday night heard complaints from teachers, parents and students that vocational programs had been hurt by budget cuts. There are waiting lists for the programs, and in some cases first- and second-year students are in the same classes.
School officials overspent on the dropout-prevention Career Center, they say, because they knew the program was a good one. They had enough money for a half-day program at the center, but could see that such an operation would be inefficient. They went ahead with a daylong operation, figuring to make up the expense by cutting elsewhere. Trouble was, they found nothing else in the budget that could withstand enough cuts to make up the difference.
The county School Board has been trying to maintain the status quo. On several items, the status quo is above state requirements. The county has full-day kindergarten; the state requires half-day. The county has a seven-period school day; the state requires a six-period day.
But county schools lost $2 million from the state in 1988. Enrollment continues to decline, which reduces state funding. Its schools are the county's pride - but if the supervisors continue to cut the tax rate, in the long run they may not be able even to keep school programs at current levels.
The revenue loss from the 2-cent cut, which is to take effect Jan. 1, is not great: $541,000 over a 12-month period. County Administrator Elmer Hodge points out that the school budget for the coming fiscal year won't be affected. But if the rate doesn't go back up, the impact will be harder in the 1991-92 fiscal year, when the lower rate will be in effect for the entire year.
The link to the merger issue also is, well, curious. Negotiators for the proposed plan estimated that, if city-county consolidation were in place today, the county's tax rate could be $1.10 without affecting services. It would be possible, they said, because of the savings produced by a more efficient government operation.
But it's downright weird to use that as an argument to cut the rate before merger takes place, and before it's even known whether it will take place.
Perhaps county residents don't want their schools to drop back to minimum state requirements. Perhaps county residents want a lower real-estate tax rate. But without merger, it's hard to see how they can have both. The path taken this week is toward a school system of lesser quality.
by CNB