Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, June 7, 1990 TAG: 9006080712
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-11 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RAY L. GARLAND
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
But one very large change may be coming: in the way we pay for public education and how the pie is divided. Traditionally in America, schools have been locally owned and funded in the main from local taxes. That is now under attack.
Virginia is a notable example of assuming a large responsibility for funding the schools from state appropriations. While the General Assembly has never put up enough dough to satisfy teachers or administrators, it hasn't been shy about adding mountains of fresh cash to the mix.
For 1968-70, state government appropriated $677 million to help localities pay for public education. Ten years later, in 1978-80, it appropriated $1.63 billion. For the biennium that ends June 30, according to the Virginia Education Assocation, state aid will total $4.2 billion!
The state pays for only half the operating costs of the public schools; the 500 percent increase in state appropriations over 20 years has been matched in large measure by increases in local funding. Public-school enrollment today is almost exactly the same as 20 years ago. We have increased per-student costs at a rate more double the rate of inflation.
That hardly impresses a skilled demagogue like Keith Geiger, president of the National Education Association, who recently told Virginia school superintendents that "we treat children like crap in this country."
In Virginia, we are investing from 60,000 to 100,000 taxpayer dollars in graduates of our public schools. That spread of $60,000 to $100,000 is where the rub comes in, however, and a Virginia coalition has been formed to press for - and, if need be, to litigate for - greater equality in funding among the state's 133 school divisions.
Courts in other states are increasingly holding that too much disparity in per-student expenditures is prima-facie evidence of constitutionally impermissble denial of equality of opportunity, etc.
Gov. Douglas Wilder has responded to such complaints by naming a commission on disparities to report next year. The General Assembly, under the customarily acerbic guidance of state Sen. Dudley Emick, D-Botetourt, has taken a different approach in its Efficiency in Education Study Commission. In drafting the resolution creating the study, Emick specified that no professional educator would be eligible to sit as a member of the panel.
The question now on the table in Virginia is whether the present system will pass constitutional muster. If a case is brought, it would focus on a section of the state Constitution that specifies, "The General Assembly shall provide for a system of free public elementary and secondary schools for all children . . . and shall seek to ensure that an educational program of high quality is established and continuously maintained."
If we look only at per-pupil expenditures, we certainly see a wide diversity. In 1987-88, the city of Alexandria topped the state, spending an average of $7,117 per student in "operational" costs. At the other extreme, Spotsylvania County - near Fredericksburg - spent only $3,050 per student. As a fast-growing county, however, Spotsylvania spent almost $2,000 per student in additional funds for capital outlay and debt service. Alexandria, a mature system with a static or even declining enrollment, spent only $250 per student for capital outlay and debt service.
For the state as a whole, the average, per-student operational cost in 1987-88 was $4,110. Most school divisions fell rather closely on either side of that. But you can use the basic data to prove almost any point you hold dear. Virginia Beach - generally regarded as an efficient system in a high-cost area - spent only $3,189 per student while the city of Richmond spent $5,675. Looking at the test-score side of the ledger, where Virginia Beach did extremely well, we might postulate that here was a city doing a fine job without spending an arm and a leg while Richmond was doing a lousy job spending a whole lot more. But we know it's more complicated than that.
The smaller, poorer, generally rural systems are the ones threatening to sue, but the state is already funding the lion's share of their costs. Smyth County, for example, spent $3,762 per student in 1987-88. But less than one-fifth of that came from local taxes while the city of Alexandria paid almost four-fifths of its costs from local taxes.
But money is only one side of the equation. The availability of instructional opportunities is another, and I know of no practical way in which this can be addressed without a massive commitment to use modern technology to bring highly specialized courses to sparsely populated areas. The dimensions of this issue might be found in a recent comment by S. John Davis, who just retired as state Superintendent of Public Instruction. Davis pointed to two school systems in the state offering only 49 courses at the high-school level, compared with two others offering 310 courses!
In my opinion, Virginia's existing arrangements will be largely validated. The state has already made a great effort to equalize funding. And the known data will not support a reasonable correlation between expenditures and results.
by CNB