Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 6, 1991 TAG: 9102060471
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ROBERT BURKE THE FREE LANCE-STAR
DATELINE: MONTROSS LENGTH: Long
However, the rural county isn't able to return the favor by giving her a top education.
Like thousands of other students from poor school districts around Virginia, Garland has to do without the courses or equipment available to students in wealthier areas. The reason is Westmoreland can't afford the best.
"If students from small counties don't have the same quality classes as students from more affluent areas, they're not going to be able to compete," says Superintendent Charles L. Pierce. "Whether it's Westmoreland or Fairfax, every student ought to have equality of opportunity."
The main reason for the gap, critics say, is the state isn't giving enough money to poorer school districts, and wealthy regions are paying for better schools out of their own pockets. The Fairfax school system, the state's largest, is a prime example of what local money can buy.
Fairfax offers 12 advanced placement classes that can help students earn early college credits. Westmoreland offers none. Because the courses aren't required by the state, the money to pay for them would have to come from Westmoreland's pockets.
"Can you offer a select course to a small number of kids? That's a very difficult question for a school this size," said Paul M. Hutynan, principal at Westmoreland's only high school, Washington & Lee.
Often the only advanced placement classes available to Washington & Lee students are through a state-run television broadcast of courses taught elsewhere. Students find watching a television screen boring, Garland said. "It's just not the same as a real teacher," she said.
Westmoreland offers 74 courses to its high school students. Fairfax offers 177. Courses at Washington & Lee that draw fewer than 10 students are canceled. Some courses are offered only in alternating years.
The only foreign language available to Westmoreland students is Spanish, while Fairfax offers four - German, French, Spanish and Latin, along with a fifth-year advanced placement class in each.
"It isn't fair," said Garland. "Larger schools do have better opportunities. We have trouble getting new track uniforms, and they have all kind of equipment."
In 1989, Westmoreland sent 23 percent of its 132 seniors to four-year colleges; Fairfax sent 69 percent. The state average was 43 percent.
Vocational education also reflects the disparity. At the Northern Neck Regional Vocational Center, students can pick from 16 courses, including standard offerings like welding and auto mechanics.
Fairfax students have 45 vocational courses to choose from, including commercial photography, TV communication and computer repair.
The Virginia Constitution requires the General Assembly to "provide for a system of free public elementary and secondary schools" and make sure "that an educational program of high quality is established and continually maintained."
The state distributes money using a complicated formula based in part on a local system's ability to pay for education. Critics argue that the state is dumping too much of the fiscal responsibility of paying for education onto localities.
All 137 school districts in Virginia exceed the state standards in education, which critics say is evidence the standards are too low. They want the state to raise standards, which would mean raising the amount of money all school systems receive.
Since April, Westmoreland and other poor school districts in the state have been fighting back. They formed the Coalition for Equity in Education, a group of 40 school districts, most from Southwest Virginia, that is warning the General Assembly to change the state's funding formula or wind up in court.
"We've got to do something. But I hope we can do it without a court case," says Willard L. Lemmon, chairman of the Governor's Commission on Educational Opportunity for All Virginians. Lemmon's commission is preparing a package of recommendations to revise the state's funding formula and raise state standards. An early proposal to shift state money from wealthy school systems was rejected by Northern Virginia legislators.
The commission's final recommendations are due in March and will be presented to the 1992 General Assembly. The coalition has said it will delay legal action until the commission proposals are finished.
If the General Assembly doesn't work out a new system, "I will be the first to say we should have a suit," Lemmon said. "But I would like to try this first."
In New Jersey, Texas and Kentucky, plaintiffs have won lawsuits over similar issues, sometimes with startling results. In June 1989, Kentucky's state Supreme Court declared the state's school system unconstitutional and ordered state educators to create a new one.
But Lemmon warned that a lawsuit could backfire if courts rule against the coalition. "From that time on, poor school divisions would be totally at the mercy of the wealthy," he said.
A court order to equalize state funding could bring down the top school systems, Lemmon said. "Does Virginia really want to tell Northern Virginia and others that they can't spend more money to do better than standards?"
Meanwhile, Westmoreland's young people are struggling to climb out of a depressed educational environment with few options.
Washington & Lee guidance counselor Melanie Woodhouse is frustrated with the low goals many students set for life after high school.
"They'll say, `Oh, I'm going to work. I'm going to get a job,' " she said. But without an education, their options in Westmoreland and beyond are limited. "I think their dreams died a long time ago."
by CNB