
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, February 12, 1991                   TAG: 9102120484
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

SCHOOLS BILL/ ELECTED BUT POWERLESS BOARDS?

A HOUSE-passed bill to give certain Virginia localities the option of electing their school boards is now the subject of debate on the Senate side of the General Assembly. Proponents are almost sure to argue - as Del. David Brickley, the bill's chief patron, does on today's Commentary Page - that elected boards would be more responsive and accountable to the public.

But would they?

Missing is any provision for elected boards to raise the money to fund the policies that they presumably would pursue in response to voter wishes. Taxing authority for public education would remain with city councils and county boards of supervisors.

In such a setting, "accountability" of elected school boards might be likened to "demand" as economists use the term. "Demand" consists not simply of a desire on consumers' part to buy goods and services, but also their wherewithal to do so. Similarly, it seems hollow to talk of the "accountability" of elected boards unless they also have the burden of levying school taxes and thus the fiscal power for implementing their decisions.

Nor, except in the case of one locality, does the bill target the antiquated method of school-board selection still used in some Virginia counties: appointment by a judge-named commission. In most localities, school-board selection is by city council or county supervisors - that is, by the directly elected officials who are responsible for local taxing and spending.

The move toward elected school boards is gaining steam. If the 1990 General Assembly does not pass this bill, the 1992 assembly may well pass one. No Southwest Virginia localities are mentioned in the 1990 bill, but future measures may well include them.

Virginia's schools already must cope with a full plate of fiscal issues: how to cope with state funding cutbacks; how to ease disparities between rich and poor divisions; how to rely less heavily on property taxes for local revenues.

If the idea of elected school boards continues to gain favor, add one more issue to the list: how to make those boards "accountable" in fiscal fact as well as political appearance.

by CNB