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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 10, 1991                   TAG: 9104100095
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-8   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER/ NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: PULASKI                                LENGTH: Short

VOTE SET ON SCHOOL FUNDS SUIT

School officials in about 55 Virginia counties and cities will vote April 19 on whether to file a lawsuit against the state over what they claim are funding disparities among its school divisions.

Representatives of the rural and smaller school divisions, which have formed a coalition to consider possible responses to the perceived disparities, met about two weeks ago with former state attorney general Andrew Miller, the lawyer they have hired.

Miller recommended filing a suit even though Gov. Douglas Wilder asked the coalition about a month ago to hold off on any legal action at least until September.

Pulaski County Superintendent William Asbury, reporting at a joint budget meeting of the county Board of Supervisors and School Board Monday night, said Wilder had made the same plea a year ago.

Wilder asked the coalition to wait a year to see if things improved, Asbury said. The coalition waited, and things did not improve.

He said Miller had pointed out that filing the suit would not mean the coalition would go into court right away. There still would be time for Wilder to propose a way of easing disparities.

"Let the governor do what he says he's going to do, and that's to come up with a plan," Asbury said.

For a school division to vote on filing the suit, Asbury said, it must have the approval of its School Board and local governing body.

The Pulaski County School Board is already on record in support of a suit. The supervisors took no formal action, but individual members expressed support.

"It's the only way you're going to make something happen," Supervisor Jerry White said.

by CNB