Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, April 15, 1991 TAG: 9104150340
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: THOMAS BOYER/ LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Long
Dyke is Gov. Douglas Wilder's secretary of education. He has been teaching and preaching his way around the state for more than a year, taking a message of urgency and hope to audiences like the Danville Kiwanis Club, a Winchester awards banquet and a community college dinner in Fairfax.
But after he speaks, Dyke has to drive back to the reality of cramped quarters in a run-down state office building across from Capitol Square, where he oversees the deepest budget cuts that Virginia schools and colleges have seen since the Depression.
Dyke would like people to listen to his speeches, but many seem only to hear the scratch of his red pencil.
"We've lost much of the momentum" of educational reform, said Madeline Wade, president of the Virginia Education Association. Wade, whose group represents tens of thousands of teachers who aren't getting raises this year, calls Dyke an ineffective advocate providing only "a lot of speeches and studies."
To just about any group that will listen, Dyke talks of lengthening the school year and preparing students for technical careers. He promises to improve rural schools and raise Virginia teachers' salaries to the national average.
He says all disadvantaged children should be able to attend pre-kindergarten programs such as Head Start. But the money for all this, he acknowledges, is somewhere in the treasury of the future.
"I don't think it's leadership," complained Sen. Dudley Emick, D-Fincastle, who has been active in school finance issues. "I want to get an inkling from him as to how he's paying for any of this stuff he's talking about in his 10 public appearances a week. Until he does that, I think education in Virginia is being poorly served. He'd be better off sitting in his office."
Dyke responds heartily to some criticism, shrugs off other complaints and suggests he would draw less criticism in less-austere times. He quotes boxer Joe Louis: "I don't like money actually, but it does help to quiet my nerves."
Dyke has jangled the nerves of school administrators and college presidents with budget cuts - about 7 percent for public schools and approaching 20 percent at public colleges and universities.
He's also responded by taking the highest profile of any secretary of education in recent memory.
"There are certain issues that have to be addressed," he said, "and it's our job to at least put them on the table."
Last fall, Dyke came out in favor of lengthening the school year - or at least studying the prospect. Dyke also has favored allowing parents more leeway in choosing where their children may attend school.
In higher education, Dyke and the Wilder administration have pushed for unprecedented control over universities' internal operations.
Dyke has pushed colleges to adopt policies aimed at discouraging racial and sexual harassment on campus, and he has spoken out against what he sees as too much separation of and not enough mingling among students of different backgrounds.
Recently, Dyke was Wilder's point man as the administration demanded that colleges crack down on drug use by students in the wake of drug raids at three University of Virginia fraternities.
"When Dyke says something, faculty read about it and listen, and speak about it," said Robert Holsworth, chairman of the faculty senate at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond.
Wilder and Dyke have angered many in academe by preaching that professors need to spend more time in the classroom and less time doing research. To punctuate the point, Wilder slashed $250,000 in the budget for the University of Virginia's Center for Advanced Studies, a faculty think tank.
"I'm not trying to micromanage from Richmond," Dyke said. "But it's a higher education system for the state, and anything that happens to that system reflects on the entire state."
Among public school lobbying groups, there is more impatience with Dyke's performance. A group of rural school systems is threatening to sue. The group says the state's system of paying for public schools is unconstitutional because rich schools spend up to 2.5 times as much per student as others.
Dyke responded by appointing a commission to study the issue, but says there will be no action until at least 1992.
"I would say the track record for Dyke is about zero on this issue," said Kern Alexander, a Virginia Tech professor and expert on school finance who is advising the rural schools.
The VEA's Wade agreed: "We know there are disparity problems in Virginia. We've known there is a dropout problem. Let's get working on those things. We need concrete programs."
Dyke responds by noting that public schools' budget cuts have been far less than those imposed on other agencies. He says the public-school system needs reform before there's a new infusion of cash. And he promises that Wilder will find some money for high-priority programs, such as preschool, by 1992.
"Even if you had a billion extra dollars, if the system is in need of reform you're not going to help the system by putting a billion extra dollars into it," he said.
And he pleads for patience.
"We've said from the beginning, all the things are not going to be in place by the time the governor's term ends, but we've got to lay the groundwork," he said. "It's not going to be done overnight."
Defenders such as Frank Barham, director of the Virginia School Boards Association, say Dyke is playing the hand he's been dealt about as well as he can.
"If you don't have any money, the best you can do is go out and talk and be a cheerleader," Barham said. "I think it's admirable of him to spend as much time as he does speaking to just about any group that wants to hear him. That certainly hasn't been true in the past."
Dolores Delaney of Virginia Beach, past president of the state PTA, argued that most of the impatience with Dyke is simply budget-related. "Someone could say anything they wanted to; if at the end of it they said there's going to be enough money to go around, nobody would care about the other part."
JAMES W. DYKE JR.
Secretary of education/ Age: 44 years old/ Born: A native of Washington, D.C./ Education: Graduate of Howard University Home: Commutes between his family's home in Fairfax and his job in Richmond./ Former occupation: Gave up a lucrative partnership in the South's biggest law firm, Hunton and Williams, to join the Wilder administration as secretary of education. Dyke spent nearly a decade as an adviser to Walter Mondale, former vice president and an unsuccessful candidate for president./ Personal Life: Married and has a son and three daughters. His wife practices law in Northern Virginia, and his daughters attend a public elementary school there. His son is in college./ Aspirations: Believed to be interested in elective office in Virginia - Congress, perhaps, or even the governorship.
Keywords:
PROFILE
by CNB