DISPARITY LAWSUIT RAISES IRE

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

DATE: FRIDAY, January 3, 1992                   TAG: 9201030074
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B1   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY  
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Short
DISPARITY LAWSUIT RAISES IRE
Legislators who will decide whether to change school-funding laws said Thursday they were angry about being sued by a coalition of rural schools that want more state money.
"This General Assembly is being toyed with," said Sen. Joseph Gartlan Jr., D-Fairfax and a member of a legislative commission studying school disparity.
Gartlan and other commission members said they were dismayed the coalition filed its lawsuit in November before the assembly had a chance to act on disparity at the 1992 session that begins Wednesday.
"You were attempting, as I look at it, to put pressure on us," Del. Alan Diamonstein, D-Newport News, told the coalition.
Halifax County School Superintendent Kenneth Walker, chairman of the coalition of school districts, said the group filed the lawsuit because Gov. Douglas Wilder failed to come up with a plan to address disparity by September.
The coalition agreed not to serve court papers on state officials until the assembly had a chance to act, he said.
But Wilder administration officials went to Richmond Circuit Court to demand a copy of the lawsuit and last month asked that it be dismissed.
Gartlan said he was just as angry at the administration's tactics as he was at the coalition.
"Both of you are playing games," Gartlan said. "I earnestly recommend that you both stop it."
In most cases, the assembly has refused to act on an issue if a lawsuit is pending. But Wilder has promised that he will propose a plan to ease school disparity when he makes his State of the Commonwealth Address on Wednesday night.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB