Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, January 4, 1992 TAG: 9201040133
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By NEAL THOMPSON
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
DISPARITY LAWSUIT WITHDRAWN
The lawsuit that some said could have brought Virginia's educational system to its knees was dropped Friday by a coalition of rural schools.Members of the Coalition for Equity in Educational Funding said they're confident that state legislators will do the right thing to ease educational inequalities, which prompted the lawsuit in November.
"We're withdrawing the suit without prejudice," said Kenneth Walker, chairman of the coalition and superintendent of Halifax County schools.
"Without prejudice" means the group can refile the suit at any time. Coalition attorney Andrew Miller said a new filing is a very real possibility if the General Assembly doesn't satisfy the coalition in its upcoming session.
For two years, coalition members had said state legislators and Gov. Douglas Wilder weren't doing enough to tackle the problem that gives wealthy school districts in Northern Virginia more money and more educational programs than poor districts, mostly in the southwest.
But on Thursday they met with Sen. Stanley Walker, D-Norfolk, and other members of the recently appointed Commission to Review Recommendations on Educational Opportunity.
Kenneth Walker said afterward that coalition members were pleased with the commitment from Stanley Walker and other commission members, who acknowledged a severe disparity problem and expressed an interest in doing something about it. "I don't know what, but I'm optimistic," Kenneth Walker said.
Coalition members have eased their earlier demands for an immediate solution backed up by money. Last month, the group acknowledged a shortage of state funding and said it would accept a General Assembly plan to phase in a solution over a few years.
"We're not talking about equality being achieved at this session, necessarily," Miller said.
State Secretary of Education James Dyke said that's exactly the kind of plan he and Wilder planned to introduce next week. "We're putting the finishing touches on it right now," Dyke said.
Dyke said most of the plan "will not involve money at this time." He said that because there's very little state money to be put toward the problem, the plan instead will offer a solution of "long-term commitments." It will be phased in little by little.
That plan may be introduced when Wilder's budget proposals are made public Tuesday. Dyke said it then would be up to the General Assembly to approve the plan during its session that begins Wednesday.
Dyke also said the coalition's decision to drop the lawsuit doesn't affect those plans, and he berated the group for filing the suit in the first place.
"I think it's unfortunate that we've had to spend so much time, effort and taxpayer money" to deal with the "ill-timed" lawsuit, Dyke said.
Legislators also have criticized the coalition for filing its suit before giving them a chance to take action.
"You were attempting, as I look at it, to put pressure on us," Del. Alan Diamonstein, D-Newport News, told coalition members Thursday.
"This General Assembly is being toyed with," said Sen. Joseph Gartlan Jr., D-Fairfax County and a member of Stanley Walker's commission.
Coalition chairman Walker told that commission that his group filed the lawsuit because Wilder failed to offer a plan to address disparity by September.
When the coalition filed its suit in November, it agreed not to serve court papers on state officials until the assembly had a chance to act. But Wilder administration officials went to Richmond Circuit Court to demand a copy of the lawsuit and last month asked that it be dismissed.
Now that the suit has been dropped, Walker says he hopes the assembly will act on disparity in the two-month session. But, he added, solving the problem could take several years.
The Associated Press provided some information for this story.