Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, January 7, 1992 TAG: 9201070222
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE:
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
$1 BILLION SOUGHT FOR SCHOOLS
Faced with tough budget times, the man who leads Virginia's schools decimated his own staff last year, slashing 58 of 453 jobs in the state's Education Department.But this year, the state's most budget-cutting bureaucrat has struck a surprisingly extravagant pose. With the economy getting worse, State Superintendent Joseph Spagnolo Jr. is asking the state to spend nearly a billion dollars on education. He and the Board of Education seek $492 million to support current programs, plus $300 million for new programs, including $30 million for futuristic experiments.
The money could help every school in Virginia, but nobody is counting on it.
Frankly, they're puzzled: Why would the same man who led unprecedented cuts last year now expect to cash in during a recession? Are the efforts just idealistsic? Unrealistic? Futuristic? Or futile?
"I don't think it's a bad time at all," said Spagnolo, in defense of his budget and programs called World Class Education Initiatives. "Necessity is sometimes the mother of invention. Out of the ashes can arise the Phoenix. Not to say I don't think money is important..."
Lawmakers, who will decide in the upcoming session where the state's money goes, already predict Spagnolo's plans don't have a chance. State revenues are falling at least $60 million below projections.
"We'll be lucky to hold basic education without any cuts this year," said Del. Alan A. Diamonstein of Newport News, a lawmaker who concentrates on education funding on the House Appropriations Committee.
Avoiding damaging cuts and reducing drastic differences between the state's poorest and richest schools are likely to dominate this year, lawmakers said.
"I think it's going to be a really tough session, I don't know what good will come out of it - we're in pretty big trouble," said Del. Robert Tata.
"Up to this point, you haven't really felt the pain - the average Virginian," says Del. Jerrauld C. Jones, of Norfolk. "We're at the point now where there's really going to be a lot of pain felt by people."
Sen. Stanley Walker of Norfolk said he's already received petitions from students at Virginia Tech who are worried about cuts. He predicts more protests and petitions than in recent memory.
Locally, school division leaders are too preoccupied with the prospect of damaging cuts to care about the fate of futuristic reforms. Some, like Virginia Beach schools lobbyist Donald Peccia, say the Department of Education simply doesn't have the confidence of many educators.
Some state lawmakers blame Spagnolo's boss, Secretary of Education James W. Dyke, Jr., and Dyke's boss, Gov. L. Dougals Wilder, for playing games with what they call the state's stickiest education problem: Disparity between Virginia's wealthiest and poorest school systems. Sen. Joseph Gartlan, of Northern Virginia, has accused them of "toying" with the General Assembly.
Spagnolo, a former superintendent of Lynchburg who has seen the state's inequities first-hand, says his progra s would help reduce disparities. It includes: $75 million for poor and disadvantedged students, $15 million for instructional supplies, $5 million for students with limited English and $100 million for help with building programs. He says all schools would benefit from a $30 million program to experiment with ideas like year-round schools and smaller class sizes.
But respected school finance researchers, like Richard Salmon of Virginia Tech, said the plans actually would widen the gap between poor and rich schools. That's because they restore funds taken from all schools last year and richer districts would get larger returns.
"When you put it all together, it didn't address the fundamental issues," Salmon said.