Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 20, 1992 TAG: 9202200564
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RAY L. GARLAND
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
IT'S THE VOTERS WHO ARE OUT OF TOUCH ON THE ELECTED-SCHOOL BOARD ISSUE
THE VIRTUE of a newspaper column is that it compels a compaction of facts and ideas to fit a reasonably small space. As a famous person once said, "If I had more time I would have written shorter." Every writer knows the truth of that. But 750 words don't always allow every thought to be rounded out so there's no mistaking what you mean to say.That was brought home when a reader recently took exception to my view that if Virginia were to have elected school boards, the boards should have the power to levy local taxes and the final say on levels of funding to support public education. "Out of touch with reality," she said, and if polls be gospel, she's right.
In reality, I don't favor elected school boards with or without full fiscal authority, but was trying to say that if you did favor them, surely you ought to favor their being in full control of the public-school purse.
In fact, the column touching this was overrun by events. When it was written, it appeared almost certain that the elected-boards issue was dead for this session of the legislature. That would have allowed, I dared hope, an amendment to the state constitution to be brought forward next year allowing elected boards with full fiscal authority. Voters, then, could have rendered a sober judgment on the issue at the polls in 1994.
But Sen. Joe Gartlan of Fairfax, chairman of the Senate committee which had deadlocked on the question, arose from his sickbed to convene a special meeting of the committee to reconsider the vote by which the bill had been passed in his absence. It has now passed and Gov. Douglas Wilder has indicated his desire to sign it into law.
Gartlan, you may recall, experienced a deathbed conversion on the issue of popular election of school boards - which he had long opposed - when a little-known Republican challenger espousing the issue came within a whisker of denying him a sixth term. In voting to report the bill, the ailing Gartlan said he still had problems with it, but a promise was a promise, etc.
Let's face facts: Elected school boards are hardly revolutionary. All states apparently have them - except Virginia! Some of those boards have full fiscal authority and some do not. And those that do seem to get in hotter water than those that don't.
In Virginia, city councils have traditionally appointed members of the school board and county boards have not. Until fairly recent years, the exclusive power of appointment in most counties rested with a school-board selection commission named by the senior circuit-court judge. That is, the judge (or judges) chose the commissioners who, in turn, chose the actual school-board members.
More than 20 years ago, the legislature gave counties the power to change this arrangement by referendum, allowing members of the school board to be appointed directly by the board of supervisors. This made eminent sense to me, and I was sure that nearly all counties would quickly opt for it. But the amazing thing is that voters in so many counties have professed themselves satisfied with the indirect method of appointment. In one large, suburban county that I know about, voters who had opted for direct appointment by the board of supervisors actually reversed themselves after a few years' experiment and went back to the old method.
To further insulate the schools from partisan politics, Virginia law specifies that while city councils and county boards of supervisors have the final say in establishing overall levels of school funding, they may not interfere with the discretion of school boards to hire the superintendent or determine the specifics of their programs.
In reality, there must be a high degree of cooperation between local elected officials responsible for imposing taxes and those on the school board who must try to extract as much cash as possible to keep parents, teachers and students reasonably happy. The record is that it has worked fairly well.
But there is another issue that few have dared to raise openly. The school boards are among the largest employers in many places, and the bulk of their budgets goes for wages and benefits for school employees. School-board elections will be the perfect device for labor to gain direct control of management.
And what will happen then? Will the members of local governing bodies, who must supply the cash, play the sap for them? Will those who have no children in the schools - or don't particularly care for public schools in the first place - rise up to form anti-teacher taxpayer tickets to slash spending? We shall see.
I believe that many who have pushed for elected boards actually fear any measure giving them full fiscal authority. Not because they don't want it, but because they don't think voters would ever give it to them. That is the path of political cowardice and it deserves to be called for what it is.
And while we're calling things by their real name, let me admit that I have urged amending the state constitution to grant elected boards full fiscal authority not because I think it's a great idea, but because I believe it would be the kiss of death. As to which side is out of touch with reality, let me go on record to predict that while voters in some localities will choose to have elected boards, a majority will keep what they have.
Ray L. Garland is a Roanoke Times & World-News columnist.
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