Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 24, 1993 TAG: 9304240123
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: LAURA WILLIAMSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"Roll up your sleeves, Doug, and do right by the ones who put you where you are," VEA President Robley Jones said Thursday night. "Stop worrying about Ollie [North] and [U.S. Sen.] Chuck [Robb] long enough to worry about the children of Virginia."
Speaking to members of the VEA at their annual conference at the Roanoke Civic Center, Jones chastised Wilder for failing to come through on six of eight promises he made to educators in a letter during his 1989 gubernatorial campaign.
"Make good on your word if you want to be a senator," Jones said.
Speaking on behalf of Wilder, Secretary of Education James Dyke on Friday called Jones' criticisms "unfair" considering the $2.8 billion budget shortfall Wilder faced immediately following his election.
"I think that those promises, that letter has to be read in the context of when it was written," Dyke said. "Everybody thought we were in fat city."
Specifically, Jones criticized Wilder for failing to:
Raise teachers' salaries above the national average (they fall roughly $3,000 short of the $35,334 average).
Provide financial incentives to school districts that provide more than the mandatory basic level of education.
Create regional drug rehabilitation centers for students.
Return 10 percent of lottery profits for elementary and secondary school construction.
Provide vocational guidance counselors in every high school.
Reduce class sizes.
Dyke, who returned calls placed to Wilder's office, said he took Jones' criticism as a sign of frustration - "frustration that is understandable. We're sympathetic. But we've got to manage the state. We've got to manage a number of issues."
Wilder should not be blamed for a national economic downturn that prevented him from spending money on programs he continues to support, Dyke said. In fact, he added, Wilder showed "remarkable" progress under the circumstances by securing a 3 percent salary raise for teachers this year and by putting $74 million toward easing disparity issues between school divisions.
"We're the first ones to step up to that issue," he said.
The governor also came up with $400 million to offset growth in the number of Virginia's students and found money to fully fund the "standards of quality," the term used to define the basic level of education guaranteed to all students.
The education association disagrees with Dyke on that issue, claiming that the state uses a flawed formula for determining each child's basic educational needs.
Jones said Friday that Wilder did keep promises to put guidance counselors in elementary schools and to develop programs for potential dropouts.
But he failed to make himself as accessible to the association as his predecessors, Robb and former Gov. Gerald Baliles.
"We certainly have lost ground during his administration," Jones said.
He said his comments should not be taken as an ultimatum to Wilder, but added that the VEA would consider Wilder's record on education in determining whether to endorse him in a bid for the Senate.
Wilder has said he will decide by June whether to run.
Keywords:
POLITICS
Memo: shorter version ran in the Metro edition.