Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 28, 1993 TAG: 9304280509
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
It is understandable that Herbert would not ask for an increase in tax rates, particularly the city's $1.25 real-estate rate per $100 of assessed value.
Under current circumstances, the city would assume big risks if its taxes were too far out of line with those of neighboring Roanoke County and Salem. Morever, property taxes aren't the most equitable way to raise municipal revenues - though Virginia local governments don't have much choice but to rely on them heavily. The system is messed up.
The Roanoke Education Association is unhappy with scheduled teacher-pay increases averaging 4.1 percent. (Many teachers will get only a 2 percent raise.)
Association officials say that salaries for city teachers have fallen behind those in Roanoke County and Salem. ("Dead last" among area districts is the way they put it: dead last among three, that is.) They say beginning teachers' salaries are less after inflation than 25 years ago.
It is understandable that the teachers would raise this issue.
The situation isn't entirely clearcut. Beginning teachers are not all teachers. If the average increase is 4.1 percent and many teachers will get only 2 percent, for example, many others obviously will get more than 4.1 percent.
But the association's central point is valid. Schools can be no better than the teaching that occurs in them. Over time, the quality of teaching is linked to the pay offered its practitioners. In Roanoke and the rest of Virginia, strides in the prosperous '80s toward better pay have given way to serious slippage in the fiscally troubled '90s.
Perhaps the goals of reasonable tax levels and reasonable teacher pay can never be sought in complete harmony. But they could be made more compatible if Roanokers and Virginians were willing to look constantly at how their governments can be made better and more productive.
A small case in point is Herbert's plan to end backyard trash collection for able-bodied residents, unless they're willing to pay extra. For most Roanokers, the change hardly qualifies as an inconvenience - yet most of the 13 city jobs to be eliminated by attrition stem from this one change. That, of course, frees money for other priorities, including schools.
In some respects, the issue of disparity in state funding of schools is another case in point - because it involves not only how much but also how Virginia funds education. It has led the Virginia Education Association to go beyond its customary plea for more school money and also propose a plan for raising and distributing school money more equitably.
Under the association's plan, the state would pay for all children's basic educational needs, with local money coming into play only after the basic needs are met. That makes sense.
But these are just first steps. A lot of attention is accorded, understandably, the amount and means of funding for the schools; not enough attention goes yet to ideas for making schools better and more productive.
The latter also should be of central concern to teachers associations. Failings in education, standards and accountability are part of what holds down teacher salaries.
by CNB