
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, May 3, 1993                   TAG: 9305030045
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LAURA WILLIAMSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

SCHOOL FUNDING LINKED TO ROADS

If Southwestern Virginia legislators want more money for the schools in their districts, they may have to travel the long and winding road north - and widen it a little while they're at it.

"You can't forget that anything that happens with education will be tied to transportation money for road needs in urban Virginia," said Del. Thomas Jackson, D-Hillsville.

"I don't know if that sounds like deal-making or what have you, but practically, that's how you get legislation passed."

Jackson's counting on a compromise struck earlier this year after a bill he introduced with Dels. Richard Cranwell, D-Vinton, and Glenn Croshaw, D-Virginia Beach, failed.

The legislation would have brought another $20 million to some of the state's poorest school districts, but members of the House and Senate failed to agree on how much money was needed or how to distribute it.

Instead, legislators - including the powerful Senate majority leader, Hunter Andrews, D-Hampton - agreed in writing to work on the problem next year.

Jackson said the compromise signals "a very critical year" for solving the state's educational disparity problem, an issue he calls "the most pressing in Virginia."

"I trust the integrity of those men to see that something will be done," he said.

That in spite of a lawsuit pending before the Virginia Supreme Court that questions the constitutionality of the state's school-spending plan.

A coalition of Virginia's poorest school divisions has sued the state for using a formula they believe creates an unequal distribution of wealth among schools.

While the formula covers a basic, minimum education for all Virginia students, some localities are able to provide significantly more to their students by raising local real estate taxes.

That results in a range of per-pupil spending from as low as $3,807 in Appomattox County to as high as $8,724 in Falls Church.

A Richmond Circuit Court judge threw out the lawsuit in November, but supporters take heart in rulings from other states, such as Alabama, where a judge found the state's entire educational system to be unconstitutional.

The Virginia coalition has appealed to the state's highest court, which has yet to decide whether it will hear the case.

The lawsuit has discouraged some legislators from addressing the issue, Jackson said. But most agree a solution won't be found in the courts.

"I think it's a legislative issue," he said.

by CNB