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

DATE: SATURDAY, May 8, 1993                   TAG: 9305080129
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LAURA WILLIAMSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

HOW THE FUNDING FORMULA WORKS, AND ALSO DOESN'T

By using a complicated formula that some have criticized as inadequate, and many would like to change.

A coalition of Virginia's poorest school divisions has sued the state over what they call its failure to provide an equal education to all students. The formula fails to make up for wide gaps in per-pupil spending created by wealthier counties contributing more of their own money, the coalition argues.

The suit is pending before the Virginia Supreme Court.

The Virginia Education Association also takes issue with the state's school-spending formula, arguing that it fails to cover each student's basic educational needs. It recently proposed a formula of its own.

Here's how the state formula works, as explained by the Virginia Department of Education's Kathy Kitchen, division chief of administrative support services:

First, the state determines how much it will cost - on a per-pupil basis - to provide the basic education required in the "standards of quality" to students in each school division.

Then, it looks at each locality's ability to pay that cost, plus the cost of programs for gifted, remedial and English-as-a-second-language programs.

To determine how much a locality can afford to pay for education, the state examines the area's real estate values, adjusted gross income (for the entire population), taxable retail sales, total population and number of students.

It holds those figures against those for the state as a whole, then divides the state's education budget so that the department pays, on average, 55 percent of local school needs.

The state actually contributes as much as 80 percent of that cost in some areas, and as little as 20 percent in others. For example, this year the state contributed 24 percent of the cost of a basic education for Fairfax County students, but 76 percent of that cost to Grayson County.

The spending gap arises, Kitchen said, because wealthier areas, such as Fairfax, pitch in beyond what the state requires. The state's poorer localities also exceed those standards, but don't have the tax base to do so to the same degree.

Per-pupil spending in Virginia varies from as little as $3,807 in Appomattox County to as much as $8,724 in Falls Church.

Kitchen said there's one area in which the state is indisputably fair - it gives no money to anybody for school construction.

"We can help you with low-interest loans," she said, "but we don't give you any money."