ROANOKE TIMES

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

DATE: SATURDAY, June 12, 1993                   TAG: 9308250343
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A11   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short


ADDING UP

THE VIRGINIA Municipal League calculates that local governments will need to put up an additional $295 million for public schools in the 1994-'96 biennium, ``just to stay even in the field of education.''

State government, the league further estimates, will need to find an additional $367 million to pay its share of meeting official standards of quality for public schools in the two-year budget period.

These estimates are based on the projected increase in the number of Virginia schoolchildren for the '94-'95 and '95-'96 school years, and do not take into account provision of free textbooks (as approved by the '93 General Assembly) or possible improvements in state-designated standards of quality, such as mandating smaller class sizes.

Nor do they reflect the costs of implementing the state Department of Education's so-called "World-class" education initiative - or the costs of reducing funding disparities among school districts, a grievance over which some local jurisdictions have sued the state.

In light of all this, it's important that Virginia voters demand specific responses from aspirants to public office. When candidates, for local or statewide elective posts, come seeking votes, ask them how they would deal with these signs - in at least nine figures - of times to come.



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