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

DATE: FRIDAY, September 3, 1993                   TAG: 9401110266
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A14   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

MYOPIA

WHY IS higher education so high on Gov. Wilder's list of targets for further budget cuts? Because, in a society not noted for long-range thinking, slashing at higher education seems relatively painless - in the short run.

The harm resulting from outdated lab equipment, from larger class sizes, from a paucity of new library materials, from stagnant faculty salaries is not immediately evident. It's a process of erosion that requires a few years to take full effect.

A contrasting example is corrections policy. Throwing more criminals in jail for longer terms has the satisfying quality of seeming to be a fast-track answer to the problem of crime.

In fact, what prisons have proved best at is teaching inmates to be more effective criminals. That hasn't done much to protect Virginia residents from harm or theft. But stiffer sentencing seems a good answer on the surface - and it's the surface that politicians tend to worry about.

Thus, the brutal irony in Virginia: While the state pours millions into prison construction, for a program that doesn't work, it takes millions from higher education, a program that does.

It's hard, we know, but government officials are going to have to look beyond the next election - to a place called the future - if they want to begin saving money and investing in a growing economy.

If revenue-shortfall fears become reality during the 1994-96 biennium, getting serious about alternative punishments to prison is just one way funds might be saved, in the long run, without crippling the colleges.

The state, as another instance, could also get serious about reforming Virginia's wasteful structure of local government.

If necessary, Virginia - whose state and local taxes as a percentage of income are among the lowest in the country - could even (horrors!) raise a tax or two.

Any or all of that, unfortunately, would require a greater field of vision than the incumbent governor - or, for that matter, either of his prospective successors - has shown.

What are Democrat Mary Sue Terry's and Republican George Allen's specific ideas for closing the alleged budget shortfall - without resorting to the bleeding of colleges and universities that Wilder has blithely proposed? If the candidates have detailed plans, they're not divulging them.

by CNB