Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, September 8, 1993 TAG: 9309080303
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DWAYNE YANCEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
But the Democratic candidate for governor saved her broadest strokes to continue painting Republican George Allen as a candidate who is evading the disparity issue but otherwise will promise voters anything they want to hear.
Terry dropped by Preston Park Elementary in Roanoke and Dublin Elementary in Pulaski County as part of a daylong swing through Western Virginia to talk up school-funding disparities, an issue that pits financially stressed rural and urban school systems against more-affluent suburban ones.
In July, Terry said she would direct the first money available toward hiring more teachers as a way to lower the teacher-student ratio in kindergarten through third grade in school systems with high percentages of "at-risk" students.
Tuesday, Terry added that - despite a projected shortfall of $500 million in the state budget - she was confident she could find $100 million over the next two years through "growth in the economy, savings and setting priorities" to hire those extra teachers.
Terry said she wasn't sure yet how many "at-risk" students a locality would have to have before it qualified for the extra money.
But she said she would want the threshold set low enough to take in localities where about 25 percent of students qualify for free or reduced-price school lunches.
In Roanoke, 51 percent of the students qualify for such lunches, said Superintendent E. Wayne Harris, who joined Terry during her school visit here. At Preston Park, in the Williamson Road neighborhood, 52 percent of the pupils qualify.
Terry said her plan would provide about $2 million to Roanoke per year. Schools such as Preston Park would benefit the most, she said.
The kindergarten there has about 26 pupils per teacher; Terry said studies have shown that ratio should be about 18-to-1.
She said the thrust of her plan would be to focus the state's efforts on the early grades to help poor students develop the skills they need to do well in school later on.
Terry also scored Allen for failing to present a similar plan to deal with school-funding disparities. "Here it is the first day of school, and you don't see George Allen with a commitment to end disparity," Terry charged.
Terry acknowledged that her $100 million plan isn't close to the $500 million that some rural leaders say is needed to ease the funding gap. But she said she was trying to offer a serious appraisal of state finances - and again drew a contrast with Allen.
"If you look at George Allen, he's promised to retirees half a billion dollars [as a settlement in lawsuit over state taxation of federal pensions], he's promised to spend billions on prisons, he'll return $20 million out of the lottery to localities, he's promised more pay and benefits to the [Fraternal Order of Police], he's made a Shermanesque statement that he won't raise taxes, and he said last week he was not going to cut one dime from the higher education budget," Terry said. "The numbers don't add. . . . I've been careful not to overreach."
Allen has contended he does have a plan to bridge school-funding disparities. He says overhauling the state's educational bureaucracy to eliminate "frivolous and unfunded" state mandates will help poorer school districts.
He also countered that he has offered numerous ways to cut state spending and Terry has not. "All her education plan is, is more spending," he said. "There's nothing about academics." He is calling for tougher academic standards and says the state should test students every two years to make sure they meet those standards.
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB