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

DATE: SUNDAY, October 24, 1993                   TAG: 9310240052
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: D6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LAURA WILLIAMSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short


HOW MUCH IN NEW TAXES? VEA WON'T SAY

Rob Jones wanted to push educational disparity into the political debate this year.

So in April, the president of the Virginia Education Association released his organization's solution to the problem - a new formula for calculating how the state distributes money to its 136 school districts.

He promised to release the specific dollar amounts each locality would receive under that formula by June "so that we can make doing right by Virginia's children a key part of the campaign debate."

But the VEA did not release those figures - not in June, not at all. And the candidates for statewide office and the House of Delegates have spent little time debating the issue.

Now, Jones says the VEA is purposefully withholding the specifics of its plan until after the election.

"We just felt like in the present climate that it would hurt more than it would help," he said.

Why? Because to implement the new formula and erase inequities between the state's rich and poor school districts, the state would have to raise taxes, Jones said.

"We're trying to help the General Assembly members from getting cornered into `I'm for it, I'm against it' talk," he said. "It will get more rational debate after the election."



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