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

DATE: THURSDAY, September 1, 1994                   TAG: 9409010091
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Staff and wire reports
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Medium

EDUCATION CHANGES PROPOSED

Word of sweeping recommendations for change made by Gov. George Allen's educational reform strike force reached educators at Western Virginia colleges and universities Wednesday, but none could comment because the report had not been distributed.

"We certainly welcome any constructive efforts to improve both the efficiency and quality of higher education in the commonwealth," said Virginia Tech spokesman Dave Nutter.

The committee's preliminary report was released Tuesday, but is only one step in a long process, said Allen's deputy press secretary, Melissa Herring. Public hearings will be held before a final report is issued to the governor in late fall.

Still, broad changes are being proposed by the committee, which said public schools too often fail to prepare students for college or jobs.

The committee recommended that public schools be required to provide ``competency guarantees'' and reimburse colleges for any remedial work their graduates may need, and colleges should admit only those who need "very minimal" remedial work.

Both the school day and the school year should be lengthened to provide more time for core academic studies and ``social promotions,'' in which students who have failed to pass are nonetheless advanced to the next grade, should end, said the committee.

Also recommended:

Studying the benefits of mandatory student uniforms and the potential advantages of single-sex classes in at least some grades.

Slowing the pace at which public school teachers win continuing contracts, which virtually guarantee them jobs, by lengthening teachers' probationary period beyond the current three years.

Allowing parents to choose which schools their children attend. Tuition tax credits should be available for those who select private schools.

Demanding, in court if necessary, that the federal government reimburse Virginia for the millions spent annually educating an estimated 18,000 illegal aliens.

On the political front, the committee said the secretary of education needs more than the ``persuasive powers'' the office presently holds. It said the secretariat should administer about $75 million in college financial aid grants that are handled by the State Council of Higher Education.

The power of the State Council, conversely, should be cut, the committee said, ``leaving [it] solely as a specialized advisory study group'' to the governor and the legislature - not the state's leading oversight agency for all public, private and proprietary schools.

Moreover, the director of the State Council and the chancellor of Virginia's community colleges should be appointed by the governor - not the groups' independent boards, the committee said.

The state's colleges should continue to cap tuition and fees at inflationary rates, the strike force said. Rules also should be established on colleges' creation of quasi-educational groups, while their many centers, institutes, bureaus and foundations should be examined for consolidation or elimination.

The committee also urged merging the Schools for the Deaf and Blind in Hampton and Staunton, and ultimately closing both of them in favor of ``a more appropriate facility for long-range dollar savings and better service.'' A merger alone would save millions of dollars, since both institutions have unused space and no waiting lists.

The recommendations will help save money, but the committee said ``there remain significant funding needs'' in public education that must be addressed.

Though supporting the report, strike force members J. Ronald Courtney and Walter M. Curt contended the committee's recommendations did not go far enough in challenging Virginia's education establishment.

``At each step in the process, I have been fighting a paradigm that is pervasive in American education today - insiders know what is best for education,'' said Curt, a Harrisonburg businessman and one of the few noneducators on the committee.

``Any suggestions from those outside the educational community are unwelcome and obviously flawed,'' Curt added in his call for hiring controls, some construction moratoriums and tougher financial accountability rules for the state's colleges.

by CNB