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

DATE: SUNDAY, September 25, 1994                   TAG: 9411050018
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: E2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

GOV. ALLEN

STATE SUPPORT for Virginia's colleges and universities has fallen to a dismal 43rd in the nation. Under Gov. George Allen, it may sink even lower: Allen has asked each school, along with other state agencies, to have draft plans ready by mid-October for cuts of 2 percent, 4 percent and 6 percent.

No longer can the schools look toward tuition increases, either, to make up for some of the plunge. One of Allen's campaign planks last year was an inflation-only cap on tuition at Virginia institutions; the General Assembly has imposed a 3-percent ceiling for the current year.

Previous cutbacks in higher-education appropriations, totaling 20 percent since 1990, came in the face of projected shortfalls in state revenues. Since that isn't the case this time, it's reasonable to presume the administration is looking for ways to pay for its no-parole plan. That plan has its virtues, but it doesn't come cheap.

In the short run - the space, say, of a gubernatorial term - Virginia's colleges will survive. Over the long haul - the period, that is, which Virginia should be considering - this constant whacking-away at a once-excellent system of higher education poisons the state's prospects.

Coupled with Virginia's increasing lag in support for primary and secondary education and for social services, it makes you wonder whether the unwitting goal is to ensure that there are ever more criminals to fill ever more prisons.

The governor has touted his sentencing-reform plan, and we have had friendly words to say about it, as a way of protecting Virginians from violent predators and repeat offenders. But cost estimates are now jumping from $1 billion to $2 billion, and seem certain to climb higher. If that cost is to be put on the shoulders of the best crime-prevention tool of all, education, then the no-parole plan is no crimebuster; it's a crime creator.

by CNB