Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 12, 1994 TAG: 9401120254
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURA WILLIAMSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Bell, a Republican who represents Roanoke and most of Roanoke County, announced Monday that he would introduce a school-voucher bill during the General Assembly session that begins today.
The bill would allow children who receive free or reduced-cost lunches - an often-used yardstick of poverty - to spend 80 percent of the money allocated for their public education at private institutions.
Although the bill would not force localities to join the voucher program, Roanoke County Supervisor Bob Johnson said Tuesday he feared the General Assembly would amend the legislation to make participation mandatory. He called the local-option component "a guise to make it more palatable."
Johnson, who has been mentioned as a possible candidate to run against Bell in 1995, asked his fellow board members Monday to formally oppose the bill. The board voted unanimously to oppose any bill creating a school-voucher program.
Johnson said his comments were not politically motivated and that he intended to complete his four-year board term, which ends in 1997.
He opposes the bill, he said, because he believes it eventually would lead to a voucher program open to all children that could resegregate city schools and take money from public schools generally.
"You can dress it up," Johnson said. "But if it waddles and it quacks and it lays eggs, it's a duck."
"That's his opinion," Bell said. "That's not the way the bill will be introduced."
Bell said he hoped the bill would give better opportunities to inner-city parents who might not be satisfied with their public schools but could not afford to send their children to private schools.
"There are other localities that, obviously, Bob Johnson is not considering," he said.
Others also think Bell's approach would not work.
Vouchers would not provide more choice to parents, said Roanoke Superintendent E. Wayne Harris, because they would not cover the full cost of private school tuition.
In Roanoke, for example, 80 percent of per-pupil spending would amount to roughly $4,400. Tuition at North Cross School, a private school on Colonial Avenue, ranges from $2,615 for pre-kindergartners to $5,575 for high school students.
"These are the kids who could least afford even the 20 percent," said Roanoke County School Board Chairman Frank Thomas.
Both Thomas and Harris said they would oppose any program that took money out of the public school system.
"The amount of money we get now is not enough," Harris said.
Bell said public schools would not suffer from his proposal, because only a small number of people would use the vouchers. What is more, he added, public schools would not lose money, because they would not incur the cost of educating children who opted to attend private schools.
"It will be a rare, selected basis where a parent will opt for this," Bell said. "I don't see how that would hurt anybody."
Bell also fails to see eye-to-eye with some constituents on another point - whether he should have consulted with local school and government officials before announcing his voucher proposal.
Bell met Jan. 5 with the Board of Supervisors, and his aide met Jan. 3 with City Council and the Roanoke School Board. No mention of the voucher bill was made at either of those meetings.
No mention of the bill was made during a breakfast meeting last month among Bell, Thomas and Roanoke County Superintendent Bayes Wilson, either. At that meeting, Thomas said he made clear his desire to know of any legislation that might affect the Roanoke County school system.
"I was just a little disappointed that he didn't check with us," Thomas said.
Johnson went even further.
Bell's failure to confer with the governing officials and educators in his area, he said, showed that Bell did not respect their opinions.
"I guess I disagree," Bell said.
The meetings he held with school board members and local governing bodies were to hear what those officials considered legislative priorities, he said.
Memo: ***CORRECTION***