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

DATE: FRIDAY, February 18, 1994                   TAG: 9402190009
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

DON'T LOOK NOW BUT - PROGRESS?

THE GENERAL Assembly's top-ranking Democrats are crowing. They called an unusual mid-session news conference Wednesday to pointedly remind Virginians what they've done for us lately. Not the new Republican governor, not the numerically strengthened House-Senate GOP caucus.

Cynics, of course, might suggest this was partisan posturing. They'd be right. Indeed, some of what the Democrats are claiming as accomplishments - a three-strikes-and-you're-out bill, for instance - originated as Republican ideas. (Democrats killed three-strike legislation last year when it was pushed by former GOP Del. Steve Agee of Salem.)

But cynicism aside, the legislature is poised to take some significant actions, and Democratic leaders, for the most part, deserve a tip of the hat for spearheading them.

One such action is the planned new investment of $103 million to reduce school-funding disparities in Virginia. The package, crafted primarily by House Majority Leader Richard Cranwell of Vinton and Senate Majority Leader Hunter Andrews of Hampton, would reduce class sizes in lower grades of schools with heavy enrollments of poor students and also expand pre-school programs for "at risk" 4-year-olds.

While the package is program-driven rather than formula-driven, and it's nowhere near the amount of money needed, the overall effect will be to strengthen spending ability in a number of poorer school districts.

Andrews (who's also chairman of the Senate Finance Committee), Cranwell (chairman of the House Finance Committee), Del. Robert Ball of Henrico, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, and Del. Paul Councill of Southampton, chairman of the House Education Committee, reportedly have "found" the money, and the $103 million in additional funding for schools is expected to be in the 1994-1996 budget bills that the money committees will soon approve.

Cranwell acknowledged that the school-spending plan is "no quick fix" for educational disparities. But the package represents something of a commitment to reduce disparities in educational quality across Virginia.

Meanwhile, the legislature also is moving forward with a welfare-reform package promoted by Democratic Lt. Gov. Don Beyer and a poverty task force, and on a number of other issues - campaign-finance reforms, tougher drunken-driving laws - that have been stalled for years.

The assembly's cardinal rule - "it ain't over till it's over " -hasn't been repealed, of course. Save the thank-you cards for the Democrats' paladins until after the March 12 adjournment.

But until then, enjoy the near-novelty of real progress apparently being made on some tough issues.

Keywords:
GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1994

by CNB