Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, May 24, 1994 TAG: 9405240061
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Despite the Virginia Supreme Court's recent ruling that the state's school funding formula is constitutional, coalition leaders said they will take their case to Gov. George Allen and the General Assembly.
Coalition members mapped strategy for building grass-roots support for securing more money for the state's poorest school divisions.
Their effort will include a summit on disparity in school funding, probably this fall. Allen, state legislators, local governmental officials and others will be invited.
The coalition also plans to publish an illustrated book about conditions and equipment in the poorest school divisions.
"The lawsuit is over, but the disparity still remains," said Ken Walker, chairman of the Coalition for Equity in Educational Funding.
Chip Craig, a member of the Radford School Board, said coalition leaders were restrained while the case was in the courts, but they may be less so now that they have lost the court battle.
Meeting in Roanoke for the first time since the Supreme Court's decision, more than two dozen school superintendents and other school administrators were briefed by their lawyer, Andrew Miller, a former state attorney general.
Pulaski County and Radford were parties to the lawsuit, but more than 30 school districts, mostly in Southwest and Southside Virginia, are members of the coalition.
Walker, who is superintendent of schools in South Boston and Halifax County, said he expects more localities to join now that the litigation is over.
Coalition leaders were told that the key to their success would be building grass-roots support for obtaining more money for schools, including through higher taxes.
Ralph Shotwell, director of finance and research for the Virginia Education Association, said the coalition will fight an uphill battle unless it has public support for higher taxes.
It does no good to go before the General Assembly and ask for more money unless taxpayers are willing to pay for it, Shotwell said.
He said that education is so "grossly underfunded" in Virginia that legislators won't admit there is a problem
VEA president Rob Jones and Shotwell outlined the VEA's plan for ending disparity, which would cost $500 million a year. Shotwell said the VEA plan would have to be phased in over several years.
Walker said the summit on educational funding and the book on conditions in poorer school systems would help the public become more aware of the disparity issue.
Miller said the coalition probably can get federal funds to help pay the costs of the summit.
Jones said the VEA, which has 50,000 members, is willing to help the coalition arrange the summit and publish the book. He said the organization also can help prepare a video or slide presentation to boost the argument for more money for poor school divisions.
Polls have shown that voters support equity in school funding if the issue is presented clearly to them, Jones said.
"We really need to keep the issue before the people,'' Walker said. "It's going to require repeated efforts to keep it alive.''
Coalition leaders discussed the possibility of hiring a part-time executive director to oversee the educational and political campaign, but they reached no decision.
by CNB