Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, January 12, 1995 TAG: 9501120074
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JAN VERTEFEUILLE AND DWAYNE YANCEY STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Democrat Bob Johnson asked the board Tuesday to reconsider its legislative wish list and add opposition to charter schools.
Republican Lee Eddy, however, objected to considering the issue without advance notice and without its being listed on the printed agenda.
Johnson and Eddy got into a scrap about the appropriateness of revisiting the legislative agenda on such short notice. Then they argued over the procedural moves to get it to a vote. Eddy appealed the chairman's ruling; Johnson said that wasn't allowed.
The chairman, Fuzzy Minnix, then put it to a vote, and the issue was added to the agenda.
Underlying the maneuvering was a larger issue. Eddy argued for keeping an open mind until charter school legislation drafted by state Sen. Brandon Bell, R-Roanoke County, is complete.
If approved by the General Assembly, charter schools would be semi-independent, experimental schools supported by local school board budgets, but without as much oversight by the boards. Roanoke City Council and the Roanoke School Board both have voted to oppose charter schools.
Johnson, a Democrat who may challenge Bell for his seat this fall, argued that Roanoke County didn't need the state tampering with the county School Board's authority over education.
It was Johnson, however, who accused Eddy of partisan politics. "I thought we had a gentleperson's agreement" not to be partisan on such issues, Johnson said.
When the matter came up during the meeting, another debate ensued.
"I don't think any gubernatorial appointee has the right to run Roanoke County schools," Johnson said, calling the experimental schools racist and elitist.
The concept is a "wink and a nod" to home schoolers, he said.
In the end, the board reached a compromise of sorts: It voted 4-1, with Eddy dissenting, to support whatever position the Roanoke County School Board takes.
Feisty Bell is up for challenge
Speaking of Bell, the Roanoke County state senator heads to Richmond - and looks ahead to his re-election campaign - in a feisty mood.
In a recent interview, the freshman legislator made it clear he still sees himself as a challenger - a Republican challenging Democrats' hold on power in the General Assembly.
On Democratic charges that he's ineffective: "I wasn't elected in 1991 to run over to Vinton and ask [Democratic Del.] Dick Cranwell what to do and get his permission ... I wasn't elected to deliver on the Democratic agenda."
On how Democrats are so eager to oppose him this fall: "It doesn't bother me at all to be seen as having a seat someone wants, because I'm challenging their lock hold on power. I'm a symbol for the challenge to power. I revel in that."
On why Democrats are taking such pains to attack the charter-school bill he's carrying for Allen: "I feel like I'm threatening them, and they feel some compulsion to `knock me off.' I've rattled them. They feel they've got to fear the loss of government, because all trends point Republican, and the charter schools idea has been getting attention nationwide. That's where they've drawn the line in the sand."
Cutler, Fintel lobby for Explore funds
Explore Park Director Rupert Cutler didn't spend all those years in Washington without learning a few tricks - such as the old Washington Monument play.
That's the one where, if the National Park Service is threatened with budget cuts, it warns that, without the funding, it'll have to shut down one of its most prominent tourist attractions, the Washington Monument.
That's essentially what Cutler's been doing the past few weeks, making the rounds of local governing bodies - and a General Assembly budget hearing - to warn that, if Gov. George Allen's proposed budget cuts go through, the park might have to be shut down.
Cutler concedes the odds of that happening are "poor" at best. But, he says, it's a way to dramatize Explore's plight. Some $400,000 of Explore's annual $1million budget comes from the state; Allen wants to cut half of that state funding - or about 20 percent of the living-history park's budget.
More realistically, Cutler says, he may have to lay off even more costumed "interpreters" or jack up visitors' fees - or both - if the money doesn't come through.
Explore plans to lay on a heavy lobbying effort in the General Assembly to get the cut funds restored; both Cutler and former Roanoke College President Norman Fintel, who heads the park's private fund-raising arm, will be in Richmond buttonholing legislators.
They warn that unless they can assure private donors that the state intends to support the park, it'll be difficult to raise contributions.
Even the Allen appointee who now heads the park's governing body - Vinton homemaker Trixie Averill - hopes that some of the state funding can be restored. She calls this a "critical" time for the park, which opened last summer after nine years of planning.
But she quickly adds that she agrees with the overall Allen goal of reducing dependence on state government. In the long run, she says, Explore needs to figure out a way to get by without such a heavy reliance on taxpayer subsidies. "I don't see us staying at the public trough forever," she says.
Keywords:
GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1995
by CNB