Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 16, 1995 TAG: 9507170073
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: WARREN FISKE STAFF WRITER NOTE: Below
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Can Patricia Radcliffe and her husband possibly save enough money to send each of their four children to college?
When Frances Little's daughter grows up, will she have to leave the Roanoke Valley to find a decent job?
Will there be enough computers in Christiansburg classrooms so that Jan Poltis' three kids can one day compete for opportunities?
You won't hear these children's names pop up in the General Assembly's grand debates. You won't see their faces on punchy television ads soliciting your vote.
But to these parents, who already are pondering how to vote in this fall's crucial General Assembly elections, their future is everything.
Radcliffe, a Montgomery County educator, was one of 62 Virginians who participated in five roundtable discussions with ordinary citizens that The Roanoke Times and its sister paper in Norfolk, The Virginian-Pilot, held across the state this summer.
The purpose was to learn the values and needs citizens bring to the table for this fall's elections before the rhetoric of candidates and consultants begins.
The idea was, if the citizens spend some time talking about what matters to them, perhaps this fall the candidates will too.
At the end of one two-hour discussion, Martin Farrier of Giles County put it this way: ``What do we want? Everybody wants industrial growth to have more jobs, we want better education, but we want to keep what we have. We don't want to raise taxes or anything. What signals have you given [assembly candidates]? You haven't given him anything.''
So what do we want?
Perhaps Radcliffe, a Montgomery County educator, summed up the desires best with this simple phrase: "We need to put our children first."
The conversations bore little resemblance to much of the high-volume debate that has dominated Richmond in recent years. The citizens had no interest in discussing perennial hot-button issues such as abortion rights, gun control and school prayer. "All of these things are non-issues that attract a lot of debate, but they're not the main focus," said Dean Heffelman, a Norfolk business manager. "They're just distractions to get people off what's really going down."
Nor was there much patience for Republican Gov. George Allen's claims that Virginia's government is bloated and inefficient, or for his demands to reduce state income taxes and the bureaucracy. Many of the citizens even acknowledged that they don't know a lot about Virginia government; only one in three could name his or her state senator and delegate.
Even so, they were aware of Virginia's ranking in the bottom half of states in funding its public schools, colleges and universities. "We're so low," said Gail Taylor, a Norfolk grandmother. "We're down shamefully, aren't we?" Those who beefed about high taxes blamed Washington and their local government. Not a single participant complained specifically about state levies, which rank 46th lowest out of the 50 states, although some did grumble about taxes in general. A few said they'd be willing to pay more if they could see a tangible result.
What the people wanted to discuss was making ends meet in today's difficult economy and fears that standards of living will decline for their children. They spoke about a growing restlessness and a sense of despair among high school and college graduates, especially in Western Virginia. "We're missing a whole generation, from 18 to 28," said Little, a graphics designer who lives near Daleville and works in Roanoke. "They go away and they don't come back. There's nothing here for them."
The Virginia of 2005 that Little and many other participants dream about will be a magnet for high technology, non-polluting industries. Getting there, they say, will take a fundamental restacking of state priorities. The state will need a qualified workforce. And that, in many minds, means politicians must appropriate a greater proportion of state tax dollars to education.
Many citizens expressed deep dismay over the state's education policies. To combat sagging revenues without raising taxes, the legislature has held funding increases for public education to slightly below the rate of inflation in the last five years. State aid to colleges and universities has been cut deeply, causing tuitions to soar. Virginia ranks 43rd in tax support per college student. As a result, tuitions at state colleges are the third highest in the nation.
In the eyes of Bob Cave, a Fairfax County father of three, education "is the single thing we do as a society, especially in this knowledge-based economy that we're all going into ... that will determine whether you have or don't have. To see a government and a governor dedicating his programs or the state's programs to slashing the one fundamental thing that will determine whether you're rich or poor in this state - I'm sorry, I have to say he's wrong."
Across the state, citizens gave a divergent, often competing list of priorities for education spending. To Judy Beatty of Fairfax, it meant building more public schools and lowering class sizes. Carol Pinkney of Norfolk wanted to see more college scholarships created. Brenda Poff of Copper Hill in Floyd County wanted computers for rural classrooms and a leveling of disparity in per-pupil spending between the state's rich and poor school districts. Marilyn Larsen of Fairfax wanted extensive vocational training programs to ensure that teens who are not college material still could leave high school with job skills.
Radcliffe. who lives in Roanoke and works for the Montgomery County school system, wants the state somehow to assure hard-working parents that they will be able to afford to send their children to college. "My father used to work overtime to pay my tuition," she said. "He'd say, `What's your tuition? Got to work overtime,' and there was enough money to do that. Now, if you don't work 10 years to send your child to school, you're in trouble."
Some participants warned that more dollars is not a cure-all for the state's education woes. "It's really not about money that makes the success of the school," said Charles Taylor, a Norfolk clinical therapist. He argued the state must first insist on more rigorous standards for teachers and students.
But a significant majority seemed to share the sentiments of Michael Van Haelewyn, a Roanoke YMCA swimming instructor, who said: "If we could spend money on education and take it away from other areas, I'd have no problem with that."
While the citizens offered few ideas about specific programs they would cut to make way for education spending, they voiced
grave concerns about the overall direction of state government. At each community conversation, people expressed amazement that the state is launching a major prison building program at the same time education funding is suffering.
"If you don't have education to teach what is right and wrong, to where a child has a hope for the future of bettering himself, then you look at a life of crime," said Dave Simmons, a retired police officer who lives in the Fort Lewis section of Roanoke County. "But if you take a budget of more prisons and you're cutting education, what are you telling the people? ... They will need to go to prison because they have no future."
The debate about prisons versus schools was a major dividing point between Republicans and Democrats during last winter's General Assembly session. Allen initially proposed borrowing $409 million for a five-year prison-building program while holding the line on public spending for education and reducing tax appropriatons for colleges and universities. Democrats scaled back the prison program and restored money to education.
Allen captured the hearts of voters in 1993 with a promise to end parole and lengthen prison sentences for violent felons. Now that the bill for his program is coming due, many citizens at the conversations wondered whether Allen has imposed a Band-Aid solution to crime.
"I think prison is a monument to the failure of stopping crime," said John Burns, a retired engineer from Fairfax. "If you stop crime, you don't need a prison. People look at it the other way around. They think that they'll lock up all the people that are going to commit crimes. Well, you're not going to do that if you keep creating more criminals. Why not look at the root causes of it? What are some ways we can do things? One of them is a modern education system."
Citizens mentioned several other policies that they said indicate state politicians may be more interested in quick-fix answers than lasting solutions. Frequently mentioned was the state's new welfare-reform program that gives recipients two years to find a job or lose benefits.
"They're saying they're going to put them off welfare in two years, said Adele Whitener, an adult educator in Chesapeake. "Well, fine, but what are they going to do? There's no jobs."
Also mentioned was Allen's unsuccessful effort last winter to borrow money to build prisons at the same time he was proposing reducing state income taxes. "That's just robbing Paul to give to Peter," said Kwang Choi of Virginia Beach, a retired Old Dominion University employee.
There was an overwhelming sense that state politicians are losing touch with the values that affect citizens' everyday lives. And there was deep concern that the gap will grow larger as Virginia enters a new era of partisan infighting. Republicans need gain only three seats in the 40-member Senate and three in the 100-member House of Delegates to control the General Assembly for the first time. Allen plans to barnstorm the state this fall arguing that he needs Republican majorities to enact his agenda of slashing taxes and the bureaucracy.
That's not a pleasing prospect to most of the citizens, who view partisanship as a cancer that destroys a politician's ability to seek constructive, long-range solutions.
"Party politics is killing us. It's preventing progress," said Marilyn Larsen, the director of a Fairfax retirement community.
"I guess what I really want is someone who's got some practical answers," said Mary Roper, a part-time worker in a Fairfax elementary school. "I don't want an ideologue. If you've got an idea, let's give it a try. If it doesn't work, let's not be embarrassed to say, `Hey, this isn't working, let's try something else.'"
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB