Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, September 20, 1995 TAG: 9509200028
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The state gives localities 1 cent of every 41/2 cents it collects in sales taxes to spend on public schools. The money is allocated based on the number of school-age children in each locality - even if they attend private school, are taught at home, attend school in another locality or drop out.
City school officials are worried that the General Assembly might change the method for calculating the distribution of sales tax money.
If that happens, Roanoke could lose nearly 10 percent of the sales tax money it gets for schools, said Richard Kelley, assistant superintendent for operations.
The school division will receive nearly $7.9 million in sales tax money this school year, he said, but it would have gotten only $7.1 million under the proposed change.
Several other school divisions in Western Virginia said they would lose sales tax money - but less than Roanoke - if the formula is changed. Montgomery County, for example, might lose more than $100,000 a year.
But not all school divisions in the region think a change is necessarily bad.
Under the current system, school divisions conduct a census every three years of all school-age children in their locality. The census is the basis for the distribution of sales tax funds.
During the past General Assembly session, legislation was proposed to use average daily enrollment rather than the school census to compute the locality's sales tax entitlement. That means the entitlement would be recalculated every year, instead of every three years. The measure was defeated, but Roanoke school officials expect it to come up again.
Kelley said this methodology would reduce the sales tax distribution to urban localities with steady or slightly increasing enrollment.
The change would benefit fast-growing localities such as Virginia Beach, Prince William County and Fairfax County, where the enrollment can increase significantly within three years. Now these school divisions have to wait three years for sales tax money to catch up with enrollment increases.
State legislators from growing areas are pushing for the change.
The Roanoke School Board has voted to oppose a change unless there is a provision to protect school divisions from loss of funds. It has included the item in its legislative package for the General Assembly's next session.
Dan Morris, director of finance for Montgomery County schools, compared the average daily enrollment for the 1992-93 school year with the sales tax money the county received.
Had the funding been based on the proposed formula, Montgomery County would have lost $107,000 that year.
Still, the change may be worth it. Morris said gathering information for the next three-year census - scheduled in 1996 - will cost the school system $20,000. Plus, the information could become obsolete long before another census is taken, he said.
``Any formula that seems relatively cost-effective and more timely, go for it,'' Morris said.
Roanoke County likely would be hurt by a change, but school officials did not have a projection of the possible loss.
Salem probably would lose funds, too, if the method is changed, but Assistant Superintendent Michael Bryant did not have an estimate.
``It would probably not be a major loss, but every dollar is a loss,'' Bryant said.
Lee Cheatham, business manager of the Franklin County school system, said he ``couldn't tell right off'' the financial impact of such a change, but there could be benefits.
Conducting the school census in a large county such as Franklin is a big job, he said. ``You can't always be sure that you've counted everyone.''
Rod Dillman, assistant superintendent for finance for Botetourt County, said it would be difficult to predict the impact. Daily enrollment does seem to be an equitable method for distributing the sales tax money, he said.
Dillman said it doesn't seem fair for fast-growing localities to have to wait three years until the school census is updated to get more money.
``If they have more students, it seems that they ought to get more funds,'' he said.
But Walt Shannon, business manager of the Pulaski County school system, is concerned.
Some Pulaski residents choose to home-school their children, he said. Others, who live closer to Radford than to Pulaski County schools, opt to enroll their children in Radford schools.
Though he hasn't tabulated exact numbers, Shannon said losing those students would mean a loss of funding.
The Virginia School Boards Association has not taken a stand.
``Any time you make changes, there will be some winners and some losers,'' said David Blount, governmental relations officer for the school boards organization.
``Our position is that the state should be continually evaluating the distribution formulas to make sure they are equitable. We have not committed to one position over another.''
Staff writer Lisa Applegate contributed to this story.
by CNB