Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, October 1, 1995 TAG: 9509290006
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: G-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Democrats say Allen will take money from schools to build prisons and cut taxes.
Education has become a battleground in Virginia's political wars.
Each side is trying to depict the other as the enemy of schools in an increasingly rancorous debate as the November election approaches.
Allen charges that Democratic lawmakers in the General Assembly are obstructionists who killed most of his education proposals for partisan purposes.
He said declining test scores and poor academic performance have either not registered for the Democrats or they view those developments as inevitable.
Allen has attacked Democrats for refusing to make the state's new Standards of Learning mandatory for all school divisions. He claims the Democrats want to maintain business as usual in education and are willing to jeopardize the children's future.
The Democrats say Allen is the real threat to education. They claim the governor is hurting schools by proposing large budget cuts that affect poor localities the most. They say he is also undermining education with proposals such as charter schools that would drain funds from other schools.
Allen talks about education reform, but his budget cuts would have "obliterated" rather than reformed schools, said Del. Clifton "Chip" Woodrum, D-Roanoke.
The Democrats said they are not surprised that Allen has gone on the offensive on education, as he did at the recent governor's conference on education.
"If [Allen] was serious about improving education, he wouldn't have vetoed the school disparity bill last year, tried to strip funding from it this year, proposed $52 million in cuts in public education and $40 million for higher education," said Del. Richard Cranwell, House majority leader from Vinton.
The Democrats are trying to cast Allen as a foe of the state's poorest school divisions, especially those in Western and Southwest Virginia that will benefit from disparity funds.
Allen's supporters claim the Democrats are trying to frighten voters by making education an issue to help retain control of the legislature.
"The Democrats are trying to use scare tactics - to make voters think that education will cease if Allen gets his way," said Del. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, a member of the House Education Committee. "I have been shocked by some of the things they have said."
State Sen. Malfourd "Bo" Trumbo, R-Fincastle, agrees with Allen that more money doesn't automatically produce better schools. "By the same token, I am not saying that more money is not needed for education. We need to do both."
Beverly Sgro, Allen's secretary of education, said Democratic lawmakers don't want Allen to be viewed as an education governor and have blocked most of his reforms.
State Sen. Brandon Bell, R-Roanoke County, said the Democrats seem to view education solely as a money issue, and they don't seem interested in higher academic standards or education reforms such as charter schools that would give localities more flexibility in education.
"They want to keep the control in Richmond and just divvy up the money," he said.
Political spin
Political analysts say both sides are trying to put their own spin on education in this fall's campaign for the General Assembly.
Political leaders are hearing loud and clear from voters that education at all levels is important, said Robert Holsworth, a political analyst at Virginia Commonwealth University.
He predicts the Democrats will make a major issue of Allen's budget cuts, and Allen and the GOP will talk about how they are pushing for higher academic standards and are trying to improve the quality of education.
Bob Denton, a political analyst at Virginia Tech, thinks the Democrats will try to use Allen's education record to cause fear among voters.
"The Democrats will use it as a scare tactic. They will say that Allen is hurting education," he said. "The Republicans will say they are trying to reform and improve education."
The Democrats will have an easier task, because they will just try to paint Allen as the "bad guy and anti-education," he said.
Denton said it will be tougher during the campaign for Republicans to explain education reform and the need for change. But recent publicity about a high failure rate on the state's Literacy Passport Test has heightened education as an issue, he said.
Besides the budget cuts, the Democrats are expected to try to exploit Allen's refusal to seek the $8.5 million in federal funds under the Goals 2000 program that provides money to the states for education reform.
Virginia is one of only three states that have refused to participate in Goals 2000.
Allen said the state should delay seeking the money until the new Congress provides protection for local control over schools. In its present form, Goals 2000 offers no guarantee against federal intervention in local schools, he said.
Lt. Gov. Don Beyer, a Democrat, and several state legislators have criticized Allen for not taking the money. They say he is spurning the funds because of politics and his alignment with a states' rights crusade by several Republican governors.
Among Allen's critics is James Dyke, the secretary of education for former Gov. Douglas Wilder, a Democrat. "Throwing away money targeted for education for purely political purposes is bad policy and fiscally irresponsible," Dyke said.
'Caught in middle'
Allen has tried to spin the debate on Goals 2000 to his advantage.
He said the Democrats who are criticizing him for refusing to take the federal money also blocked his proposal for the phased return of $300 million in state lottery profits to localities for education, law enforcement and/or local tax relief.
Allen said the Goals 2000 money is only a fraction of what the lottery profits would be.
The Democrats killed the lottery proposal in a partisan showdown; Allen has vowed to revive it in the next General Assembly.
Cranwell contends Allen's lottery proposal is an attempt to cloud the issue and take disparity funds from poor school systems.
The Vinton Democrat said the Omnibus Education Act requires that 100 percent of the lottery profits be spent on public education. Allen's lottery proposal would strip money out of the disparity package, which mainly benefits poor schools in Southside and Southwest Virginia, he said.
The Republicans say the Democrats' move to dedicate all lottery profits to public education was a "shell game," because it did not increase money for education; the lottery money simply displaced other money in the general fund.
Allen proposed a five-year phased return of the lottery profits, beginning with $15 million during the first year.
But Cranwell argued that the governor's plan would cut so deeply into state revenues that the state would have to abandon its commitment to help rural and inner-city schools.
Some educators feel caught in the political cross fire.
"Both sides have got their backs against the wall. Most of the rhetoric is political, and we are caught in the middle," Botetourt County School Superintendent Clarence McClure said.
John Kent, Bedford County superintendent, said Allen seems out of touch with educators sometimes.
"He seems to be out of sync," Kent said. "He's using a lot of jargon that makes him look tough on education, but it won't improve schools."
Nolan Yelich, president of the Virginia School Boards Association, said there is support among many school boards for Allen's initiatives. He said it's not surprising that some of Allen's proposals are controversial, because it is difficult to try to break the current paradigms in education.
Ken Walker, chairman of the Coalition of Equity in Educational Funding, said the poor school systems support the push for higher academic standards, but they need more money.
The coalition is a group of mostly rural school systems who sued the state over the school-funding formula and argued that it was unconstitutional. The Virginia Supreme Court rejected the argument. While the elimination of disparity is a worthy goal, the court said, any relief must come from the General Assembly.
Allen has portrayed himself as the real advocate for higher academic standards and beefing up the teaching of core subjects such as math, science, social studies and English.
He said he wants real reforms in academics - not "feel-good" approaches that in the past, he said, were preoccupied with students' attitudes and mainly designed to boost their self-esteem.
Stakes for education
Most of the Republican candidates for the General Assembly are lining up behind Allen's education proposals - boosting their chances for approval if the GOP wins a majority in one or both houses.
If the Republicans gain control, there likely will be charter schools, mandatory academic standards, regular testing of students on the standards and report cards on how schools are faring.
The state-mandated sex-education program might become a local option, and parents would have to give written permission for their children to participate.
A GOP victory also would increase the likelihood that Allen's proposal to return lottery profits to localities would be approved.
Although the Democrats have blasted the charter school proposal, all Republican legislative candidates in the Roanoke Valley support the concept.
Trixie Averill, Cranwell's GOP challenger, has embraced the idea and proposed the establishment of military charter schools.
Newell Falkinburg, who is running against Woodrum, thinks charter schools would help improve public schools and keep control at the local level.
Bell, who is being challenged by Democrat John Edwards, has long been an advocate of charter schools and helped lead the GOP effort on the issue in the legislature.
Allen's push to make the standards of learning mandatory for all school systems and to return lottery profits to localities also have strong support among GOP candidates.
"Quite frankly, I am tired of the school system graduating students who cannot read their own diploma," Falkinburg said.
Bell sponsored a bill that would have made the standards mandatory. "It makes sense to have regulations as to what is to be taught. Now they are guidelines. It is important to have common standards for the state," he said.
If Republicans win control of the General Assembly, it could be easier for Allen to get his education agenda approved.
Meanwhile, he can count on solid support on the state Board of Education. He has appointed five people who served on his Commission on Champion Schools to the state board. His appointees constitute a majority on the nine-member board.
Sgro said she is confident that the GOP agenda reflects what the public wants. Without changes, Allen said, politics-as-usual will mean the schools will remain mediocre and fail.
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