Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, October 11, 1995                   TAG: 9510110070
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                 LENGTH: Medium

HIGHER EDUCATION PANEL DEBATES GIVING PRIVATE SCHOOLS MORE STATE AID

The council discussed Tuesday whether to increase state grants given to Virginians who attend more than two dozen private colleges in the state. The Tuition Assistance Grants, known as TAG, automatically are given to the private school students regardless of need.

A vote to recommend increasing the annual grants from $1,500 to $2,000 per student died on a 6-4 vote, but the council appointed a committee to study the matter further.

The state spends $19 million a year on the grants. The General Assembly would have to approve any increase.

Council members stressed they did not want to jeopardize funding for the state's public colleges and universities.

``I would not want to give the private schools funds that would come out of the pocket of the public schools,'' said council member Donald N. Patten, who still supported the increase.

The state began awarding the grants 20 years ago to help more Virginians attend college without burdening state-supported schools.

The ``rent-a-school'' program, as council member John D. Padgett called it, is less expensive than expanding public campuses to accommodate more students, advocates say.

``We need to provide access,'' Padgett said. ``If our private institutions can help us achieve that goal of access, I'm all for it.''

Another council member, Alan I. Kirshner, suggested studying whether to increase the TAG grants to match the state subsidy for Virginians attending state-supported schools. That averages $3,400 per student, down from the $4,500 the state paid in 1989 before cutting higher education money during the recession. North Carolina, by contrast, spends $5,400 per student.

Virginia now ranks 43rd nationally in state funding per student. In 1989, the state was 29th.

``We're right at the bottom of the country right now. I frankly cannot in good conscience support programs that might make that less,'' said council member William C. Battle, who opposed increasing the TAGs.

Kirshner, who suggested the increase, wound up voting against the motion because he wanted more study.

``My gut reaction says I want to do it, but I don't know enough about the subject right now,'' he said. ``We definitely don't want to do anything to hurt public education in Virginia.''

Kirshner was named to the 11-member council by Allen, a Republican, as were the four members who supported increasing TAG. Allen also appointed one member who was absent. Democratic governors appointed the other five members.

The grants go to more than 13,000 Virginians attending 28 private colleges in the state. Among the schools in the program are Liberty University, the University of Richmond, Sweet Briar College, Hampton University and Washington and Lee University.

Private schools use the grants to attract students from Virginia, said Robert B. Lambeth Jr., president of the Council of Independent Colleges in Virginia.

But Lambeth said the program is ``losing its effectiveness'' because the grants have not increased in six years while the gap between public and private school tuition is growing.