ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, January 7, 1996 TAG: 9601050034
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: F-2 EDITION: METRO
READING, 'Riting and Rot.
Throughout Virginia and much of the nation, parents and teachers are worrying about not just test-score trends, but school-building decay.
So where are the politicians? General Assembly candidates were falling over themselves this past campaign, proclaiming their undying devotion to education. Yet, if any did address the matter of decrepit school facilities, they must have been whispering.
No fair, they might respond: School maintenance and construction are local governments', not the state's, responsibility. They'd be right.
But just maybe it's time to revisit this equation, time for the state to consider a role in funding public education's bricks-and-mortar needs - like 32 other states do.
Currently, a lot of localities are struggling to keep up with school-construction needs. The latest facility survey by Virginia's Department of Education identified a backlog of $898 million in necessary maintenance and construction projects.
The needs aren't limited to fast-growth communities with swelling school populations. They are found, too, in localities where enrollment has stabilized or is shrinking, but where children still attend classes in buildings that may be a century old and crumbling. Many such schools are overcrowded, have no air conditioning, have inadequate heating, lighting, plumbing and cafeteria facilities, and lack electrical capacity to accommodate computers and other technological tools of modern learning.
As it now stands, the state has two modest programs offering assistance to localities with school-construction needs. Low-cost financing through bond issuance is available through the Virginia Public School Authority. Low-interest loans are available through the Literary Fund, which gets its revenue from criminal fines, forfeitures, unclaimed property and repayments.
Unfortunately, the waiting list for Literary Fund loans is long. And legislators' ideas for improving the program usually go no further than agreeing not to dip into it for other budget purposes.
Meanwhile, the state offers no direct financial aid for capital-outlay school projects or the debt obligations incurred by municipal governments. These debts are mounting. In 1987, Virginia localities' outstanding debt was $1.3 billion; by 1994, it had risen to $3.2 billion.
Local governments should retain primary responsibility for school-building needs, and should raise taxes as necessary. Roanoke County officials, for instance, should be embarrassed by past delays in addressing maintenance and overcrowding problems.
Still, at the very least, disparities in wealth among school divisions should make this a state concern. And, as the letter by a Penn Forest PTA president elsewhere on this page reminds, building needs are putting strains on even relatively affluent communities.
Nationwide, the General Accounting Office has found $112 billion worth of pressing public-school construction requirements, with less than $3.5 billion spent last year to address them.
No, a link between student achievement and the condition of school buildings isn't always obvious. But doesn't the physical environment we provide for our children's education say something about the value we place on their future and ours?
Virginia's legislators and governor can't keep closing their eyes to the deterioration of public-school buildings. Prisoners will be getting some fancy new facilities. To do less for schoolchildren is a disgrace.
LENGTH: Medium: 65 linesby CNB