ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, March 14, 1996 TAG: 9603140038
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-11 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: Ray L. Garland
SOURCE: RAY L. GARLAND
COMPOSING the mind of 140 personalities in two contentious bodies is never a neat nor uplifting task. But here's a quick overview of a few major issues dealt with at the recent assembly, reserving a detailed look at the 1996-98 budget until next week.
GOING FOR THE GOLD IN GOALS 2000. Gov. George Allen has insisted Virginia go it alone in reforming public education, steering clear of federal initiatives known as Goals 2000 and the small sums offered states to sign on. He has pushed for more specific and tougher learning standards and asked legislators to appropriate some $23 million to design and implement testing at five grade levels to measure results.
The House of Delegates wanted testing at three grades only and insisted the governor apply for some $7 million in federal money to do even that. The compromise, passed with no floor debate, calls for $12 million in state money to fund tests in three or four grades. In an odd twist, it requires Allen to join Goals 2000 if as many as 85 of the state's 139 local school superintendents say it's a good idea. That money would then be spent locally.
Since no superintendent in history has ever said the schools had all the money they need, it would be astonishing if most didn't request it by return mail. Allen, of course, will veto this provision and likely be sustained. But even if Democrats drop Goals 2000, testing for the new learning standards may have to be watered down, which will suit most educators just fine.
NOTHING IS PERFECT. You can certainly criticize the learning standards as being too much too soon or too little too late. But the governor's program does represent an effort to measure the output of that great and costly apparatus known as public education.
A sizable body of Democrats, much beholden to the Virginia Education Association, was hostile to the whole notion. As one of them put it, "We shouldn't be teaching kids to test but to think." Indeed. But when taxpayers are spending, on average, about $7,000 a year to educate each student in the state's public schools, it makes sense to spend the merest fraction of that to know what we may be getting for it. In fairness, we are already doing a good deal of testing against national norms.
The flaw in this scheme, as in so many others, is that Virginia is a remarkably diverse state. Standards that might be laughably simple for most students in Falls Church may be impossibly difficult for the vast majority in Charles City. One is tempted to say the wisest course is to recognize the schools are owned and mainly operated by 139 widely differing communities that should have maximum freedom to conduct their affairs in harmony with local conditions and expectations. But that's the last thing the VEA wants.
CHARTER: SMARTER OR DUMBER? In one of their neo-conservative moments, President and Mrs. Clinton have spoken kindly of "charter" schools as one way to make public education more accountable. And numerous states have adopted them in one form or another. But not here. Even a weak version offered by the Democratic chairman of the House Education Committee, Del. Paul Councill, failed to make it to the floor.
Previous columns have dealt with the problems of charters when compared to vouchers that would be redeemed at truly independent private schools. These boil down to a single question. If those holding charters must conform to most of the rules governing public schools while staying in good odor with local boards of education to keep their charters, how much of a challenge to the status quo will they dare represent?
EDUCATION'S POLITICAL DIVIDE. The teacher's lobby now functions mainly as an auxiliary of the Democratic Party. That there are certain dangers in this might be found in the fact a majority of Virginians voted for Republican legislative candidates despite the Democrats' campaign posing as the best friend education ever found.
For all the Democrats' rhetoric, you might have thought they would find substantial money for teacher raises over the next two years. They didn't.
Allen provided no money in his budget to pay the state's share of teacher raises in the coming year. For 1997-98, he did fund a raise of 3 percent. When Democrats controlling the House Appropriations Committee failed to sweeten the pot, Republican delegates had a field day championing higher raises. In the end, the assembly compromised on 1.75 percent the first year and 2 percent the second - not much more than Allen wanted. In plain truth, the state is short of money to scratch every itch.
That doesn't mean teachers will get no more than this. We need reminding that teachers are employed by local school divisions, not the state. When they come asking local governing bodies for raises of 5 or 6 percent, officials will point to the state budget. Of course, many localities will give more. But considering the state's great diversity, this little exercise may teach a useful lesson on the subject of why the assembly should leave issues of compensation to those who actually employ the teachers and know local conditions.
A MESSAGE FOR PUNKS. The signature measure of this session is the revamping of juvenile justice that blended the work of two state commissions - one appointed by Allen that wanted more emphasis on punishment, the other controlled by Democratic legislators insisting it should be on prevention.
The law will now deal more harshly with those between 14 and 18 charged with serious crimes. The problem is by the time most juveniles reach the stage of rape, murder and armed robbery, they will likely have a long record of less serious offenses. The best prevention may be a little shock therapy. For a "child" of 10 or 11 up on a second charge of destroying property, perhaps two nights in jail will do more good than all the counselors. But that isn't contemplated under this bill.
Ray L. Garland is a Roanoke Times columnist.
LENGTH: Long : 101 lines KEYWORDS: GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1996by CNB