ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, April 12, 1996 TAG: 9604120081
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
For Roanoke County School Board member Michael Stovall, there is no place for political ideology and partisan considerations in the schools. They should transcend politics, he says.
For that reason, Stovall said Thursday that he cannot accept or understand Gov. George Allen's veto of General Assembly legislation requiring that the state apply for federal Goals 2000 funds if 85 of the state's local school boards request it.
"I don't see any justification whatsoever for it," said Stovall, vice chairman of the county board, which has endorsed the program. Goals 2000 provides federal funds for teacher training, curriculum development and educational materials.
"If they've got money for education, let's take it," he said. "When it comes to schools, you've got to be bipartisan and not stand on ideology."
Roanoke School Board member Charles Day said he doesn't share Allen's fears that the Goals 2000 money will come with strings attached that would lead to federal intrusion in local schools.
"I don't think there would be any more regulations with that money than what you have with other federal funds," Day said. "I've always felt that if you don't take federal funds that are available, someone else will."
School boards in the Roanoke Valley and several nearby counties have voted to ask the state to participate in Goals 2000 and accept the $6.7 million that would be available next year for Virginia schools.
Radford and Rockbridge County are the only localities in Western Virginia that have declined to ask the state to accept the funds. School boards in several other jurisdictions in the region have not acted on the issue.
Sixty-five school boards have sent resolutions to the Virginia School Boards Association requesting state participation in the federal program. Several more boards will consider the issue in the coming days, said David Blount, governmental relations officer for the organization.
The school boards association hopes to get resolutions from 85 boards by Wednesday when the General Assembly meets for its veto session. If that many boards have petitioned the state to accept the money, Blount said, it might increase the legislature's chances of overriding Allen's veto.
State Sen. John Edwards, D-Roanoke, believes that could happen.
"The Democrats can't do it alone, but I think there's a chance the veto might be overridden," Edwards said.
Roanoke and Roanoke County schools received $13.5 million in federal funds for magnet schools, school lunches and programs for disadvantaged children last year, but the federal government did not interfere or try to take control of the schools, said Edwards, referring to Allen's stated concerns that the funds would come with certain federal requirements.
These funds were targeted for certain programs, but Goals 2000 money would be more flexible, without strings attached, Edwards said.
Federal education officials have said Virginia could use its Goals 2000 money for testing or training teachers to implement the state's new academic standards.
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