ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, December 13, 1996 TAG: 9612130084
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: CHESTERFIELD COUNTY
SOURCE: MATTHEW BOWERS LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
GOV. GEORGE ALLEN'S $30 million plan includes money to identify and help first-grade students who don't read well.
Funding to identify first-graders with reading deficiencies and help them with special instruction is at the forefront of $30 million in education initiatives proposed Thursday by Gov. George Allen.
Allen, speaking in a Manchester High School classroom filled with students, teachers and state education officials, said he'll ask the General Assembly to amend the current budget to add $450,000 for diagnostic reading tests for all of Virginia's first-graders.
He'll propose $6.2 million more to provide special reading instruction for youngsters who don't pass the first-grade screening.
Educators and child-development experts long have urged early intervention for lagging students, before they fall too far behind peers. Reading, more than other skills, determines success in school.
``This early remediation program will provide students with an additional, on average, about 2 1/2 hours of instructional time per week'' in small groups, Allen said.
``We don't want folks waiting until they get to high school to get up to sixth-grade reading level.''
Sixth grade is when the state's Literacy Passport Test of basic skills is first given; passing is required for high-school graduation.
In addition, Allen proposed $2.7 million in new funding for ongoing summer remedial programs for older students.
The governor also proposed:
*Adding $6.2 million for transitional instruction materials to the existing $64.4 million funding for new textbooks to match the state's new academic standards. Teachers were finding that many of the textbooks weren't yet available, and the additional money could be used for such things as photocopy paper, CD-ROMs and other materials to use until the new books arrive.
The funds would be made available to localities on an incentive basis, where matching funds are provided by the locality.
* Adding $7.8 million to the state Literary Fund, which localities can use for low-interest school-construction and equipment-purchase loans. This would increase to $130 million the amount of loan money the state Board of Education could issue in 1996-98.
The urgent need to fix, renovate and build schools across Virginia was high on the list of priorities for state school boards at their recent annual convention.
* Adding $5.1 million to fully fund the state's existing efforts to reduce class sizes in grades kindergarten through three to an average of 18 students per class or fewer. Smaller class sizes are a prime factor in how well students learn.
* Granting civil immunity to teachers against lawsuits based on their ``good-faith'' efforts to enforce discipline or to provide minor, first-aid-type medical services in their classrooms.
``Teachers cannot teach and students cannot learn when valuable teaching time is taken up by disruptive students,'' Allen said to the teachers in the classroom. ``At least you won't have to worry about lawsuits when you're trying to maintain order or breaking up a fight.''
* Providing $600,000 to pay for liability insurance against such lawsuits for all teachers, at no cost to them, their school divisions or localities.
The same initiative - a law barring such lawsuits - was narrowly defeated in the 1996 General Assembly.
Richard Greenwood, a teacher for 29 years, listened and agreed with the governor that discipline was a problem and teachers needed help. He said he recently broke up an outdoor fight by jumping on the back of one combatant, without thinking of the possible legal consequences. Teachers, he said, also could be liable if they stood by and did nothing.
``I think it'd be good,'' he said of Allen's proposed immunity for teachers.
LENGTH: Medium: 75 linesby CNB