ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Saturday, December 21, 1996            TAG: 9612210014
SECTION: CURRENT                  PAGE: NRV-6 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER|    WYTHEVILLE - More money for education 
- from public schools to the university level - will be top priorities for 
Southwest Virginia when the General Assembly convenes next month.
   The New Century Council and the Commission on the Future of Southwest 
Virginia,  both of which include the New River Valley, have gotten together on
what legislative issues they will push during the 1997 General Assembly.
   They will lobby for the state to support seven initiatives:
   nIncrease state support to universities, colleges and community colleges. 
Specifically, the two groups want the state to increase its investment in 
technology equipment and training, increase the amount of tuition assistance 
grants and, by the year 2006, have Virginia's educational institutions funded 
at the average level of Southeastern states generally.
   "We know now that knowledge is power. In Western Virginia, knowledge is 
going to be jobs," said Beverly Fitzpatrick, executive director of the New 
Century Council.
   nProviding fiber-optic lines for schools. The state should pay all or a 
large part of monthly charges for fiber-optic lines for  classrooms. Those are
being used increasingly in Southwest Virginia to allow advanced classes to be 
televised to a number of schools, where individual school systems could not 
afford them.
   nEfforts to establish industrial commerce center parks owned and developed 
on a regional basis, rather than being tied to single localities. This would 
require enabling legislation by the General Assembly.
   nFull funding of a Governor's School for counties in far Southwest 
Virginia, again using telecommunications technology for its classes rather 
than locating the classes at a single site. The Southwest Virginia Public 
Education Consortium is studying such a project.
   "This recommendation is really for the 1998 General Assembly," said Marcia 
Quesenberry, the consortium's executive director, "when we will be asking for 
full funding for our Governor's School."
   nA regional farmers' market system, to ease access for Southwest Virginia 
farmers to national grocery store chain markets.
   nSafe drinking water, which some areas of Southwest Virginia lack. The 
state can help by matching the full amount of federal funds available to 
Virginia through the Safe Drinking Water Act. A $6 million state appropriation
would secure $30 million in federal money for small and disadvantaged 
communities. The groups also want a Coalfield Water Development Fund to help 
governments in Virginia's coal counties to leverage federal and other funds 
for high-cost water projects.
   n Special appropriations to accelerate construction of an express highway 
through the coalfield counties of Southwest Virginia.
   The recommendations were announced at a meeting earlier this month of the 
commission and council at Wytheville Community College.
   The council covers the planning districts in the Roanoke and New River 
valleys as well as Wythe and Bland counties. The commission covers the 23 
counties and cities of the 9th Congressional District. Because of the overlap,
Fitzpatrick said, it made sense to go together to Richmond with joint 
legislative recommendations.
   "I think that we have a good strategy here of presenting priority items in 
reasonable packages," said Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, who organized the 
commission. "Let me assure you that there are recommendations to come."
   
   
   
   
   

GROUPS TO SEEK MORE MONEY FOR EDUCATION

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