ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, January 16, 1997 TAG: 9701160019
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-9 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: RAY L. GARLAND
SOURCE: RAY L. GARLAND
LIKE THE captain of a dirigible seeking loft by tossing impedimenta overboard, Gov. George Allen is clearing the decks for the November election that will determine his successor.
Whatever you think of this governor, you must grant his abiding loyalty to the Republican Party. He has understood that only by running against the wind can conservatives arrest the inevitable drift toward bigger and more costly government. But he doesn't want to hand the ceremonial key to the executive mansion to Democratic Lt. Gov. Don Beyer, and is making it plain he will even be nice to Democrats if it helps Attorney General Jim Gilmore ascend to the purple.
It had to come, we knew it all along: That dollop of federal funds in the otherwise almost entirely fraudulent Goals 2000 was providing the governor's critics too much fodder. Allen had been shopping for a fig leaf to cover his retreat for some time, and finally found it in a convenient letter from U.S. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott that said, in effect, "Don't worry, you can use the money for anything you like, neither Congress nor the Clinton administration will give a hoot."
A day or two earlier, GOP legislators in Richmond had telegraphed the move by saying a way should be found to take the money. But their plea to get politics out of public education is like asking fleas to stop biting dogs. In this election, the main competition between the parties will be which can open the wider river of gold for educators. Only those candidates with a death wish will suggest that average, per-pupil expenditures now approaching $7,500 a year ought to be enough to do the job.
Goals 2000 was a perfect issue for Democrats. To most people, $8 million is an enormous sum - never mind it isn't much more than one-tenth of 1 percent of what Virginia now spends on public schools. The main thing was somebody else would get our "free" money. It might be absurd for a federal government still running a sizable deficit to borrow money to give states mainly running surpluses; we are hardened to absurdity.
If conservatives have fled in terror from opposing Goals 2000, it also illustrates the extent to which liberals are also on the run. The original legislation, passed early in 1994 when Democrats still ran Congress, was a Rube Goldberg contraption of boards and commissions designed to give national direction and approval to school reform.
It didn't take a rocket scientist to read between the lines. With the states and localities putting up close to 95 percent of what was spent on schools - and no way the federal government could increase its modest share of the pie - Goals 2000 was a wedge to give the feds a bigger bang for their buck.
But even the Clinton administration has backed off the original purpose of Goals 2000, which was to provide federal seed money to develop strategies to improve the schools. Now, apparently, the states can spend the money any way they want.
Allen is also rushing to defuse a political problem with almost 100,000 state employees over "lag pay." The administration had sought to reform the state's old policy of paying wages so close to the time covered as to make it impossible to reflect actual time worked, which had to be corrected in the next pay period. But its original proposal would have caused employees to lose a pay period the first year, which caused no end of hard feelings. Or so the press reported.
Under adjustments to the plan now being debated, workers would have a six-day lag that would be paid when they left state service. But to sweeten the pot they would receive an extra three days' pay during the changeover and see the entire 4.35 percent salary increase that was effective Dec. 1. And the legislature will likely find more money for raises in 1997.
Certainly, the idea of allowing time to make a more accurate payroll seems sensible and would be commonplace in the private sector. But government workers are quick to nurse a grievance and know the uses of politics to make their point. It's no secret state employees were angry with former Gov. Douglas Wilder and open to blandishments from Allen in the '93 election. But the governor has rubbed them the wrong way since taking office and this looks to be a factor at the polls in 1997.
Despite the battering Allen has received over such issues as Goals 2000 and lag pay, polls still confirm him as the state's most popular political figure. There's wisdom in the old saw, "Dance with the one who brought you." Democrats seldom forget it, and Republicans should ask themselves what is gained by fuzzing their image going after votes they probably can't get.
But we seem to be entering a new age of politics in which the tiger lies down with the lamb. Allen has even written state teachers to tout his initiatives in education. This may be the first time a Virginia governor has sent such a large mailing at state expense that can only be seen as serving a political purpose.
Allen pointed out that state support for public schools has increased by more than $600 million since he took office. He also showcased his proposals to this year's assembly for remedial summer schools, smaller classes in grades K-3 and special efforts to help first-grade students who have difficulty learning to read.
Instead of hailing these initiatives, the president of the Virginia Education Association responded to the governor's letter with one of her own, saying she was dismayed he hadn't urged more money for teacher salaries. No source for such funds was suggested. Paying the same people more money to do more or less the same job might improve public services over time, provided existing workers are inspired to do a better job or more qualified people are attracted. But the pace will be similar to that of glaciers.
Ray L. Garland is a Roanke Times columnist.
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