ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, March 12, 1997 TAG: 9703120055
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
Taking a tip from President Clinton's tuition tax credit, state candidates are coming up with their own versions of similarly ill-considered plans.
BILL CLINTON didn't carry Virginia this past November. But Clinton came close, closer than any Democratic presidential nominee since 1976. And it was close enough for Virginia politicians of both parties to notice - and, unfortunately, to take a tip from Clinton's gimmicky education playbook.
The details and relative merits of the ideas vary from politician's plan to politician's plan. But none offers a promisingly cost-effective way toward achieving the otherwise admirable goal of encouraging more young people to acquire more education.
The latest proposal is from Republican Del. Jay Katzen of Warrenton, who just happens to be a candidate for this year's GOP nomination for lieutenant governor. His "2-4-6-8 Excellence in Education Plan" would offer cash to high scorers on the state's 11th-grade Standards of Learning tests, tax credits to their parents, bonuses for the budgets of schools with high scorers, and supplements to the classroom budgets of the students' teachers.
Katzen's plan comes in the wake of General Assembly approval of Lt. Gov. Don Beyer's proposal to award one-year scholarships of up to $2,000 to community-college students who maintain a B average in high-demand technical programs. Beyer, who just happens to have formally announced his candidacy for this year's Democratic gubernatorial nomination, is working on extending the idea to students at Virginia's four-year colleges.
Meanwhile, Attorney General Jim Gilmore has a plan to award $2,000-a-year scholarships to students who scored high on the 11th-grade tests and who maintain a B average at public or private colleges and universities in Virginia. Gilmore just happens to be the only candidate on the horizon for this year's Republican gubernatorial nomination.
And at the top, of course, we have President Clinton, whose administration is pushing tuition tax credits or tax deductions for the families of college students. The idea was a centerpiece of the Clinton campaign this past fall, which just happened to conclude with the president's resounding re-election.
The various spending proposals are not means-tested; much of the money would go to students who'd attend college anyway. Dollars so spent are a diversion of resources that could have gone into improving higher-education services.
In addition, the proposals have the earmarks of one-size-fits-all micromanaging that would dilute Virginia colleges' and universities' traditional control over their own admissions and grading policies.
Pandering may be popular politics, but it is no guarantee of sound education policy.
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