THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, September 24, 1994 TAG: 9409240007
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 34 lines
Students and school administrators should have seen this coming. You reported (news, Sept. 17) that Gov. George Allen has sent letters to state-supported colleges requesting plans to cut budgets from 2 percent to 6 percent. President James Koch of Old Dominion was quoted as saying that these cuts could possibly lead to layoffs and the closing of academic departments.
We should have expected this.
With Gov. Allen's plan to end parole and build more prisons, we should have known that his first target would have been education.
Virginia ranks 43rd in the nation in state funding per college student. Anyone wonder what that $100 million to Disney could do for state-supported schools?
Obviously, our governor is too busy working on short-term solutions to complex problems to bother himself with improving a vital resource.
If state funding priorities continue in this direction, building more prisons will become a necessity as more students who can't afford our in-state tuition find themselves looking for work - perhaps building prisons, perhaps residing in them. God help us - students and parents - who wonder what ``state-supported'' really means.
JUSTIN M. HARRISON
Virginia Beach, Sept. 17, 1994 by CNB