THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 22, 1995 TAG: 9510200266
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A11 EDITION: FINAL
SERIES: ELECTION '95
THE CITIZENS' AGENDA
The Virginian-Pilot has asked people around the state what their major
concerns are leading up to the Nov. 7 election. This is one in a
series of in-depth reports on those concerns: Today's topic:
Education
SOURCE: BY JON GLASS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 145 lines
After the close of the raucous 1995 General Assembly session, state school's Superintendent William C. Bosher Jr. blamed much of the General Assembly session's contentiousness on political jockeying.
With all 140 General Assembly seats on the Nov. 7 ballot, he noted: ``In an environment like this, even if you don't have differences, you create them because of the political necessity of distinguishing their platforms.''
While some education bills of substance fell victim to partisan rivalry, the session wasn't as unproductive as some campaigning candidates might suggest today.
And the sparring between the Democratic leadership and conservative GOP Gov. George F. Allen belied some significant bipartisan cooperation: Republicans joined Democrats, for instance, in restoring education money the governor proposed trimming.
Even so, anxiety levels are high among the state's education community at the prospect of a Republican takeover of the legislature.
Marian Flickinger, president of the Norfolk Federation of Teachers, frets that the governor's push for prison building is wrong headed. She favors instead more money for early childhood education and alternative programs to keep older kids in school and off the street.
``Instead of incarceration, we've got to look at alternative programs to prevent these kids from becoming lifelong criminals,'' Flickinger said.
With federal budget cuts looming, state funding for public schools is critically important to fund a range of needs, educators said, from smaller classrooms and technology to teachers' salaries. In the 1996 session of the General Assembly, legislators will set spending priorities for education for the next two years.
``Money may not solve all of our problems, but the lack of it would certainly intensify them,'' Flickinger said.
``There's one area that money can make a difference, and that's in smaller class sizes,'' said state Del. Glenn R. Croshaw, D-Virginia Beach, who is running unopposed.
A Republican-led Assembly also probably would approve legislation allowing experimental public charter schools, which has its supporters and detractors in both parties.
Backers say such schools would increase school choice and competition and serve as laboratories to try out innovation, free from stifling state rules. Opponents discount them as a back-door attempt to privatize public schools, placing the idea on par with GOP proposals to give vouchers and tuition tax credits to parents who want to send their children to private schools.
``As long as we're playing on a level playing field, I don't mind the competition,'' said Roy D. Nichols Jr., superintendent of Norfolk schools. ``But if releasing charter schools from all the rules and regulations is good, wouldn't it be twice as good to free all of the schools?''
State Sen. Mark Earley, R-Chesapeake, one of Allen's top lieutenants in the Assembly, said GOP leaders would push for increased funding for school construction in rural and fast-growing areas of the commonwealth, safety in the schools, tougher academic standards and the use of more technology.
And localities, Earley said, would gain more control over such hot-button programs as guidance counseling and family life education. A GOP legislature probably would give the two programs ``opt-in'' status, meaning that parents would have to give permission for their children to participate. Now, the state has an ``opt-out'' policy in which parents have to notify school officials if they don't want their kids included.
Earley said a major school safety initiative will focus on ``character'' education. Schools would be encouraged to weave into their curriculum core concepts such as honesty, self-discipline, respect and responsibility, values, he said.
``Those are things that Republicans are going to be more pointed on and eager to address than Democrats have in the past,'' Earley said. ``There will be more emphasis on academic standards and class time not getting crowded out by family life, peer mediation and all those social things that eat into teaching time.''
Following is a summary of what the General Assembly did in 1995 and what it isexpected to consider in '96:
Some bills and proposals that became law:
A student who brings a gun or other weapon to school faces expulsion of at least one year.
Law enforcement officials must notify school superintendents when a student is arrested for a delinquent act involving death, weapons, drugs, assault, wounding, arson or burglary. (It toughened an existing provision that required notification when a student is found guilty of such criminal acts.)
School officials can seek court fines of up to $500 against parents who refuse to work with them to improve the behavior of disruptive children. Parents could be fined $50 for failure to sign a statement at the start of school pledging to assist school officials in disciplining their children and maintaining order.
The threat of court action against parents, however, has sparked an uproar, prompting the parents of a teenage girl to sue the Roanoke County School Board. They claimed the so-called parental ``contract'' - based on language suggested by the state Department of Education - violated their constitutional freedom of religion and speech. Their court case in U.S. District Court is pending.
So-called disparity programs to help poor school districts are now a legislative priority under the Omnibus Education Act. Legislators said the initiative serves as a guidepost for where the state will put its education dollars.
Local school boards can require students to wear uniforms.
Local school boards can create single-sex classes to the extent that it does not violate federal law.
WHAT'S COMING UP
A preview of the likely hot topics in 1996:
Charter schools, and related perennial conservative GOP issues such as vouchers and tax credits. Del. Robert Tata, a Virginia Beach Republican who would be second in command on the House Education Committee with a GOP sweep, said some type of charter school bill would pass if Republicans were in power.
The state's Standards of Learning, regardless of which party is in control, could become regulations. What schools did in the classroom to ensure that students meet the standards would be up to localities, but there probably will be consequences of some sort for schools failing to measure up. Figuring out how to hold schools and students accountable could get messy.
Republicans are expected to resurrect a bill to require that all new school hires, including teachers, undergo criminal records checks. It's an issue, Tata said, that doesn't resonate with voters ``until it hits home'' and students are victimized by an employee with a criminal past.
Civil immunity for teachers, designed to protect them from lawsuits for enforcing discipline, will be revisited. Democratic legislators killed the bill last session, in part because it was not supported by the Virginia Education Association, the powerful state teachers' union. Critics of the VEA suggested the group opposed it because it would lose liability insurance money from teachers, a charge VEA officials deny.
Funding will take center stage. The use of lottery funds for education, embroiled in partisan bickering last session, and ways to provide more money for school construction will be on the table.
The debate over school safety will take a twist, with Republicans offering a proposal that schools emphasize character education as a way to improve discipline.
Efforts to give local school districts more control over family life education and non-academic guidance counseling are likely. Many Republicans want to change the programs from ``opt out'' to ``opt in,'' meaning that parents would have to give permission for their children to participate. by CNB