THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT  

              Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.


DATE: Sunday, October 22, 1995               TAG: 9510220127

SECTION: FRONT                    PAGE: A1   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: Education.<  

                                             LENGTH: Medium:   82 lines

A FINE BALANCE IN SOME CITIZENS', OPINIONS, WHAT VIRGINIA'S PUBLIC SCHOOLS NEED MOST IS MONEY TO RAISE TEACHERS' SALARIES, BUY MORE COMPUTERS, HIRE MORE TEACHERS AND SHRINK CLASSES. BUT MANY SAY FUNDING ALONE WON'T IMPROVE SCHOOLS; WHAT'S NEEDED IS A COMMITMENT TO HIGHER STANDARDS. HOW CAN THE STATE RAISE PERFORMANCE STANDARDS WHILE ASSURING FAIRNESS IN SPENDING RESOURCES?

MORE RESOURCES?

Every month, third-graders at McCleary Elementary School in Craig County each get about 30 minutes at the computer - if they're lucky.

That's far below the hour or two each week that educators say students will need to meet future state standards requiring computer literacy by the 5th grade.

Craig County has provided no funds for new computers for several years. The county schools have done the best they can with machines donated by companies.

At McCleary Elementary, each third-grade classroom is equipped with one computer, an old Apple model that the school's principal calls ``beyond obsolete.''

Teacher Janice Smith said the 18 children in her homeroom would be much better off if the school had more computers, preferably in a lab setting where an entire class could work.

The way it works now, students take turns one or two at a time. The computers have software for math and reading games, but no keyboard-training programs. ``They're pretty much on their own because I can't be away from the class that long,'' she said.

David Poole

HIGHER STANDARDS?

Jessica Snedecor took honors classes last year as a Chesapeake high school student, but this year as a college freshman she's scrambling to catch up. Snedecor, who graduated from Indian River High School in the spring, is taking ``developmental'' classes at Tidewater Community College to bring her skills up to par. She's enrolled in developmental English and math.

She says her high school honors English teachers concentrated on reading and literature, to the exclusion of grammar. Snedecor recalls one math class in which the teacher ``didn't care if everybody failed the test, she'd still give you a passing grade.''

``I failed most of the tests and got a B. I walked out not knowing anything,'' she said.

While Snedecor says she had some good high school teachers, she says standards at times were too low.

If the public policy choice is between raising educational standards or giving schools more money, ``I think the standards are more important,'' said Snedecor. ``In high school you'd have classes where you started off writing an essay once a week. Then after a while they'd slack off and you wouldn't do anything at all,'' she said.

Margaret Edds ILLUSTRATION: Color photos

CINDY PINKSTON/The Roanaoke Times

GARY C. KNAPP/The Virginian-Pilot

Graphic

JOHN CORBITT/The Virginian-Pilot

62% OF VIRGINIANS SAY THE IMPORTANCE OF IMPROVING THE QUALITY OF

PUBLIC EDUCATION IS ``CRITICAL''

SOURCE: Virginia Commonwealth University\ [For complete graphic,

please see microfilm]

KEYWORDS: ELECTION VIRGINIA HOUSE OF DELEGATES RACE-VIRGINIA

VIRGINIA STATE SENATE RACE CANDIDATES ISSUES by CNB