THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, November 18, 1995 TAG: 9511181612
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DAVID M. POOLE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium: 95 lines
Allen administration officials say they had needy schoolchildren on their minds last month when they rushed 324 surplus computers to school districts around the state.
But a shipment list obtained by The Virginian-Pilot suggests administration officials may have been more concerned with Gov. George F. Allen's all-out effort to gain a Republican majority in last week's General Assembly elections.
All the computers went to school systems in districts represented by seven Republican lawmakers who faced tough re-election campaigns, including state Sen. J. Brandon Bell of Roanoke County and Del. Allen W. Dudley of Rocky Mount.
Mike Thomas, Allen's secretary of administration, denied Friday that any political calculation went into the computer distribution.
``Even if you did characterize that sort of thing as political, it's certainly not that unusual,'' said Thomas, noting that incumbents from both parties try to ``bring something back to their districts.''
The shipment's timing stunned the state Department of Education, which was developing guidelines to ensure that the surplus machines went to schools with the greatest needs.
State schools Superintendent William C. Bosher Jr. told the Senate Finance Committee that the computers were shipped without his department's ``knowledge or acquiescence.''
In fact, the Allen administration shipped the first batch of computers before some school systems had a chance to apply. The Department of Education had given school systems until Oct. 31 to apply for some of the hundreds of computers freed up by the departure of several thousand state workers earlier this year.
Some Democratic lawmakers on Friday called for a full accounting of how the Allen administration doled out the computers.
``Why wasn't everyone given an opportunity to get them?'' asked House Democratic Leader C. Richard Cranwell of Roanoke County. ``And what criteria did they use - other than politics?''
Donald C. Williams, director of the state's General Services Department, said the elections played no role in the shipment. ``I never even considered looking at a map of Virginia to see who represents an area,'' he said.
Williams said he knew of the deadline set by Bosher, but his department decided to go ahead and give away the first wave of computers on a ``first come, first-served basis.''
Williams said that many people - including parents, teachers and lawmakers - had contacted his office since Allen announced the surplus computer campaign in September.
Officials from several school districts that received computers said they were unaware of the program until they were contacted by a Republican lawmaker.
Homer Duff, facilities director for Roanoke County schools, said he got a call in September from an aide to Bell who asked if the county schools could use 15 computers.
Though the machines were obsolete IBM-compatible models that would be good for little more than keyboard instruction, Duff said he rarely turns down free machines.
Duff said he doesn't know why the state chose Roanoke County, which boosts one of the region's best computer-equipped school systems. ``I don't know if we won the lottery, or what,'' he said.
Bell, a one-term Republican who lost his re-election bid, said he considered getting surplus computers for both Roanoke and Roanoke County part of his job of constituent service. Bell said he had no knowledge about other Republicans getting computers for their districts.
Other GOP lawmakers whose districts got state surplus computers were: Sens. H. Russell Potts Jr. of Winchester and Edgar S. Robb of Charlottesville; and Dels. Dudley, Barnes L. Kidd of Tazewell, Frank M. Ruff of Clarksville, and House Republican Leader S. Vance Wilkins Jr. of Amherst County.
Republicans deny that the computer distribution was part of a coordinated campaign. But two of the seven GOP lawmakers - Dudley and Wilkins - issued campaign statements that began with the same quote: ``In order to be competitive in today's marketplace, basic computer skills are no longer an option.''
Dudley went one further - he got the state to deliver the computers to his campaign headquarters and staged a news conference to present the machines to local school officials.
When a reporter asked if the computers were a political stunt, Dudley laughed.
``This is something good for the community - politics aside,'' he said.
Williams, who personally delivered some of the computers three weeks before the election, acknowledged that he lacked the ``expertise'' to determine which school systems had the greatest computer disparity. But he said the state will have plenty more computers to give away once the state Education Department establishes guidelines.
``The computers were supposed to go to the children, and that's exactly what happened,'' he said. MEMO: Staff writer Todd Jackson contributed to this story. by CNB