THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, April 27, 1996 TAG: 9604270361
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: ROANOKE LENGTH: Medium: 52 lines
The Virginia Education Association on Friday backed an effort to bypass Gov. George F. Allen's veto of $6.7 million in federal funding for state schools, and Lt. Gov. Donald S. Beyer Jr. urged Allen to change his position.
The VEA delegates voted unanimously for a resolution supporting federal legislation that would let local school boards apply for the Goals 2000 funding directly instead of going through the state.
Allen has said the federal Department of Education can't be trusted to give Virginia money without attaching a lot of rules and regulations.
``If the governor is standing in the way, we need to find a way around him,'' said David Winship, a school librarian from Washington County. ``The veto was a very misguided, shortsighted political statement.''
Later Friday, Allen told reporters in Richmond that the only way he'd reconsider the Goals 2000 program was if the federal government would give the money to the state in the form of a block grant.
The existing Goals 2000 program represents ``a way of getting that federal skunk into our classrooms,'' he said.
Eighty-seven of Virginia's 134 school boards have passed resolutions urging Allen to apply for the Goals 2000 money, which could be used for such things as teacher training and testing new academic standards.
The vote of the VEA delegates, who represent 54,000 teachers and administrators, reinforces the position that Virginia schools want and need the money, Winship said.
``This is not complicated; it's a no-brainer,'' Beyer said in a speech to the delegates. ``Eighty-seven school boards across the commonwealth agree. That money belongs to our children, in our classrooms, and not to our competitors in North Carolina and California.''
U.S. Rep. Rick Boucher, D-9th, told the delegates that he's optimistic Congress will pass legislation introduced Wednesday that allows school districts to get the money even if a state as a whole does not participate.
But Beyer said Allen should just go ahead and apply for the funding.
``Regardless of the veto, he has the power as chief executive to take the money,'' Beyer said. ``He has yet to mention a single string that's attached. If he's really worried about strings in the future, he can pull out then.''
Beyer accused Allen of following the will of ``a small corner of his party who basically believe the federal government is responsible for all of our ills in society. He is appealing to a very small segment of Virginia's population.'' by CNB