Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, April 30, 1990                   TAG: 9004300366
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B1   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: PATRICIA LOPEZ BADEN EDUCATION WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

STATE MUST BE FAIR IN SCHOOL FUNDING, EDUCATORS TOLD

"The obligation on the part of the state to equalize spending is very great," said Geiger at an early morning news conference. Geiger was in Roanoke to address the state school superintendents conference, which starts today and continues through Wednesday.

"The state does not have to make spending exactly even, but it must be fair," he said.

In Virginia, there is a gap of nearly $3,500 between the richest and poorest school districts, and in Southwest Virginia, several rural districts have already threatened a lawsuit unless changes are made.

Geiger said schools also will have to radically restructure the way they educate children, emphasizing reasoning skills over rote learning.

"We are still teaching in many schools as if this were still the Agricultural Age, or the Industrial Age, when in truth, we have passed both of those," he said.

"It was fine to teach children basic math, science, reading and how to take orders," he said, "because when they got out of school, they'd punch a clock and spend eight hours a day taking orders and doing `cog' jobs."

Now, he said, such menial-labor jobs "don't exist."

To keep pace, he said, "we have to teach children to reason."

And contrary to what Bush Administration officials have preached, "we will have to spend more money to do it."

Unlike other industrialized nations, Geiger said, the United States has not invested in its schools or its children.

In fact, he said, "we treat children like crap in this country."

Geiger said recent studies show that up to 40 percent of learning disabilities can be traced to poor prenatal and early childhood care.

"We'll spend $100,000 to keep a premature infant alive," he said, "but we won't spend $1,000 to make sure the mother has decent prenatal care. We have to rethink our priorities.

Part of the answer, he said, is to scale back military spending and put the money into schools and early childhood care.

"President Bush has said he wants Head Start for 4-year-olds," Geiger said, "and that's great, except that all the studies show that disadvantaged youngsters need to be in Head Start at 3 years old. He wants to leave out 3- and 5-year-olds because that way the program only costs $2.5 billion instead of $7 billion."

Head Start is a federal preschool program that targets low-income families.