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

DATE: SATURDAY, February 1, 1992                   TAG: 9202030153
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-11   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

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PUBLIC SCHOOLS DON'T GIVE MONEY'S WORTH

IN AN EDITORIAL Jan. 19, you criticized Gov. Wilder's 1992-94 budget proposal as not doing enough for public education. You said that it provides no money for teacher pay raises, that it contains none of the $212 million needed to fund the first two years of the administration's own plan for easing school-funding disparities, and that it provides no new money for schools. You also advocated an increase in the state sales tax, a portion of which you think should be designated for education.

When taking into account that a large number of our high-school graduates cannot read, write, spell and/or work arithmetic and that Scholastic Aptitude Test scores continue to decline, I know of no one who seriously believes that we are getting our money's worth from our public school system. I certainly do not believe that increasing revenues and imposing additional taxes to enhance the school budget will alleviate current problems. To me, that would be like rewarding incompetence!

The best thing we can possibly do for our school system is to reduce the federal and state administration, as well as the influence of the National Education Association, and return operation of the public school system to the individual localities. BYRON A. MULLEN ROANOKE

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