MILKING SCHOOLS FOR PROFIT

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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 14, 1993                   TAG: 9304140322
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
MILKING SCHOOLS FOR PROFIT
MANY SCHOOL districts in Southwest Virginia have suffered for years from financial malnutrition. Several are part of a coalition of poorer school divisions throughout Virginia that has sued the state for failing to fund public education equitably. Some say it would take at least $500 million to correct the inequities.
In light of that estimate, 10 school divisions in this region may not be exactly swooning in anticipation of the funds that may come their way as a result of a lawsuit brought by the state. The amount that Attorney General Stephen Rosenthal is trying to recover from dairies accused of bid-rigging to overcharge on school-milk contracts may prove, relatively speaking, a drop in the bucket.
But the amounts do add up, and so do the outrages that the dairies have allegedly committed. A penny here, a penny there - taken over years, systematically, from Virginia's schoolchildren - isn't trivial if it in fact happened, and the financial comeuppance of perpetrators is to be warmly welcomed.
Rosenthal is doing right to continue the efforts initiated in 1988 by former Attorney General Mary Sue Terry on behalf of schools - and taxpayers - that have been ripped off by the dairies.
Last year, Terry collected $1.6 million in damages for 35 school districts in Tidewater and Central Virginia that had been victimized by milk bid-rigging schemes.
Rosenthal can't say at this point how much he hopes to collect for the 10 Southwest Virginia school districts that he claims were also victimized. The lawsuit he filed Monday against Meadow Gold Dairies Inc. and Valley Rich Dairy seeks unspecified damages - the amount of which is to be determined as the investigation and the suit proceed. The suit is on behalf of schools in the cities of Roanoke, Salem, Radford and Covington and in the counties of Roanoke, Botetourt, Franklin, Alleghany, Giles and Patrick.
Unlike the earlier probe by Terry, Rosenthal's lawsuit also charges that Meadow Gold and Valley Rich conspired to fix prices on milk sold to nongovernmental customers - primarily grocery stores and convenience stores in Southwest Virginia. He is seeking $100,000 in civil penalties from each of the dairies for these alleged violations of the state antitrust act.
Meadow Gold and Valley Rich should, of course, have their day in court. But they've already agreed to pay $1.5 million in fines in connection with federal bid-rigging allegations against them.
If a greedy conspiracy added even in small ways to the financial struggles of Southwest Virginia schools, let's hope Rosenthal makes the dairies cry plenty over the spilt milk.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB