Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, October 24, 1993 TAG: 9310220032
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ROBERT FREIS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Grass-roots campaigns have sprung up to challenge the state's traditional method of selecting school board members.
Until 1992, Virginia stood alone as the only state that exclusively appointed its school boards. Since then - when the General Assembly allowed local options on appointed or elected school boards - voters have resoundingly said they want change.
However, in Montgomery County the prospect of switching from appointed to elected school boards isn't as readily embraced.
A citizen task force, Focus 2006, said last week that it opposes elected school boards under the present law. Changing the system would "lead to false promises and significant conflict," it said.
That stance typifies "a handful of people who are trying to control everything," said Lynn Linkous, an advocate of elected school boards.
"They're scared of losing their power," said Linkous, organizer of the petition drive that put the question on the ballot in Montgomery County.
In Giles and Floyd counties, where school boards are also appointed by supervisors, populist campaigns for elected school boards have been conducted by political novices dissatisfied with the status quo.
They view changing to elected school boards as a means to adjust the balance of power and to enhance local control over schools.
But will revising the system result in meaningful change?
"The expectations of the general public will be very high. They may be disappointed," said Thomas Morris, a political scientist and president of Emory & Henry College.
The change may be largely symbolic because elected school boards won't have any more power than appointed school boards, he said.
Elections will be a "more open process," Morris said, but subject to "shrill campaigns" dominated by emotional issues rather than qualified candidates.
Supporters of elected school boards say the appointment process is just as political yet not as open as a direct, popular vote.
Richard Salmon, a Virginia Tech education professor, says he supports elected school boards because "I like to have a say. It's a natural human reaction."
"People serving on a school board are subject to a great many pressures. It's a pretty hot potato," said Sen. Madison Marye, D-Shawsville, who opposed allowing elected school boards in the 1992 General Assembly vote.
"It's so difficult to get people to run for elected office now. I'm concerned that good people will shy away."
Minority groups also worry that electing school boards will reduce their representation.
Now, 18 percent of Virginia school board members are minorities, a figure that's much higher than the national average and identical to the percentage of minorities statewide.
Voters who cast ballots to change the process will be dismantling the final cog of Virginia's once powerful Democratic political machine.
Today, in 33 Virginia counties, boards named by judges appoint school board members as they have since the 1920s, when the organization headed by Harry Byrd began its 40-year domination of state and local government. The judges were selected by the General Assembly.
School boards made policies acceptable to the Byrd organization and controlled the hiring and firing of teachers and school administrators.
Only one locality - Arlington County - legally chose school board members by election. The General Assembly revoked that right in 1956 after the county defied massive resistance by desegregating its schools.
It was more than 20 years after Byrd's death before the General Assembly allowed elected school boards.
Why? In Virginia, the appointment system generally worked well, particularly for the dominant political organizations, Morris said.
Now the old system is crumbling rapidly. Last November, 42 localities (including Pulaski County in the New River Valley) voted for elected school boards. This year 35 more will decide the question.
by CNB