Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, October 26, 1993 TAG: 9310280353
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Farris opts for the latter. He supports educational choice, and proposes tax credits to allow parents to educate their children at home or send them to either private or other public schools. Objections range from the charge that credits would destroy the public schools to Beyer's odd claim that they would benefit only people who, like him, already send their children to private schools.
The second point nicely illustrates the inverted logic of liberalism. Tax credits would, in fact, be of almost no use to Beyer, who can afford to send his children to any school he chooses.
But they would very much benefit parents who want to send their children to a school other than their assigned public school, but who cannot afford to.
The first point is simple nonsense. Germany, Spain, France, Poland, the Netherlands and England, among others, all finance independent schools fully or in part. If tax credits threaten the existence of public education, government schools in these countries should not have survived. But they have. How?
The real fear among liberals is not that educational choice will destroy the schools, but that it will rejuvenate them. Strong schools, run by teachers and parents, will mean the end of liberal social engineering in them. No more state-mandated education experiments at the expense of Virginia's children. So long to the privileged position that a liberal education establishment has to dictate education policy.
Modern liberalism is a political creed conceived in paternalism and dedicated to the proposition that people are incompetent to manage their own affairs. Nowhere is this clearer than in education policy. As Farris puts it, ``Liberals love government. Conservatives love people.''
FREDRICK M. WILLIAMS
ROANOKE
\ Library, services center needed
MONTGOMERY County citizens will have the opportunity to improve our quality of life and enhance our community by voting yes for the two bond referenda on Nov. 2.
One of the easiest ways to learn about a community is to visit the local library, which is more than books. It's the symbol of our community. One visit tells a lot about the community it serves. Our library building needs to exhibit the same caring qualities that its programs exemplify. It provides services ranging from the story-time program, which my 5-year-old grandson has attended, to the large-print books that my 85-year-old mother enjoys.
Montgomery County also needs a new health and human services building. The services are currently located in several buildings. This discourages people from using the available services and receiving the care needed. All too often they must resort to the emergency room for treatment. A new building would centralize services and reduce health-care costs with the increased use of preventative services and early intervention available through public health.
JOAN H. MUNFORD
House of Delegates,
12th District
BLACKSBURG
Effectiveness is a magnet for critics
THIS is open season on competing figures of legislative authority. The higher a man stands above the crowd in farsighted vision, expertise and the ability to get things done, the greater his magnetism draws the slings and arrows of outraged would-be officeholders who covet his job, not to mention prestige and charisma that go with it. These overly ambitious people are not concerned with facts - insinuation and innuendo are their tools of trade, and their slogan is: Don't worry about truth, just grab the headlines.
Speaking of grabbing, Majority Leader Dick Cranwell is a foe to that, and Virginians are grateful. He's famed for steering a law through the General Assembly in 1979, enabling counties to fend off land grabs by adjoining towns and cities. This one success alone validates his considerable worth.
We're facing crucial times. Changes in federal and state laws call for sober and sound judgments that a novice couldn't be expected to possess. They only come with experience. Clarity of vision and ingenuity are most important, and Cranwell, with more than 20 years in the legislature, has both. True, he has been successful in business; that's a plus. Who wants to follow a failure?
RUBY A. ROBERTS
CHRISTIANSBURG
by CNB