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

DATE: MONDAY, March 7, 1994                   TAG: 9403080025
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

PARTNERSHIP JMU, BUENA VISTA BRANCH?

AS LEGISLATIVE conferees work to reconcile House and Senate versions of the 1994-96 state budget, they should retain the $195,000 in the House budget for financially struggling Southern Virginia College for Women, a private two-year institution in Buena Vista.

But to avoid potential mischief, the appropriation, sponsored by independent Del. Lacey Putney of Bedford, should be approved only with enough conditions to ensure that the deal is in Virginia's, and not simply the college's, interest.

The underlying idea - a contractual private-public partnership for specific educational services - is neither unprecedented nor contrary to public policy. Much of the music program of public George Mason University in Fairfax, for example, is operated under contract with private Shenandoah College in Winchester.

In this instance, James Madison University would contract with Southern Virginia (formerly known as Southern Seminary Junior College) to educate 50 to 60 JMU applicants, including men, within commuting distance of Buena Vista. After attending Southern Virginia for their first two years, they could transfer to JMU as juniors.

The state is interested in public-private arrangements in higher education as a way to accommodate a bulge in college-enrollment demand at less cost than expanding public-college campuses. Also in the House budget, for example, is a $1.05 million two-year appropriation for a pilot program under which community-college graduates would transfer to private four-year institutions at state-subsidized tuition rates.

Questions persist, however, about the JMU-Southern Virginia proposal. Is it a genuine arm's-length agreement that brings mutual benefits to both parties? Or is it simply a means for keeping a failing private institution afloat?

To help make sure it's the first rather than the second, legislative conferees should condition the appropriation on the State Council of Higher Education's approval, not only of the plan's contractual details but also of its place within the commonwealth's higher-education strategy. In addition, conferees should limit the appropriation to the proposal's first year (as the House bill does), keeping the anticipated second-year allocation of $390,000 on hold pending evaluation of the first-year experience.

In other words, it depends. If the plan is an example of perverse bailout-style industrial policy, which pours public money into private enterprises with the least promising prospects, drop it. If it's a legitimate part of Virginia's search for cost-effective ways to meet the higher-education demands of the latter half of the 1990s, go for it.

Keywords:
G.A. A994

by CNB