Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, September 7, 1994 TAG: 9410130022
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
That, of course, doesn't necessarily mean that parents won't have to put up a bundle to send their children to school.
National retailing groups estimate parents spend an average $300 to $400 per child at the start of each school year, properly outfitting kids in jeans, underwear, shoes, etc. And that will probably do them only until cold weather sets in, or until new fads dictate that the new back-to-school clothes are hopelessly passe, whereupon it's back to the shopping center for another spending spree.
But the constitution's framers probably had something other than designer sneakers in mind when they mandated a free public-school system.
They likely were more concerned with the basics of learning - including textbooks. It only took the General Assembly a century or so to recognize the difference between basics and frills in public education. But, finally, praise be, the slow learners have granted a small measure of relief to parents whose wallets and credit cards have gotten a workout the past couple of weeks, as they do every year, with the opening of school.
This year - compliments of the '93 legislature - textbooks will be provided free of the usual and customary rental charges, which in this region have typically ranged, depending on the school division and grade level, from $14 to $35 a year.
These are not huge amounts, to be sure. But for families with several youngsters in public schools, textbook-rental fees have posed an extra financial burden on top of the outlay of cash for clothes, notebooks, pencils and other materials - and in addition to sundry other school fees: for locker rentals, special insurance for field trips, extracurricular activity ``dues,'' etc. While many school divisions have waived textbook-rental and other fees for the poorest youngsters - generally those qualifying for the free-lunch program - these charges have added to the load of working-poor families.
More important than the financial burden is the principle of the thing, and the practical fact that - whether or not their parents could afford the fees - some children have been forced to go weeks into the new school year without textbooks, because their parents were unwilling or unable to come up with the money in September. Whatever the financial burden for families, this was an unconscionable violation of the state's constitutionally explicit obligation to the children of Virginia.
So the '93 legislature is to be thanked again for its belated action. There's no such thing as a truly free textbook, of course. But in requiring taxpayers - via state and local governments - to share the cost of textbooks, lawmakers have made the constitution's ``free'' public-school concept a bit less of a sham for parents. They also have taken one step toward ensuring equal access for all children to fundamental tools for learning. More such steps should follow.
by CNB