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

DATE: FRIDAY, September 30, 1994                   TAG: 9409300052
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

POVERTY THREATENING SCHOOLS

The quality of public schools is threatened by the rapid increase in economically deprived children in the past decade, a leading Southern educator said Thursday in Roanoke.

Unless the problem is dealt with, it will get worse and erode the educational system, Alton Crews said.

The pervasive economic and social ills that are caused by poverty reach far beyond the classroom and can't be solved by schools alone, said Crews, director of the leadership academy of the Southern Regional Education Board.

Neither can money solve the problem, but more money will be needed for schools, Crews said. And schools will have to compete with other governmental services for those scarce dollars.

"We will have to do with less money, and we will have to compete with health, welfare, prisons, law enforcement and other services for the money that will be available," he said.

Crews came to Roanoke to speak to a group that included all three school superintendents in the Roanoke Valley and several business people. The Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce helped arrange his trip.

Almost every Southern state has had an education reform movement and provided more money for schools, but there has been no dramatic increase in test scores, Crews said.

Schools are being blamed unfairly for failing to remedy behavioral and social ills that are part of a larger cultural problem, he said. "The schools can't do the job alone. Communities need to give more attention to at-risk children."

Crews said schools exist primarily for academic and educational purposes, not to deal with all the psychological and emotional problems of children.

The Southern Regional Education Board, representing 15 states, was the nation's first interstate compact for education. The board members include the governor of each state, legislators, educators and other citizen leaders.

Gov. George Allen recently appointed state Sen. Brandon Bell, R-Roanoke County, to the board.

Crews, who has been a school superintendent in Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina, said the states work cooperatively to solve school problems.

He said school divisions need to do a better job of educating students by combining an academic and vocational curriculum so students have a better chance of getting a job when they get out of school.

One of the keys to a better school system is strong and effective leadership among the top administrators, Crews said. "Superior leadership is needed, and it can learned," he said.

by CNB