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

DATE: MONDAY, April 25, 1994                   TAG: 9404260035
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

TAX REVOLT

MONEY IS not the schools' major problem. Wonders could be done with public education in America today - even with current levels of funding - if parents and communities were more committed to reform.

But money is a problem. And not only the total amounts. Disparity in funding between rich and poor school divisions is a big problem, evident in Virginia and every state of the nation.

And so is the way education funds are raised. In this last respect, the case of Michigan is instructive.

Last summer, Michigan's governor and lawmakers in a fit of frustration repealed outright all property taxes used to finance public schools.

It was high-stakes brinksmanship, to be sure, but it underscored growing discontent over property taxes as the primary funding source for education at a time when only one in four voters has a child in school.

Until last year, a political stalemate had blocked all attempts at tax reform. The state couldn't simply shut down its schools, of course. But what would be the alternative?

Now we know. Last month, Michigan voters overwhelmingly passed a referendum supporting an increase in the sales tax from 4 percent to 6 percent, all of it earmarked for schools. Cigarette taxes tripled to 75 cents a pack.

Michigan's experience is likely to prove but one episode in a national revolt against property taxes as the dominant basis for school funding. They are a stable source of revenue, but also a built-in cause of funding-inequity among communities with radically disparate property values. And because property taxes are a local levy, political resistance tends to come more easily.

Michigan voters, unfortunately, did not choose the best reform. Income taxes, which are less regressive than sales taxes, would have offered a better funding-source. But the sales tax is still an improvement over the old system.

Virginians would do well both to anticipate an assault in our state on property taxes for school funding, and to begin laying the groundwork for a sound alternative.

by CNB