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

DATE: THURSDAY, May 12, 1994                   TAG: 9405120151
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A12   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

ELECTING NOT TO ELECT

DANVILLE IS now the sole Virginia locality that has voted on and defeated popularly elected school boards. We'd like to applaud the voters' good sense. However, we can't help but notice that a misleading campaign helped kill the referendum last week.

Opponents argued, among other things, that an elected board would mean higher taxes. At least one advertisement claimed that property taxes would have to double to maintain current school funding. A perplexing argument, considering that elected school boards in Virginia have no taxing authority.

If they ever are given such authority, which is not impossible, they surely would not levy a school tax without a concurrent cut in the taxes for the rest of the localities' operations. Does anyone imagine that separate school funding would come on top of current taxes, leaving cities and counties with a windfall of unallocated tax dollars they could spend - how? - paying off mortgages for the first 1,000 lucky callers? Come now. This is Virginia.

No, we fear the higher-taxes argument is another example of a cynical political phenomenon. In the 1950s, one needed only mention "communist sympathizer" to ruin a person. Today, mumbling "higher taxes" may be enough to generate opposition to a candidate or an idea.

The shame, in the matter of elected school boards, is that strong and valid arguments against the idea are available, though none with the gut-kick impact of the "T" word. Opponents are right to worry, for example, that popular election will increase the likelihood that people with special-interest agendas will seek seats on boards, and divisive politics will creep into classrooms.

Witness last week's vote in Virginia Beach, where a slate of five Christian-right candidates ran with the backing of evangelist Pat Robertson. They were defeated by a six-person slate supported by the local and state education association - a preferable outcome in our view. But it gives cause for concern nonetheless.

A takeover by any group is still a takeover. Providing children with the best possible education ought to be the sole objective of schools' policy-setters. If the election results in Virginia Beach simply reflected which special interest was able to muster the better get-out-the-vote effort, that is nothing to celebrate.

To be sure, the system we prefer - appointment of school-board members by the elected governing body - is not entirely devoid of politics. Witness the appointment this week of two new members to Roanoke's School Board. City Council appointed John Saunders, a businessman, and Marsha Ellison, the president of the Central Council PTA, and reappointed incumbent Marilyn Curtis.

Council's decision to turn out Wendy O'Neil seems to have been tinged by city politics on matters unrelated to schools - for example, her high-profile criticism of council's two-for-one pension deal. No system is perfect. (And, for that matter, politics isn't always a bad thing.)

Still, if council's motives can be faulted slightly on who they chose to oust, they cannot be faulted on who they chose to appoint. Naming members who are both qualified and have children attending city schools seemed an overriding concern. Not teachers' union issues. Not prayer-in-school issues. Schoolchildren issues.

In Roanoke, a petition drive is under way for a referendum on whether to begin electing the city's School Board. If the issue gets on the ballot and passes - as it has in 80 of the 81 localities that have held such a vote - what will be gained?

by CNB