ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, December 19, 1996 TAG: 9612190070
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: ROBERT LITTLE STAFF WRITER
Community college freshmen with good grades could attend their second year free under a proposal Lt. Gov. Don. Beyer will take to the legislature in January.
The plan would cost about $4 million, Beyer said, but is only one step in his $140 million-a-year vision of eventually offering college scholarships to any B student in Virginia.
"This is a very major commitment of Virginia's resources," Beyer said Wednesday during an informal meeting with reporters. "But it is one that is important to our children's development."
The plan is one piece of the legislative package Beyer will offer when the 1997 General Assembly convenes Jan. 8.
The likely Democratic candidate for governor next year, Beyer has focused much of his energy on education issues. His probable Republican opponent, Attorney General Jim Gilmore, has done the same, proposing his own $2,000 college scholarship program for high school students with at least B averages and good conduct records.
Other planks in Beyer's agenda include giving public school teachers authority to kick disruptive students out of class permanently and send them to alternative, detention-type classes. Instead of removing only violent students, teachers then would be able to deal with other disturbances such as excessive talking.
The decisions would be subject to approval by a parent-teacher review board to keep teachers from abusing the power.
"The least we can do is give teachers the authority to control their own classrooms," Beyer said. "You don't have to have a gun in your pocket to be disruptive."
He also will ask the legislature to finance mandatory summer or after-school classes for sixth-graders who fail the state's Literacy Passport Test. Nearly 25,000 failed last year. Remedial learning for those students would cost about $307 each, or $7.5 million a year.
Beyer will also try to force Gov. George Allen to apply for funds under the federal Goals 2000 education program. Virginia is the only state not participating, because Allen objects to what he considers restrictive conditions of the program.
Besides education initiatives, Beyer said he will seek $8.3 million that would be combined with federal money to pay for 1,000 new police officers around the state. He also will offer a $2.5 million tax credit for companies that send employees to community colleges for training.
And he wants to make the state's registry of sex offenders available to parents and volunteer groups, so they can check potential baby sitters, employees and others for sex-related crimes.
LENGTH: Medium: 57 lines KEYWORDS: GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1997by CNB