THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, May 23, 1995 TAG: 9505230254
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JON GLASS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 79 lines
Under a budget-deficit reduction plan moving through Congress, Norfolk schools stand to lose more than $28 million in federal education dollars over the next seven years, while school districts across Virginia would face potential reductions of more than $445 million.
Those figures were released Monday in Washington by The Education First Alliance, a new coalition of educators that said the cuts would devastate urban and rural school districts alike. On the table are reductions in spending for school lunches, the Title 1 program for poor kids, programs for safe and drug-free schools, and college loans.
The U.S. House of Representatives last week passed a budget that targets $67 billion in education spending cuts to balance the federal budget by the year 2002.
``This is money that cuts from the bone of these programs,'' Michael Casserly, executive director of the Council of the Great City Schools, said during a conference call with reporters Monday.
A loss of that magnitude would ``move us back 15 years or more,'' said Roberta Doering, president of the National School Boards Association.
Inner-city school districts like Norfolk, which serve a disproportionately high number of poor kids, would suffer some of the biggest hits.
An analysis by the Council of the Great City Schools, an organization of the nation's 50 largest urban districts, calculated that Norfolk schools would lose about $4 million in fiscal year 1996, which begins in October, and about $28.4 million through the year 2002.
About 60 percent of Norfolk students qualify for free- or low-price meals under the federal school-lunch program, while more than 90 percent of children in some of the city's majority-black community elementary schools qualify.
Those same schools also get a large portion of the $7 million the district receives in Title 1 funds, which are targeted to be cut by $1 million in 1996.
While virtually no school district in Virginia would be spared, alliance members said the proposed cuts would further increase disparities between poor urban districts and wealthier suburban cities. A Norfolk schools spokesman called the cuts unfair.
``Inner-city children have special needs, not only in Norfolk but across the country, and we would not like to see the budget balanced at their expense,'' said George Raiss, the schools spokesman.
``That seems very foolhardy. It not only sends a message that we don't value education as much as we do other things, it also will represent a severe cut in services.''
The report estimates that more than 6,000 kids in Norfolk now served by the school-lunch program would lose out in fiscal year 1996 if the budget cuts are passed. It also projects a loss of 68 teachers the same year because of spending reductions in such programs as Title 1, federal impact aid and vocational education.
Statewide, cuts of more than $445 million are projected, including more than $160 for vocational education, $54 million for Title 1 and $60 million for safe and drug-free schools.
Short of a local tax increase, school districts would have few alternatives to make up the losses, Casserly said.
``I don't see any good alternatives here, except for the citizens of Norfolk to contact their congressional representatives in the House and the Senate to express their outrage,'' Casserly said. ``At least in most cities, the tax rate is maxed out.''
The budget debate has sparked a pitched battle between Democrats and Republicans, who crafted the budget passed by the House. The Senate begins debate on a plan today that would restore about $40 billion of proposed education cuts.
But the real battle won't begin until later this year, said Dan Scandling, an administrative aide to Virginia Rep. Herb Bateman, R-1st District, who voted for the House budget.
At this point, Scandling said, the targeted cuts are only recommendations of spending levels needed to balance the budget. How much is cut will be decided when the time comes to vote on actual appropriations, he said.
``The overriding factor is that we need to balance the budget, and getting there is going to be painful, whether it be in education, or transportation or defense spending,'' Scandling said. by CNB