THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, February 22, 1996 TAG: 9602220324
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARGARET EDDS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium: 86 lines
A blitzkrieg lobbying effort appeared to be working for Virginia's public school teachers Wednesday as House Republicans and Democrats signaled that pay raises have become a priority.
At competing news conferences, leaders from both parties said they are committed to finding money for a pay hike next year.
Republicans spoke first and were the most specific. They called for cuts in proposed 6-8 percent salary increases for college faculty over the next two years as a way of giving teacher raises in a tight budgetary time.
Democrats, miffed at Republicans for positioning themselves as the champions of education, countered that pitting one group of teachers against another is a bad idea.
They declined to say how they would come up with the millions of dollars to fund a pay raise but said they hope to have a solution before the $34.6 billion two-year budget is debated on the House and Senate floors today.
``We are making an honest, good-faith effort to get this done,'' said House Majority Leader C. Richard Cranwell, D-Vinton.
Some senators, however, seemed less optimistic.
Noting that lawmakers in both chambers have made higher-education funding a priority this year, state Sen. Stanley C. Walker, D-Norfolk, said ``it's very difficult'' to see how a teacher raise could be financed.
``People are looking at it, but it's going to be tough, I think,'' said Walker, co-chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.
Walker also dismissed the idea of raiding money that has been set aside in budget proposals for higher education. ``Commitments have been made,'' he said. Readjusting pay raises proposed for college faculty ``would be very hard to do.''
About half of the 47-member House Republican caucus came to a news conference to suggest that equalizing pay raises was the fair thing to do.
``At the very least, teachers should get the same as college faculty,'' said M. Kirk Cox, a high school teacher in Colonial Heights. Cox noted that teachers were the only category of state employees who would not get a pay raise next year under budget plans presented by Gov. George F. Allen and revised by House and Senate finance committees.
Those plans include a 3 percent pay raise for teachers in the second half of the biennium.
The Republicans proposed giving all teachers, from kindergarten to college, a 2 percent pay hike next year and 3 percent the following year.
Half of the $61 million needed to finance that change would come from the reduced college pay raises and half from eliminating 420 proposed college faculty positions. The Republicans noted that the number of faculty jobs would still rise by about 333 over the biennium.
Under the change, 89 faculty positions allotted for Old Dominion University would be reduced to 39. Four positions allotted for Virginia Tech would be reduced to zero.
The proposed cuts would come in new positions tied to growth in college enrollment and would not affect faculty increases stemming from new programs at the schools.
``Stay tuned,'' Cranwell replied when asked what the Democratic alternative would be.
Legislative plans to invest about $200 million in operating expenses for state colleges followed a yearlong lobbying effort by a consortium of business and education leaders. They argue that funding for higher education in the state is dipping perilously low.
That money does not include millions more in bonding authority for college construction.
Walker said lawmakers did not include money for public school teacher raises in part because the budgets offered by the governor and the Assembly would increase basic aid to schools by more than $600 million.
``This is the biggest increase in funding that public education has had in God knows how long,'' said Walker. ``Every school district is receiving more money, and localities can use it to give these raises, I feel certain.''
Republicans took advantage of the news conference to say that they are friends of public education, even though the label is more often applied to Democrats.
Their concern is ``neither new-founded, nor one-upsmanship,'' said Del. J. Randy Forbes, R-Chesapeake, arguing that GOP support of teachers is longstanding.
Democrats questioned why no Republicans had put in budget amendments calling for a teacher pay raise earlier in the session. The only two such amendments came from Democrats, said Del. Thomas M. Jackson Jr., D-Hillsville.
KEYWORDS: GENERAL ASSEMBLY TEACHER SALARY RAISE by CNB