DATE: Thursday, November 13, 1997           TAG: 9711130001

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B10  EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Editorial 

                                            LENGTH:   51 lines

SCHOOL FUNDING KIDS SHOULDN'T PAY NORFOLK HAS COME UP SHORT ON TAX REVENUES.

Norfolk City Council has asked its public school system to slash $1.7 million from the current budget to make up for revenue shortfalls.

That's outrageous.

The last place Norfolk ought to look for money is the public schools. The school system is not merely another city department that can trim spending. The schools perform the most important task attempted by government: educating children. It cannot be done on the cheap.

Norfolk's revenues for the current fiscal year may be as much as $6.2 million short of projections made last spring at budget time. That's unfortunate. City officials must do some investigating to discover why last year's projections were overly rosy. Then the city must look to city departments for spending cuts.

Norfolk should spare making the city's schoolchildren pay, however.

Last year the city asked the schools to take a $750,000 hit during the fiscal year. The schools did so, mostly by filling vacancies in an untimely manner.

This year the city wants the schools to cut more than twice that amount. This is getting to be a habit - a bad habit.

Legally, the city may not be able to rescind money already appropriated for education, but the City Council has avoided that technical problem by asking, not ordering, school officials to tighten their belts again.

Morally, what the city is doing is wrong. Norfolk schools are struggling already, and administrators should not be asked to find almost $2 million to return to the city.

Nevertheless, Norfolk school Superintendent Roy D. Nichols Jr. said on Monday that he would attempt to comply with the city's request. Nichols has asked his financial advisers to prepare a plan by Friday to cut school spending. The school chief predicted that most of the savings would come from filling vacancies at a sluggardly pace and in delaying repairs and painting for aging schools.

``We are determined that the cuts not come at the expense of the educational program,'' Nichols declared.

But foot-dragging on hiring is bad for morale. It requires other workers to pick up the slack and can slow down all manner of administrative work. Delaying maintenance is a sorry solution too. The bills will eventually come due and are likely to be higher than if repairs were made in a timely fashion.

City officials simply must look elsewhere for money. And if future budget shortfalls occur, contingency plans should be in place that soften the blow and impact schools last.

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu