Educators make plea for funding

BY JUAN ANTONIO LIZAMA
Media General News Service
Published: October 23, 2008

Educators and government leaders pleaded Wednesday with a legislative subcommittee not to cut education funding to make up for a $2.5 billion state budget shortfall.

But if cuts are made, which seems certain, the state should suspend new mandates and requirements and give local educators the flexibility to make the reductions, speakers told the General Assembly’s Joint Subcommittee on Elementary and Secondary Education Funding.

“Flexibility, that’s a great word, but I’m a simple guy, I’d like that spelled out,“ said Sen. R. Edward Houck, D-Spotsylvania, who co-chairs the subcommittee.

Dinwiddie County Superintendent Charles Maranzano Jr. told the panel the state should suspend new mandates, offer some relief from the federal No Child Left Behind requirements and allow systems to keep leftover money at the end of the year.

Schools, he said, don’t have the same flexibility as some other government agencies to cut services.

“We don’t have that ability,“ Maranzano said. “We will have the same number of students coming to school next year, if not more.“

Mary Jo Fields, director of research for the Virginia Municipal League, said further state cuts will fall on local governments for students to meet the achievement standards.

“If we can’t find the funding to meet these goals, then we shouldn’t set the goals,“ she said.

Donald J. Ford, president of the Virginia Association of School Superintendents, who also spoke on behalf of the Virginia School Boards Association, said there is a perception that current budget shortfalls have not affected schools.

“Most local school boards have already made budget cuts this year or are contemplating budget cuts next year,“ he said.

“We don’t believe this is the time to make changes in the funding formula when the existing formula is far from perfect,“ he said.

Houck asked those attending to provide suggestions on where cuts would be made. He said cuts to education, which he described as underfunded by the state, would be the most difficult task he’s faced in 25 years in office, he said.

“I don’t think we can take the entire cuts out of all the other service areas without going to public education,“ he said.