Speaking Out: The School Construction Crisis

School Construction: A Crisis Situation For Virginia

Washington Post, June 21, 1998

The event had all the trappings of a campaign rally: balloons, "No Car Tax" lapel stickers and an airplane circling overhead, trailing a banner praising Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore. Volunteers handed out cotton candy to the children, while the governor delivered a crowd-pleasing speech to their parents.

But this wasn't a campaign rally. It was a signing ceremony earlier this month in front of the state capitol in Richmond, and it honored a legislative compromise that links a reduction of the personal property tax on automobiles with a landmark plan for state assistance to local school districts to help pay for construction.

Certainly the governor had every right to brag, especially at his own rally. And certainly, his seizing on the car tax issue last year was brilliant, and his campaign showed discipline and focus in hammering it home. The issue undeniably swept Gilmore into office.

But the campaign is over, and it's time to look to the future. That's why the issue of school construction is so important, and that's why it was so disappointing that the governor missed the chance to address it.

The magnitude of Virginia's unmet needs in school construction, renovation and repair can be described only as a crisis. A legislative study earlier this year identified a $6 billion gap in spending for educational infrastructure and documented these troubling statistics:

The crisis in school construction has an impact on every corner of the commonwealth, from fast-growing Loudoun County, which needs to build 15 new schools in the next six years at a cost of $414 million, to urbanized areas such as Arlington, Richmond and Hampton Roads, which must renovate facilities to keep up with changing school populations. Poorer communities in other regions lack the resources to bring their schools up to par. No local government, not even those in prosperous Northern Virginia, can meet this challenge alone.

Faced with these stark facts, the General Assembly, with strong bipartisan support, developed a plan to provide $110 million to help communities build and repair their schools -- the first time Virginia has provided direct funding since the post-World War II baby boom. Local districts can use the allocations to begin construction or renovation. In communities, such as Arlington and Falls Church, that already have undertaken capital improvement plans, the funding can be used to allay the cost of debt service.

Although almost unheralded at the governor's rally, assistance in school construction is the most vital, forward-looking element of the bill Gilmore signed. But it is only a first step, and a baby step at that: a $110 million drop in a $6 billion bucket.

Virginia needs to find a permanent, dedicated source for funding of school construction. During the recent session, the House of Delegates approved a proposal to earmark state lottery proceeds for that purpose. Although that plan died in the Senate, the issue of permanent funding will be addressed again in the next session.

Above all, Virginians will need the governor's enthusiastic involvement in this effort.

Although Gilmore started the session by saying that the crisis in school construction needed more study, in the end he became a convert to the cause. Maybe at the next rally, he can celebrate a shared commitment to build for Virginia's future.

- Robert H. Brink, a Democrat, represents Arlington in the Virginia House of Delegates