Newsletter

February 1, 2004

Dear Friends,

A snowstorm that started Sunday afternoon and lasted into Monday morning ushered in Week Three of the 2004 Session. Those of us who grew up as Yankees have always looked askance at how people Down South cope with winter. One coping mechanism here in Richmond seems to be the application of tremendous amounts of rock salt. After any winter storm, the 500 yards of sidewalks between the General Assembly Building and the Capitol are coated with a 1/2-inch think layer of salt, lying in wait to attack our shoes. That accounts for the hordes of members and staff, otherwise professionally dressed, lumbering around in galoshes, hiking boots, or old tennis shoes.

Each Monday afternoon the Northern Virginia Delegation meets in the Speaker's Conference Room - a long, skinny space which, despite its august title, features a 25-foot long Formica-covered table, uncomfortable chairs, and bad acoustics -- to discuss regional matters and to hear and question proponents for common concerns. Depending on the topic, as many as 100 members, aides, lobbyists, and innocent bystanders may crowd into the room for the hour-long meeting.

Budget-related issues dominated this week's meeting. A person from the Governor's staff discussed matters involving the K-12 funding formula in the Governor's budget; the director of our Metro system told of funding needs for additional subway cars; and a spokesman for the Community College System discussed their new health care professions training facility. The project is caught in a classic Catch-22: there's a desperate need to supply health care providers in Northern Virginia with trained personnel, and there's a two year waiting list of students who want to be trained - but the facility stands nearly empty due to a lack of funds to hire the staff to train these students.

The members were reminded of the long-term consequences of the decisions we are going to make during the introduction of the 2004 recipients of the Virginia Outstanding Faculty Awards. The honorees are 11 eminent scholars who teach at institutions from Virginia Military Institute in Lexington to Tidewater Community College in Virginia Beach to George Mason University in Fairfax. Their disciplines range from English to electrical engineering to fisheries science. The quality of our faculties is a major reason Virginia's higher education system is one of the best -- if not the best -- in the nation.

After the applause died down, Delegate Mitch Van Yahres of Charlottesville rose to congratulate the honorees. He then turned to the Delegates and suggested that they take a careful look at the distinguished group, "because there's a good chance that some of them won't be around long. That's because our Virginia schools can't afford to pay them what they are worth or provide adequate offices, classrooms or laboratories for them."

Some crises, like 9-11 or Hurricane Isabel, produce immediate and palpable damage. Others sneak up on you: the harm is incremental and barely perceptible at any one moment. The chronic underfunding of our higher education institutions is one of those "quiet crises." Delegate Van Yahres pointed out that Virginia invests $7,900 per student in our universities, while North Carolina provides over $18,000 and Maryland more than $16,000.

A survey by the Virginia Business Higher Education Council a couple of years ago showed that twelve out of the state's fifteen schools of higher education ranked in the bottom half of their peer groups in state support per student. The University of Virginia, Virginia Tech, William and Mary, James Madison, Mary Washington, and Radford all rank at or near the bottom of their groups.

If we continue to short-change our colleges and universities, there's not likely to be a single "Ah hah!" moment where what we've lost becomes obvious. Rather, we'll lose through erosion - a professor or program here or there, one more tuition increase that places college out of reach of some of our families, larger classes and fewer course offerings. It will be a shame if we let all we've built slip away.

The picture of the state's K-12 system is equally bleak. Both the Virginia Board of Education and the General Assembly's audit arm say that the state underfunds local schools by at least $600 million a year, or $1.2 billion in a biennial budget. Antiquated tax laws force most localities to make up the difference through real estate taxes, placing an undue burden on homeowners. Jurisdictions such as Arlington are wealthy enough to absorb these inequities and provide adequate funding. But less affluent localities have virtually no choice but to risk seeing their schools slide slowly into mediocrity.

Our children will pay the price. Virginia ranks 13th in the nation in per capita income, but 44th in state government funding for education. Virginia's average teacher's salary in 2000 was $38,744, compared to Georgia's $41,122, North Carolina's $39,404, and the national average of $41,820. We expect a 40% turnover of teachers in the next ten years, and at current funding levels we will not be able to compete and replace them.

The stakes could not be higher. The decisions we make over the next few weeks will determine what kind of Commonwealth we'll be for decades to come. That's another reason the Governor's budget and tax reform proposals are so important to all of us, and that's why what we're doing in snowy Richmond for these 60 days is consequential.

Sincerely,

Bob Brink