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Pollard wants other factors considered in school funding Date published: 2/1/2009
BY CHELYEN DAVIS
RICHMOND-- At the far end of the Northern Neck, in counties such as Lancaster and Northumberland, about half the schoolchildren are poor enough to qualifyYet those counties are paying a far greater percentage of the cost of their public schools than is Stafford County, where fewer than 20 percent of students qualify for meal assistance. "When you look at my lower counties from a free and reduced lunch standpoint, they look like Southwest Virginia," said Del. Albert Pollard, D-Lancaster, referring to the state's coal-mining region, which contains some of Virginia's poorest counties. "When you look at it from a state education funding standpoint, they look like Northern Virginia." The problem is the formula by which the state measures a locality's ability to pay for its public schools. Called the composite index, that formula takes into account median incomes, property values and retail sales to compute a locality's wealth. Counties that show higher incomes, values and sales receive a numeric value that indicates the percentage of school costs the locality will pay versus how much the state pays. But Pollard says the composite index formula isn't accurately reflecting the economic situation in some Northern Neck counties. In those counties, he says, people tend to be either very wealthy or very poor, which skews the formula. That's why Lancaster county is paying 78 percent of its school costs--putting it in a bracket with counties such as Fairfax and Loudoun--while 54 percent of its students receive free or reduced-price lunch, compared with 20 percent of students on lunch assistance in Fairfax. Northumberland, similarly, pays 73 percent of school costs, while 47 percent of students are on free or reduced-price lunch. The city of Fredericksburg is in the same boat, paying 79 percent of school costs but with 45 percent of students receiving lunch assistance. Compare that with Stafford County, where only 16 percent of students receive meal assistance--but the county's composite index is much lower, with Stafford paying just 36 percent of its school costs. The state covers the rest. In some Southwest Virginia counties, such as Buchanan and Dickinson, more than half the students qualify for lunch assistance--like Lancaster and Northumberland--but their composite index numbers are such that the counties pay less than 30 percent of their school costs. Pollard submitted a bill to the legislature to try to fix the discrepancy. His bill covered school districts that have at least 45 percent of students on free or reduced-price lunch, and said the composite index for such localities would be set at 0.60--meaning that those localities would pay 60 percent of their school costs. Pollard's bill won't become law this year--a subcommittee decided to send the issue to a joint subcommittee studying education funding. But Pollard said the subcommittee members "widely recognized that there's a problem." "The formula is a gross injustice," he added. Chelyen Davis: 804/782-9362
Date published: 2/1/2009
This is only the tip of the iceberg and the legislature won't touch it anytime soon. The percentage allocation applies only to the Standards of Quality appropriations. Anything beyond that is 100% local responsibility. Also, the General Assembly dictates by fiat an SOQ that is below the real costs and the locality must fund 100% of the real cost beyond the state's share, too. Virginia has never been known as an equitable state for public education. If Pollard is successful, state taxes will soar.
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