Education Funding Faces Budget Fight

Colleges Vie With Public Schools

RICHMOND, Feb. 19 -- Virginia's colleges and universities are competing with local school districts over securing more money from lawmakers, who are struggling to prepare a state budget amid a slowdown in revenue.

Facing a shortfall in the current year's budget, the Republican-controlled House of Delegates is establishing different priorities from Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) and Senate Democrats as both sides dig in for a budget fight that could go on until the session ends March 8.

The question is whether colleges and universities can afford to forgo some funding increases this year so there is more money for K-12 education and Kaine's initiative to expand preschool education for low-income residents.

The debate, a mix of political posturing and public policy, could have an impact on teacher salaries, the cost of going to college and the state's effort to better prepare 4-year-olds for kindergarten.

"Remember, before you can get through higher ed, you've got to get through all other stages of education," said Sen. Yvonne B. Miller (D-Norfolk). "And pre-K is the beginning. By the time a child is 5, 90 percent of a child's brain is developed."

Del. M. Kirkland Cox (R-Colonial Heights), the House majority whip, countered that most Virginians are more worried about the cost of college than spending tax dollars on expanding access to pre-kindergarten education.

"The biggest issue we have is dealing with tuition affordability," said Cox, a high school teacher. "I've got four boys, I am middle class and have to worry about college. . . . It's an ideological difference. There is just no interest in pre-K in my district."

While both sides stress that the debate is not designed to pit colleges against local school districts, there are clearly some fault lines developing as lawmakers try to come up with a final budget before leaving town next month.

Facing a $1.4 billion shortfall through 2010, Kaine proposed last week a 2 percent cut in aid to the state's colleges and universities. The proposed reductions are in addition to the 5 to 6.25 percent reduction made to higher education last year.

Kaine also proposed a $100 million cut in aid for K-12 school construction but is not pushing for decreases in school operating budgets.

Instead, Kaine has proposed spending an additional $890 million for public elementary and high schools as part of a constitutionally mandated readjustment in the costs associated with teaching those students.

Kaine, backed by the Senate, is also pushing for a $43 million expansion in subsidized pre-kindergarten for an additional several thousand 4-year-olds from low-income families.