By Spencer S. Hsu and R.H. Melton
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, March 5, 1998; Page D01

RICHMOND, March 4—At one Fairfax County high school, rain leaks warp the gymnasium floor, leaving treacherous humps. At another, teenagers perform experiments in crude science labs dating to the 1950s. Across growing Northern Virginia, tens of thousands of youngsters are taught in trailers and others cram classrooms because schools can't be built quickly enough.

It's part of what educators call the state's desperate need for school construction, a $6 billion headache for local governments and taxpayers that strains bond ratings and squeezes tax bases.

Today, one of the hottest topics among Virginia parents and elected officials boiled over into the General Assembly, as Democrats and Republicans from across the state battled over whether to begin a massive school-building program -- and whether Gov. James S. Gilmore III's centerpiece plan to cut the property tax on cars should suffer as a result.

With Lt. Gov. John H. Hager (R) casting his first tie-breaking vote, the GOP-led Senate voted 21 to 20 in favor of a Republican plan to send $35 million a year in state construction grants and loans to school districts. But the bill would not take effect until 1999, when a study is completed -- and then only if surplus revenue is available.

The measure pales in comparison with a $128 million immediate down payment on school construction using lottery profits that the House of Delegates passed by a wide margin. But the vote by Hager was, Republicans acknowledged, symbolic of the political potency of Democrat-led calls for the building of schools.

Since being humiliated by a Republican sweep of the three statewide offices in the November election and by GOP legislative gains that nearly toppled a century of Democratic dominance, Democrats have struggled for an issue that could compare to the GOP's "No Car Tax!" initiative.

They seem to have found it. Virginia educators are rallying to the call for new and renovated schools, and even many Republicans loyal to Gilmore and his tax cut now say a school-construction plan is needed.

"For the first time in 48 years, the Virginia state Senate has made a commitment to funding local school construction," said Sen. William C. Mims (R-Loudoun), who co-sponsored the Senate measure. "We will have a bipartisan . . . plan we can all be proud of."

Democrats today called the Senate bill inconsequential in light the state's needs and cast the chamber's action as a face-saving attempt by Republicans to meet the demands of local school officials without embarrassing Gilmore, who has called Democratic school-building plans "half-baked" and premature. The governor views any large school-construction program as a threat to his proposed five-year, $2.8 billion tax cut; already both houses of the legislature have passed plans giving Gilmore less than the $493 million he wants over two years to begin the car-tax phaseout.

Democrats vowed to press their own construction plan -- the House version -- which cleared a Senate committee today and will reach the floor Friday. They want quick action to keep Gilmore from coming up with a school-building program next year and stealing the credit.

"There's no need to study this another year. The need is now," said Sen. R. Edward Houck (D-Spotsylvania).

Del. Thomas M. Jackson Jr. (D-Carroll) said that success in pushing a school-construction bill is crucial for his party to stop its electoral decline.

Democrats "are at a crossroads," said Jackson, sponsor of the House school-building bill. "The Democratic slide has resulted from our inability to be relevant to everyday people," which could continue if Gilmore can cast himself and other Republicans as leaders in the school-building effort in the 1999 campaigns for all 140 legislative seats.

Gilmore aides urged Republicans today to defer school aid for a state study without committing the governor to endorsing the GOP bill or denying that a school-building crisis exists.

"School construction cannot interfere with car-tax money," said M. Boyd Marcus Jr., Gilmore's chief of staff. "School construction needs exist, but I don't think any of us knows what the levels are now."

For decades, school building has been an orphan cause in Virginia, which, among southeastern states, ranks ahead of only Louisiana in such aid to localities.

Virginia last embarked on a school-building program in 1950, driven by a postwar boom and efforts to prevent integration by creating schools for white students. State panels studied the issue in the 1980s and in 1993, 1995 and 1996.

The GOP minority in the House clamored to send state lottery profits into a school grant program starting in 1994, but ruling Democrats put aid into programs to reduce class size for young children. Democrats considered making school building a key to then-Lt. Gov. Donald S. Beyer Jr.'s campaign for governor against Gilmore last year but wound up not emphasizing it.

Now, however, local governments and state studies project that districts can fund only about $4 billion of the $6 billion construction gap forecast over the next five years. Nearly two-thirds of state schools are older than 25 years; one-third report crowding; and one-quarter lack sufficient electrical outlets and air conditioning to install computers.

The problems span from sprawling Hampton Roads suburbs to decaying Richmond inner-city schools to rural districts where students learn in converted closets and stages and trailers.

In Northern Virginia, construction needs have strained local borrowing limits. Arlington is adding to elementary schools to get 1,200 youngsters out of trailers.

In Loudoun, Virginia's fastest-growing county, enrollments are jumping 10 percent a year. Three elementary schools and a middle school opened two years ago; two elementary schools are opening this fall, and a middle school and a high school will open over the next two years.

In Fairfax County, which spends $70 million annually on renovation -- plus $35 million for roofs and air conditioners -- officials plan to open a middle school in the fall and a $55 million high school in 2000.

With 13,750 students housed in 550 temporary classrooms, Jim Johnson, Fairfax's director of facilities, said the district had more children in portables "than some communities have in their entire school districts."