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A Lesson
At a time when school costs are climbing, the basic aid Rappahannock receives from Richmond will drop five percent between 1983-84 and 1984-85.
For years, the county has ranked near the top in ability to pay for education in the state’s estimation and near the bottom in effort. We may quarrel with the formula that determines ability ranking, a formula based 50 percent on land values as determined by sales, but it’s the formula that applies across Virginia, affecting every county equally.
Cutting the school budget (which accounts for about 80 percent of the demand for local tax revenue) to keep the real estate levy here one of the lowest in the state has made Rappahannock responsible for an increasingly larger share of educational expenses. In the long run, it’s still the local tax payers who must count out the dollars, if not this year, then in the future when the state reimbursement formula is adjusted to reflect our lack of effort.
Cutting the proposed school budget to lower the county's share of educational costs in 1984-86 will only mean our share will be even larger in the years to come. More importantly, any cuts to the already “bare bones” budget will lower the quality of the educational programs we provide for our children.
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