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Editorial
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State rankings
The uproar over funding construction of a new school building goes to the one government issue that most voters would say is at the top of their list: maintaining a reasonable tax rate while still providing basic educational services. On one side, those against the building cite skyrocketing real estate taxes in Rappahannock that threaten to kick them off their land. The other side says that the county’s historical unwillingness to adequately fund education is a short-sighted and outdated attitude.
The Virginia Education Association, the state’s de facto teacher’s union, has just released a publication that provides hard numbers on the state’s educational spending for 1989-90. "Virginia’s Educational Disparities’’ is comprehensive ranking of Virginia’s 138 school divisions on numerous criteria, and we find some of the data very, very disturbing.
The one figure that county residents are sure to dispute is the most unsettling: Rappahannock ranks eighth in the state in "ability to pay,” which is determined by 1989 real estate and public service corporation values. In “effort” of payment, defined as the amount of local funds expended for education for every $100 of taxable property value, Rappahannock ranks not
■■ inftth , W tbftt was before the most recent assessment, Which increased that taxable property value 80 percent.
But the county’s taxpayers are kicking in 52 percent of the school system budget, 26th highest in comparison with how much of other county and city school division budgets is locally funded. The state only contributes 33 percent of the school budget here; 109 other school divisions have a greater portion of their education expenditures picked up by Richmond.
Rappahannock ranked 117th in average salary of instructional personnel, $25,459, and 115th in teachers’ salaries, $24,947. Yet this county was eighth in Virginia in density of instructional personnel: There are 83.6 positions per 1,000 students (the state average is 68.8).
The study also ranks the percentage of graduates who continue their education. After leaving Rappahannock High, only 43.5 percent of graduates stay in some form of school, 125th in the state, or 13th from last. The good news is that the drop-out rate here is also near the bottom.
The VEA report should be examined by every member of
the School Board and Board of Supervisors prior to studying this year’s budget. We have misgivings about going forward with a middle school at this time, but the need for greater school division funding seems clear.
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