 | The Cavalier daily Thursday, December 14, 1967 |  |
Preview Of General Assembly
About this time of year most people
start thinking of the coming winter months,
but instead of worrying about the ice and
slush the politically-minded among us find
the controversial storms of the coming
January Virginia General Assembly especially
interesting to contemplate.
No matter what shape its final decisions
take, the 1967 Assembly will be remembered
long after its two-year scope of application
has expired. Whether it lingers in the
memory as the last gasp of an old era or
as the signal light of the new remains to
be seen. Nevertheless, its image will be determined
by its collective attitudes toward
a number of fundamental issues—issues that
can be shrugged off or faced squarely.
One such issue centers on the problems
of appropriations. Yet the question of how
the money is to be spread among all the
demanding interests becomes even more
complicated in view of the limitations of the
funds available. Further investigation of the
state's accounts by the delegates themselves
may lead to a revolution in Virginia's political-economic
status. To put it bluntly and
with a nostalgic lump in our throats we
hope and think that pay-as-you-go" policies
are on the way out. In a sense they have
been gone for a while now, but would
not it be nice to have formal recognition of
the fact?
Opponents may ask (with delay in their
minds) why there is such a rush to these
extreme measures. After all, has not the
Byrd tradition preserved those of the state
itself, and has not Virginia prospered over
the decades? The answer to those questions
would have to be yes, but we would have
to ask if Virginia and the nation itself
has not outgrown the past, and if greater
progress might not have been made by
some other means.
To put in a final note on the appropriations
questions we would like to emphasize
the need for a definite increase in funds
for education—on all levels in all schools.
Education is, as has been said many times,
the key to the future: one can avoid the
former but not the latter. The public demands
improvement in the quality of teaching
and facilities to raise the state in the
eyes of its neighbors and the nation. Virginia,
which once had a relatively good
educational system, now enjoys only
marginal status with an average-or-less
educational program. It may be an indication
of the state's relative decline that
Virginia, once known as the Mother of
Presidents, could now easily recognize herself
as a Grandmother.
JFCG Jr.
| The Cavalier daily Thursday, December 14, 1967 | |