Bill targets ODU center's funding

RICHMOND

If budget writers in the House of Delegates have their way, the teacher training center at Old Dominion University that hired then-Del. Phil Hamilton will lose its state funding next year.

Hamilton, a Newport News Republican, was instrumental in securing start up funding of $500,000 a year in 2007 for ODU's Center for Teacher Quality and Educational Leadership. Last year, following revelations that he was lobbying for a $40,000-a-year job with the center at the same time, he became the target of an ethics investigation and lost his bid for re-election.

An internal audit at ODU found little documentation of any work Hamilton did at the center and discovered that its Peninsula office sat virtually unused for two years. His contract with the university was canceled.

The budget proposed Sunday by the House Appropriations Committee would eliminate the center's state funding in fiscal 2012, the second year of the next two-year budget cycle.

Del. Chris Jones, R-Suffolk, a member of the budget panel, said the ODU center was not singled out because of the Hamilton scandal. It was one of seven public-service centers at Virginia universities that lost their funding in the House budget proposal, accounting for savings of $3.2 million.

"It was a policy decision," Jones said. "The money we had been providing these centers was seed money to get them started. At the end of the day, we want them to be self-supporting."

Del. Joe May, R-Leesburg, another panel member, said the centers were considered "peripheral activities" for which continued funding could not be justified in a tough budget year. "The core function of teaching has to be protected first," he said.

ODU has restructured its teacher center in the wake of the Hamilton scandal, renamed it the Center for Educational Partnerships, and installed John Nunnery, an associate professor of education, as interim executive director. Its mission is to help underperforming schools improve.

ODU President John Broderick was philosophical about the looming loss of state funds. "We will do what we can to identify other avenues of support, because the program is doing a lot of good things," he said.

Bill Sizemore, (804) 697-1560, bill.sizemore@pilotonline.com