DESEG PROPOSALS DEFENDED; LEGISLATIVE PANEL MEMBERS SAY MISSION WAS ACCOMPLISHED

Members of the legislative committee charged with establishing a bipartisan approach to a more equitable distribution of state education resources said their recommendations accomplish the mission and benefit all Missouri schoolchildren.

The 18-member Joint Interim Committee for Desegregation and School Finance Issues held hearings from August through November to take public testimony on school finance issues. Specifically, they wanted to know how to equitably use savings resulting from an end to court-ordered desegregation payments to St. Louis and Kansas City public schools.

The committee held work sessions during November and submitted a final report Dec. 15 to Senate President Pro Tem Bill McKenna and Speaker of the House Steve Gaw. The report, which included recommendations concerning nine general school-finance topics, will be introduced next month during the legislative session and could be drafted into an educational legislative bill before summer.

Sen. Ted House, D-St. Charles, and Rep. Steve Stoll, D-Festus, co-chaired the committee. They said their report outlines a comprehensive set of recommendations that would benefit all Missouri schoolchildren. They said although Kansas City and St. Louis were the focal districts in the report because of their unique post-desegregation situations, outstate districts in rural areas also benefit.

"We had virtually unanimous support among members of the joint interim committee," said House. "I think the report provides a very reasonable and proper balance between rural and urban school districts."

Committee member Rep. Carson Ross, R-Blue Springs, agreed. "We attempted to address concerns that would benefit all Missouri schoolchildren."

At least one committee member didn't support the recommendations. In a minority opinion submitted with the committee report, Sen. Anita Yeckel, R-St. Louis, stated she objected to the recommendations because she had "several serious concerns" regarding the report. She said she would continue to work for and vote for a final bill.

"I believe that it is imperative that school people become able to articulate the factors with which they must deal in order 'to reach the child before they can teach the child,' as they are so fond of saying," wrote Yeckel. "Throughout the four months of hearings, no one was able to articulate those factors, and I am simply adverse to spending more money when we do not know how it will be spent."

The committee received numerous calls to fully fund the state's money distribution formula to public schools and to place any desegregation savings into categorical spending in areas such as transportation, remedial reading and special and gifted education.

These suggestions were received at all five hearings and later developed into the primary recommendations of the report.

"I would think that school districts around the state would be happy that we recommended fully funding the school formula," said Stoll. "We also recommended a phase-in of full funding of transportation, special education, gifted education, remedial reading, vocational education and state payment for the Missouri Assessment Program."

One recommendation that has not been well received in Southeast Missouri and other outstate districts would create a new definition of at-risk students specific to Kansas City and St. Louis.

The committee recommended that both urban districts receive additional lump sums of $1,000 per eligible pupil based on average daily attendance "in recognition of the at-risk factors in the districts affected by desegregation settlements -- concentrations of poverty, security, English as a second language, high mobility rate, need for teacher salary enhancements, high rate of homelessness, special need for early childhood education and Parents as Teachers programs, and counseling on family and social issues."

Superintendents at Cape Girardeau and Jackson public schools said that recommendation is inequitable because the at-risk definition could apply to students in nearly any school district in the state. In this case the rural districts are being overlooked, they said.

But committee members said the opposite is true: Existing state aid for at-risk students will continue to be funded, they said; however, special circumstances create an even larger concentration of at-risk students that urban districts need additional financial help to educate.

"We will never have equal schools until all Missouri students -- and that includes African American students -- are receiving the same education," said committee member Sen. William "Bill" Clay Jr., D-St. Louis. "The additional at-risk payment will help St. Louis schools to make sure they don't get back into the situation which caused the need for desegregation payments in the first place."

Committee members said their recommendations were not law and would probably undergo intense debate during the legislative session. The report has already been well-received in Jefferson City, they said, and the public will probably see several of the recommendations addressed in a comprehensive educational bill before the end of the session.

"We have received very favorable reaction to it this far," said Stoll. " I think some of it will be accepted by most legislators, but anytime there's money involved, there's always going to be a lot of discussion."