SCHOOL REFORMS UP IN AIR; COOK: `JEFF CITY IS IN AN UPROAR'

The upheaval in Missouri's educational system anticipated after reform-minded Mel Carnahan's election to the governorship may have been stopped short Jan. 15, when a circuit judge ruled Missouri's foundation formula for public schools unconstitutional.

So says Bekki Cook, a member of the state Board of Education and of Carnahan's Advisory Commission on Education.

"Judge Kinder's opinion has thrown everything up in the air," Cook told a meeting of the Community Teachers Association Monday.

"From what I understand, Jeff City is in an uproar."

Cole County Circuit Judge Byron Kinder ordered the legislature to rewrite the foundation formula, which distributes $1 billion to the state's 538 school districts.

Under the present formula, Missouri's richest school district spends $9,425 per student per year, and the poorest spends $2,450 per student annually. Kinder ordered that spending must be equalized.

"Deviations from equality in the distribution of resources are not permissible," he wrote.

Cook, a Cape Girardeau attorney who is one of eight members of the state board, said the equalization order puts in question Carnahan's $200 million proposal to upgrade Missouri's schools.

Part of the governor's "world-class schools" proposal calls for reducing K-3 class sizes to 18 students. How such a special project can be funded while spending is being equalized is unclear.

"It puts into jeopardy a lot of these special entitlement-type programs," Cook said.

Doris Ford, president-elect of the Missouri State Teachers Association and a speech pathologist with the Cape Girardeau Public Schools, said the ruling raises other questions legislators must answer.

For instance, "Whether it is fair that districts with unequal (tax) levies get the same amount (from the state)."

"...Legislators say it's (equalization) not going to be an easy thing to do. What is fair and equitable to one district is not fair and equitable to another," Ford said.

Neither Ford nor Cook expects the Cape Girardeau Public Schools to be dramatically affected by equalized spending. "We're pretty much in the middle (of per-pupil spending rates)," Cook said.

A "hold harmless" provision, which would assure that no school district will receive less state funding than it currently does, is considered a politically necessary part of any new funding formula, Cook said.

Judge Kinder gave the legislature until August to rewrite the funding formula. If it fails, then the task probably would fall to the courts. Meanwhile, the judge's ruling is expected to be appealed to the state Supreme Court.

Now, lawmakers, with the help of school financing experts, are trying to conjure up a new formula that pleases the courts, the school districts and the taxpayers. "For once, guys, I feel sorry for them," Cook said.

But Missouri schools need big changes in both funding and educational approach, she said, noting that the state's worst graduation rates can be found in some Southeast Missouri school districts.

"When we have a quarter of Missouri's kids not graduating from high school, we have a crisis."