DESEG DAWDLING

Since April the fate of school desegregation in St. Louis has been in the lap of a special mediator. Now William H. Danforth, former chancellor of Washington University, is raising sticky issues that he says need to be resolved before the real job of ending massive state funding can start in earnest.

The slow grinding of these efforts amounts to little more than an abrogation of duty by U.S. District Judge George F. Gunn. After years of overseeing the desegregation of St. Louis schools -- some 13,000 students in the city are bused to suburban districts -- the judge decided to give Danforth the task of recommending a solution that would end federal control of local schools. This is a job that belongs in the judge's lap. For all of Danforth's top-flight reputation in the field of higher education, he is no more suited to settle the St. Louis school question than the federal judge who has guided the process from the start.

Now Danforth has raised three issues he calls vital to a solution: How much does it cost to educate city students and is that cost reasonable? How many schools would be need if and when city transfer students return from suburban schools? And how much would it cost to maintain city school buildings?

Good questions. But they only sharpen the prickly problems of a court-run school system. These are the kind of questions that never need answers as long as a judge can order taxpayers all across the state to spend millions and millions of dollars for a desegregation plan that won't work.

It has already been five months since Judge Gunn turned to Danforth for help. Little, if anything has been accomplished, other than to delay a decision. Now Danforth predicts it will take many more months to produce any recommendations.

Meanwhile, Missouri taxpayers will continue to foot the bill. Attorney General Jay Nixon at least has tried to turn off the funding spigot, but he has been rebuffed even by the Supreme Court. Earlier this month Justice Clarence Thomas rejected Nixon's request to cut off state funding for busing students this year.

Nixon thinks Danforth is straying "too far afield" from his role as mediator. It is easy to see why he thinks that, given Danforth's time-consuming dawdling with issues best left to the school board and others who will have the responsibility of running schools for years to come.