DESEG FUNDING INCLUDES OUTSTATE NEEDS

After a grueling, 12-hour session in which senators disposed of dozens of amendments, the Missouri Senate finally passed and sent to the House the latest version of the urban school desegregation bill. With the end of the state's obligation to fund Kansas City desegregation coming next year, any settlement in the St. Louis case will likely hinge on what the General Assembly does on Senate Bill 781.

It is important to differentiate the current version of SB 781 from its earlier incarnation. Gone is the provision that would have sent an additional $1,000 for every poor child in St. Louis and Kansas City. This noxious provision just wouldn't fly, as well it shouldn't have. Poverty, after all, is poverty, whether it is found in our inner cities or in outstate Missouri. The legislation allows any school district meeting certain criteria to qualify for additional state money to deal with large numbers of poor children. With this change in the bill, previously fierce opposition dwindled to the point where only eight senators voted against the bill, while fully 26 favored it on final passage.

There is more good news in the bill for districts such as Cape Girardeau's, which are called hold-harmless under the state's formula for distributing state aid to local schools. Cape Girardeau's superintendent, Dr. Dan Tallent, traveled to Jefferson City twice in recent weeks to make his case to lawmakers as to how 25 or so of the hold-harmless districts are being penalized under the current formula. Tallent was persuasive: After some work by Cape Girardeau's delegation in the General Assembly, SB 781 contains adjustments in the formula that will help Cape schools to the tune of more than $476,000 annually.

Also contained in the bill is Missouri's first step toward the exciting innovation known as charter schools. These public schools, which are spreading rapidly nationwide, will allow innovative approaches to public school problems. While limited in SB 781 only to the two urban districts, this represents at least a start in this much-needed direction.

In the two most expensive desegregation cases in America Missouri has, over the last generation, spent more on desegregation than all other states combined, save only California. It is time to bring it to an end. While far from perfect, SB 781 appears to be the best vehicle for accomplishing this goal.