DESEGREGATION EXPENSE STILL RAVAGES MISSOURI

Missouri's budget for the coming fiscal year, proposed by Gov. Mel Carnahan last week, contains another in a series of annual disappointments, particularly for those trying to keep rural schools afloat. Built into the budget, and lorded over by federal authorities, are expenditures totaling $377.7 million for programs to desegregate schools in St. Louis and Kansas City. This ghastly budget entry has been in place, in escalating increments, for a dozen or so years, all in the name of social tinkering and all at the whim of the federal judiciary. It remains an extraordinary misapplication of Missourians' tax dollars.

Since St. Louis schools came under a federal judicial directive in 1975, with Kansas City following, a couple of billion dollars have been spent (including $1.7 billion since 1981) to accommodate the various desegregation orders. As might be expected, given the federal involvement in this matter, nothing dollar-wise seems to ever decrease. The coming year's desegregation allocation will be almost $31 million more than the current year's. The governor has earmarked $219.3 million for Kansas City school desegregation for the fiscal year beginning July 1, while St. Louis schools will get $158.4 million to satisfy their court order.

This was announced during a week when a state judge ruled that Missouri schools are not being funded in a manner that provides equal opportunity for all students. The reaction of non-urban interests to that bit of news is hardly one of surprise. In fact, outstate school districts have experienced, and continue to experience, the severity of slim budgets while urban counterparts were gold-plated through the nurturing of federal judges. This is neither fair nor especially consistent, given the beating provided the school foundation formula last week by the state judiciary.

Gov. Carnahan was not quiet on the subject of desegregation spending during his run for office in the fall, describing the previous administration's policy to "fight, fight, fight to the taxpayers' last dollar" as "foolishness." In his State of the State address last week, the new governor said he would urge the attorney general to take actions that would bring these orders to an end. Sounds so easy, we wonder why no one thought of it before. What Gov. Carnahan will discover is that campaign promises and political rhetoric are easier to sell than mediation to a federal judge.

Still, timing may be on the governor's side, even if substantive disclosure isn't. Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court, in a case involving DeKalb County in Georgia, lessened the standard through which desegregation cases can be declared resolved. Parallels exist between the Missouri orders and the one in Georgia, meaning the courts could be more inclined to loosen their stranglehold on these issues and the Missouri treasury.

We wish Gov. Carnahan and new Attorney General Jay Nixon well in addressing the Missouri desegregation cases. Likewise, we hope behind the oratory is some blueprint for the promised movement on this issue. A greater quantity of good wishes should be reserved for Missouri's rural school districts, which are learning over and over the lesson of doing without while urban social experimentation continues.