KC DISTRICT TRIES JUDGE'S PATIENCE

The federal judge who is in charge of school desegregation in Kansas City doesn't appear to have the patience of his predecessor, U.S. District Judge Russell Clark, who virtually ran the school system from the start of the case until 1997.

U.S. District Judge Dean Whipple isn't very pleased with the continuing effort to turn the district back over to local control. He is so upset, in fact, that last week he threatened to put the district in receivership.

One of the things that riled Judge Whipple is the fact that more than 70 percent of the students at some Kansas City high schools haven't yet taken state-mandated standardized tests. Asked the judge: Where's the accountability? And he wasn't talking about the students, but rather about the superintendent and the school board.

Earlier, the same judge vented his frustration with the district, because most of the dissonance among board members and administrators appears to be racially motivated. And this multibillion-dollar effort was supposed to desegregate schools. Remember?