KC MUST MAKE CASE ON SCHOOL FUNDING

To its credit, the Kansas City School District appears to be making good -- and tough -- decisions regarding the future after court-ordered state funding ends for its failed desegregation program. Missourians have paid hundreds of millions of dollars to the district in recent years for all sorts of expensive geegaws that did little to address the miserable state of public education in that urban area.

Now that court-ordered state funding is coming to an end, the district is seeking special financial treatment to bridge between the state gravy train and the reality of meeting the district's needs through local taxation. In the last legislative session, Missouri legislators ignored an effort to give the district an extra $30 million a year above what the district would normally receive from the state.

One of the key issues, both in Kansas City and in the St. Louis desegregation case, is whether or not these urban districts are capable of providing good administration and making wise use of whatever dollars are available.

Sentiment on a bipartisan legislative committee looking into funding needs for the Kansas City district now seems to have shifted. There is a good deal of support for giving the district an extra annual appropriation of about $40 million dollars. Mainly, members of the committee say, the district has demonstrated it is willing to impose stiff cuts -- $55 million a year -- in the district's operating expenses.

It is good that the Kansas City district is willing to take back control of its own destiny with such moves, but it remains to be seen whether or not spending an extra $1,000 per pupil -- as the district has requested from the state -- makes good sense.

The average spending per pupil in Missouri's public schools is just over $5,000 a year. Most schools in Southeast Missouri are near those spending levels. If the state granted the extra money for Kansas City school, the per-pupil spending would be at the $8,000 level. Does it really take an additional $3,000 per pupil?

Even though some legislators are leaning to help the Kansas City schools with extra money, there is at least one safeguard for Missouri taxpayers: The additional funding would be in the form of an annual appropriation, which would give elected officials an opportunity to see how the money is being used before making further commitments.