MISSOURI WATCH: OLD PROBLEMS: MISSOURI NEEDS NEW ANSWERS

With the elections thankfully behind us, Missourians can now begin to address how their state will deal with an assortment of serious problems facing them between now and the start of the new millennium. It is no exaggeration to say the preparatory work that is done between now and the year 2000 will determine to a large extent how the state's nearly five and one-half million residents and their progeny will spend the next century.

Having received a resounding vote of confidence from Missourians on November 5, Gov. Mel Carnahan is presented a rare opportunity to move Missouri from just another state in the middle of America to one of the nation's foremost leaders in the delivery of services to its residents. The direction the state takes over the next four years will be set by the ability, vigor and vision of its governor, although the actual momentum for progress will come from the private sector, working cooperatively with elected officials in Jefferson City.

Missouri's executive office is both blessed and burdened with providing the initial spark in efforts to expand and enhance educational programs, widen vocational opportunities and deliver a wide assortment- of needed services, including social programs that answer emergency needs. The state will determine how Missourians beyond the year 2000 will receive health and medical services, how small and huge business organizations can prosper and whether our shared environment is both protected and enhanced for future generations.

The retention of all five state officeholders in this month's balloting does not necessarily mean that Missourians are thrilled with the kind of leadership they have received since 1993, nor did the vote signal the enthusiastic endorsement of a legislative assembly under Democratic leadership. This month's election signaled neither total satisfaction nor a particular mandate for this branch of government. Rather it conveyed a willingness on the part of citizens to give incumbents another chance to improve their performance as they tackled some of the unresolved problems that have been hanging around Jefferson City almost as long as the Capitol itself.

Despite repeated attempts, Missouri has never actually established unquestioned quality in the fields of lower and higher public education. Rather than creating standards that are independent of the national norm, Missouri has played the game of following the majority when charting its own course of improving K-12 curricula and developing true students by the time high school graduation comes around. Our secondary schools are sending too many unfinished students to embark on a college education, signaling not only a waste of the taxpayers' investment but virtually guaranteeing pervasive mediocrity in its institutions of higher education.

During the campaign, Gov. Carnahan pointed with pride to the state's 1993 Excellence in Education Act, while his opponents quarreled with its cost and implied that world-class public schools could be achieved with lower expenditures. Both sides, as usual, missed the mark. Enactment of a single bill and an accompanying tax to fund improvements was only the bare beginning of creating academically centered K-12 education in the state. While this initial step is important, it is hardly the only requirement in raising educational standards.

As for higher education, the state is virtually as devoid of essential planning as are our primary and secondary units. Attempts to provide coordination of state college and university curricula began as long ago as the Dalton administration (1961-65), yet comprehensive planning is still the exception, subject to constant revision that meets temporary, expedient goals but which fails to assure above-average results.

Missouri must do better or remain mired in such mediocrity that advancement will become virtually impossible.

It is perhaps trite to note that Missouri is now in a position to enact its own social programs with less and less commitment or participation from Washington. Even as we speak, state employees are devising, and revising, welfare programs that must be coordinated with available state resources. If this is the sole criteria, then hundreds and thousands of Missourians will never have the opportunity of raising their standard of living and achieving self-sufficiency.

It is worrisome to note that while state resources are, indeed, an essential component of revised social programs, the final decisions will hinge not on human need but on how much Jefferson City can spare for the poor, the sick and the disadvantaged.

As crime continues its threat of stagnating not only human commerce but human existence in entire neighborhoods, it remains critical for the state to provide a helping hand to embattled municipalities, particularly those in our urban centers. Something is far amiss when the state is willing to financially underwrite huge tourist attractions, from hotels to football stadiums, yet turns both a deaf ear and a blind eye to efforts to restore safety to these same areas. Jefferson City's answer to restoring crime-infected neighborhoods has too often been to ignore lawlessness, pretending that it will disappear, with full knowledge that no such miracle will occur.

Despite the general appearance of voter satisfaction, too many Missourians feel no connection to their state government and feel neglected if not totally ignored by its efforts. Jefferson City must find new ways to connect with its constituents, involving them not only in offered solutions but in creative planning. When citizens feel they have a stake in the outcome of projects and programs, they work harder to achieve their success. Constituents who are ignored in the whole process will eventually grow weary of their exclusion and seek retribution at the very next opportunity. Public officials ignore this fact confirm their dedication to the status quo.

~Jack Stapleton of Kennett is the editor of the Missouri News and Editorial Service.