SHOULD WE HIKE TAXES A HALF-BILLION DOLLARS FOR EDUCATION?

State Senator Roger Wilson, D.-Columbia, a former educator, visited here this week to explain to educators and to the public why Missourians need to dig deep for nearly a half-billion dollars in new taxes for education. He was generally well received as he explained the need for the $462 million tax hike, the largest in state history, which he and the Senate majority voted to place before the voters. Sen. Wilson is chairman of the Appropriations Committee, he's running for Lieutenant Governor, and most reports one hears on him are good ones.

My own view, stated here before, is that this high-profile debate on funding for education is needed, and that much good is likely to come from it. It is vital, however, that it be genuine two-way communication a real dialogue.

Like the general public, we in the news media hear much from those who spend their lives in education, especially of the need for more money. All Missourians understand the importance of education, at all levels, in our state's future. And when proven results can be shown, we're not averse to spending more money.

Just as it's important for those within the education community to be heard, it's equally vital that they listen to the concerns of business people and of the taxpayers who are being asked to pay more.

It's unfortunate, for instance, that many backing the new taxes claim that Governor John Ashcroft's lack of support for them at this time means he doesn't make education a priority. Others even insist on portraying the Governor or anyone else who questions this package as "anti-education". This sort of mislabelling works, I believe, to the detriment of the much-needed civil dialogue on this issue.

Those who proclaim the need for the largest tax increase in state history should boldly step forward and answer some telling points the Governor makes. Let's consider some of the Governor's claims of his stewardship of education since he took office in January, 1985. (All figures used here are not inflation-adjusted, "real" dollars, but in every case the increases have outpaced the rate of inflation).

* Governor Ashcroft says that when he was campaigning for the executive office in 1983-84, there were teachers making barely $8,000 per year in Missouri. Now none are.

* State expenditures on elementary and secondary education have increased 67 percent since the '85 budget year.

* Since 1982, Missouri taxpayers have increased spending on the overall education budget by 101.7 percent. Before adjusting for inflation, in other words, that's a doubling of state spending on education in less than a decade.

* Teacher's salaries overall? They've improved since about 1983, in some cases dramatically. In 1982, the average teacher salary in Missouri was $16,672. Today, that average salary statewide is $28,706. Factor in Missouri's low cost of living relative to other states, and you get an even higher average salary figure than that reflected by the state-by-state comparisons you often hear bandied about. You know the ones: Missouri is 44th in this, and 47th in that, and 49th in everything else. All in all, quite an improvement in salaries in a few short years.

* Another yardstick is per-pupil expenditure. In 1982, that figure was $2276. Today, the same figure is $4479, or nearly double. Our pupil-teacher ratio is #19 in the nation.

This does not look to me like the profile of a state that is in the running for the most-miserable-support-of-education-in-the-Western-Hemisphere-if-not-the-world.

Moreover, supporters of the tax hike had best be careful in how they advance their arguments many of them valid lest they harm the cause they seek to advance. At some point, taxpaying Missourians will weary of hearing their state slandered and themselves belittled for an allegedly niggardly commitment to education. That day is nearer today than is commonly perceived by the upper reaches of our educational establishment and by the editorial writers at the state's three largest newspapers, in St. Louis, Kansas City and Springfield. Much of Big Media in our state, the above three included, are endlessly preaching to us of our utterly backward condition where these issues are concerned.

Do they have a point? Sure. Could we, should we, spend more money on higher education, to take one example? Certainly. I'd just like to see a little more balance, a little less mis-labelling, a lot more hard facts, and perhaps a few folks within the educational establishment who would acknowledge the real concerns of business and the general public where education is concerned. Accountability and choice, to take two words often derided by educators, which are nonetheless much prized by many of us.

If war is too important to be left to the generals, surely education is too important to be left to the educators. Come on. Let's have a real debate about education. Our pages are open to Be Our Guest submittals and Letters to the Editor. We can only benefit from a healthy dialogue.