STALLING ON DESEG

Developments in the school desegregation programs in both Kansas City and St. Louis this week indicate a great deal of hesitancy on the part of the federal judges administering those cases to make tough decisions to end state funding.

Missouri taxpayers now have contributed more than $2 billion to those urban districts, and it appears the money has produced mediocre results at best and outright failures in many instances. But proponents of the costly desegregation plans -- primarily magnet schools and transporting black students to mostly white suburban districts -- want the funding spigot to remain open.

In the Kansas City case, magnet schools aren't drawing students, resulting in empty classrooms. But supporters want the state to continue paying to keep all 10 magnet schools open. Attorney General Jay Nixon is arguing that the state shouldn't have to pay for schools that aren't being fully utilized. He is right.

In the St. Louis case, Nixon has sued to end the state's involvement in that program. After days of hearings last month, the federal judge handling the case chose not to make a decision but instead to appoint William H. Danforth, former chancellor of Washington University, as a mediator. Although Danforth has had a distinguished career in education -- his brother is former U.S. Sen. John Danforth -- he also has taken a position on the St. Louis desegregation issue that raises questions about his objectivity as a mediator. William Danforth helped produce a report from Civic Progress, a consortium of leading corporations, that favored keeping the desegregation program going, although somewhat modified.

Attorney General Nixon's effort to safeguard the state's taxpayers have produced some results. But the federal judges overseeing these cases are reluctant to end the state-supported school programs. The judges should consider a simple fact: $2 billion for programs that haven't worked is a poor reason to ask the state for any more handouts.