TESTS: NOT MUCH BANG FOR MONEY

State school officials are out with test results. It appears about two-thirds of Missouri's public-school students aren't up to par for their grade level in math, science, communications and social studies, according to Department of Elementary and Secondary Education figures. But, said DESE, the students have made "substantial improvement over 1999 in many of the Missouri Assessment Program testing areas, including reading."

The tests were given last spring to about 400,000 students statewide in selected grades. The cost, according to DESE officials, is $6 million, or about $9.60 per student.

Said DESE acting commissioner Kent King: "The gains are small in some cases, but the positive trend is what we want to see in statewide data."

Perhaps. We certainly join others in hoping the positive trend continues. Still, one could have written the press release of Gov. Mel Carnahan in advance. Carnahan, who signed the law mandating the tests as part of an expensive school-reform effort, lauded "smaller class sizes, increased resources, access to school computers and stronger curriculums" as "making a difference."

One thing is for sure: Those "increased resources" came out of the hides of Missouri taxpayers who were denied the opportunity to vote on them -- a vote that Carnahan promised us. The latest test figures indicate scant progress for all the extra money it cost us.