OPPONENTS TARGET `REFORMS'

A grassroots group of parents from across Missouri who are opposed to reforms contained in Senate Bill 380 (the Outstanding Schools Act) gathered for a rally on the capitol steps in Jefferson City on Feb. 7. Five days later, last Monday, a hearing was held by a joint House-Senate committee on the academic performance standards called for in that legislation. Both events are evidence that the controversy over SB 380 isn't going away.

Sen. Jerry Howard, D-Dexter, chaired the joint committee that heard a challenge to the standards previously adopted by the state school board. Gov. Mel Carnahan's staff worked hard to prevent the hearing altogether. When that failed, his staff lined up committee Democrats to limit discussion. The last thing the majority wants is an open discussion of these issues. Prior to the hearing, Sen. Howard characterized opposition arguments as "asinine." How's that for evenhandedness?

Critics alleged that the standards are so vague as to be literally unmeasurable, and therefore, not true "standards." Impressive evidence was adduced by a professor of educational testing at the University of Missouri, who testified that the "standards" quite simply couldn't be measured and so should be sent back to the school board. On a party-line, 5-4 vote, the committee ignored a Republican motion to do just that, as Sen. Howard gaveled through an adjournment without considering the substantive motion.

A chairman who trumpeted his bias prior to the hearings. A governor who worked overtime to prevent discussion. A committee majority that muscled through adjournment without considering the substantive issue at hand. It wasn't the legislature's finest hour.

Meanwhile, efforts to undo portions of the phony "reforms" of SB 380 are stymied in the legislature, again on party-line votes. These issues simmer below the radar screen of Missouri politics. As with Congress prior to the 1994 election, it would appear we're at least one election away from rolling back the most egregious of the reforms set in motion three years ago by Carnahan and his legislative majority.