HIGHER EDUCATION DEBATE FOCUSES ON REFORMS, FUNDS

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- Two local education representatives Wednesday said a call for education reforms in Missouri shouldn't preclude a tax increase to fund elementary, secondary and higher education needs.

Tom Harte, a speech and communications professor at Southeast Missouri State University, and John Lichtenegger, a local attorney and a member of the University of Missouri Board of Curators, discussed the education-funding issue on the "Behind the Headlines" program.

The program, hosted by Southeast Missourian Associate Publisher Peter Kinder, was broadcast Wednesday night on cable television's local access station, Channel 13.

Harte and Lichtenegger both agreed that more money is needed to pay for such things as laboratory and engineering equipment, computers and "competitive" faculty salaries.

Senate Bill 353, sponsored by Senate President James Mathewson, D-Sedalia, proposes a $462 million tax increase for education. The bill has passed the Senate and is now in committee in the Missouri House, along with other education-tax proposals.

The Mathewson bill includes corporate income tax hikes and a three-eighths of a cent increase in the state's sales tax. But Gov. John Ashcroft has said he'll oppose any tax measure for education until several education reform measures are implemented.

The tax proposal and the issue of education reform were the primary topics of discussion on the "Behind the Headlines" program. Both Harte and Lichtenegger said more reforms might be needed, but that many already have been instituted, particularly in higher education.

Kinder asked if education-tax proponents with a "single-minded fixture" on securing more money have ignored the "desperate need for reform" in Missouri schools and universities. "Education is too important to be left only to the educators," he said.

But Harte, who was a member of the Cape Girardeau Board of Education for nine years, said Missouri ranks 48th nationally in terms of per-capita spending for education. He said that aside from reforms, there is a need for additional money.

Lichtenegger, though, rejected the low per-capita spending ranking as the primary justification for a tax increase. He said that despite the low ranking in state appropriations, Missouri students generally rank well nationally in test scores and graduation rates.

"You have to look at a lot more than what we're spending per capita," Lichtenegger said. "What matters to me most is looking at the quality of our education.

"Those issues don't always mean more money, but in this case, more money is needed."

Kinder asked why some educators have resisted the governor's call for education reform. "What the average citizen is hearing out there is that education leaders, who want more money, don't want to talk about reform," he said.

But Harte said officials at Southeast Missouri State University already are implementing many reforms. He said he didn't think the issues of education reform and a tax increase should be mutually exclusive.

Lichtenegger also said he thought higher education officials are more than willing to comply with mandated reforms.

But Kinder said the Missouri chapter of the National Education Association has vehemently opposed lengthening the elementary and secondary school year to 200 days, one measure Ashcroft has proposed.

Lichtenegger indicated he would favor a longer school year. He said nearly every western nation and U.S. trade partner has longer school years than the U.S.

"And Missouri has one of the lowest school-day years in the nation," he added. "We have to look at ourselves in a completely global, competitive way."

He said that students in those other industrialized nations that have longer school years "beat the socks off us in all the test results, especially in science and math."

Harte also stressed the need for more funding for teacher salaries in Missouri's colleges and universities.

He said many Southeast instructors are close to retirement and, unless salaries and other incentives are at par with competing universities nationwide, it will be difficult to attract good people to replace them.

Lichtenegger also discussed the effect desegregation has had on Missouri's budget restrictions. Federal court-ordered desegregation programs in St. Louis and Kansas City take 6.5 percent of the state's total budget.

Lichtenegger said the $300 million allocated annually for desegregation in those two school systems nearly equals the state's allocation for the entire University of Missouri system.