RUST COMMENTARY: MISSOURI STUDENTS DO POORLY ON TESTS; CHARTER-SCHOOL STUDENTS GAIN

Tests results show cause for concern: When an overwhelming majority of students fail a test, who or what is to blame? Well, either the students were ill-prepared for the test, or the test itself was simply too advanced for the students. And that is exactly the question that state education officials in Missouri are asking themselves today. And well they should.

Back five years ago, Missouri lawmakers approved the Outstanding Schools Act, which mandated that students not only receive ample education, but that they also have the skills to put that knowledge into practical use. A test was devised that would measure these life skills. The scores are in, and the results are not pretty.

There are countless examples of the problems education is facing. For example, the test results show that an unbelievable 97 percent of high school sophomores in Missouri were less than proficient in science. In the critical areas of reading and writing, almost 82 percent of high school juniors fell below proficiency. And in a chilling statistic, even with the low scores in Missouri, our students performed better than half of the students nationwide.

You can look at the test results in any way you choose. But the bottom line remains the same. We face a crisis in education that will take the combined efforts of teachers, administrators, parents and community leaders. Without any one of these elements, we stand little chance for improvement.

State education and elected officials are all voicing concern today over the test results. Parents and local schools will soon get the details on individual tests here. That should alarm some parents. But will it change anything?

Our greatest fear is that teachers may be prone to teach skills that will improve the test scores simply because of the dismal results. That may be ill-founded, but if state officials put enough heat on school districts to improve, that may be the result. For now, we have cautious alarm. If improvement is not evident in the coming years, our alarm should turn into action. -- Mike Jensen, Sikeston Standard Democrat

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Operating out of a church basement in Durham, N.C., Healthy Start Academy has given its young students -- 70 percent of whom are poor enough to qualify for federal lunches -- a steady diet of arithmetic, phonics and discipline. The results have been dramatic. Standardized test scores for the charter school's kindergartners jumped from the 42nd percentile at the beginning of the school year to the 99th percentile by its end. First-graders improved from the 21st percentile to the 34th. Second-graders zoomed from the 34th percentile to the 75th -- all for $2,800 per child less than the state's traditional public schools spend. But now the state board of education, egged on by the state teachers union, is threatening to shut down Healthy Start because it does not reflect the racial makeup of its district. Healthy Start's student body, you see, is 99 percent black, and in a district that is 45 percent black, that just won't do. Twelve other charter schools (11 of which are majority-black) are also on the chopping block. What the board is really saying is that if the education establishment can't educate minority children, no one can. -- National Review

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We will feel their pain: The Clinton-Gore administration's wrongful handling of the growing global economic crisis will have palpably painful consequences for the U.S.

Japan is now officially in recession for the first time in nearly 25 years. Its economy hasn't performed so poorly since World War II. Hong Kong and China are shaky. Indonesia continues to implode economically and explode politically. South Korea is sinking again. Latin American currencies are under assault. Russia is floundering. Western Europe's recovery remains anemic.

Treasury chief Robert Rubin and his know-it-all lieutenant, Larry Summers, are still using the International Monetary Fund to inflict bone-crushing austerity in Asia, via devaluation and tax increases. They are still dispensing boneheaded advice to Japan to "stimulate demand" by having Tokyo spend yet more money on uneconomic infrastructure projects and one-shot tax cuts. They and the IMF are still telling Russia to "improve" its tax collections. "Efficient enforcement" would bring in revenue exceeding the country's economy -- so how can such a convoluted, anti-incentive, byzantine and contradictory tax code be enforced?

And here at home, the Federal Reserve continues to tighten at a time when the increasingly parched world economy is screaming for fresh liquidity. That's why the dollar gold price has fallen, and most commodity indexes are undergoing downward pressure. Our central bank still hasn't grasped that the greenback is the unofficial transaction currency of numerous nations.

The Fed's inadvertent deflation is letting the air out of economies around the world.

No wonder stocks are wobbly. Most equities are down over the last year -- even without taking into account the recent market turbulence. -- Steve Forbes, Forbes magazine

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India's decision to "test" its nuclear bombs and Pakistan's retaliatory tests are explosive reasons for swiftly developing an effective missile defense system. Other nations will eventually follow India and Pakistan. North Korea has already developed a bomb or two, and Iran is working hard on one, as are Iraq and Libya. Rocket technology is also advancing. It is estimated Iran will be able to send missiles to Central Europe within three years.

By upgrading the Navy's existing Aegis missile technology, we could have a floating missile defense system within five years at a cost of less than $5 billion. This should hold us over until we develop a thorough, sophisticated, land-based antiballistic missile system.

What in God's name is this White House waiting for? -- Forbes magazine

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President RONALD REAGAN was the Great Communicator. But it wasn't because of how he said things. It was because of what he said.

Political figures (and many in the media) are often the first to forget that a great speech must say great things, that it must contain serious policy. They often think style can take the place of substance. They are wrong (though Clinton's poll ratings don't appear to support this premise ... NOW).

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FOR SURGEONS, the evolution of medical savings accounts will allow the practice of medicine to return to what Hippocrates had in mind, that "now we are free to do what is in the best interest of the patient." We don't have to be concerned about the interests of third parties, who now are the purchasers of medical services from doctors, not the patients. That is the problem. -- Orthopedics Today

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I noticed a recent poll where the movie "ARMAGEDDON" ranked 96 percent, No. 1 amongst movie goers in an exit poll and only a "C" by the reviewers. Generally the critics like the weird, profane and avant-garde movies.

This movie review in the Aug. 3 issue of National Review speaks to the issue:

"ARMAGEDDON" opened over the July 4 weekend (it's now grossed over $160 million) and turned out to be a rollicking, sassy flick, enlivened by a snort of fully oxygenated American patriotism. Why, then, are reviewers hurling their own mini-meteorites at this movie about a giant meteorite hurtling toward Earth? Janet Maslin of the New York Times denounces the film as "jingoistic" and full of "ersatz patriotism." She particularly dislikes a scene where Bruce Willis, as a deep-sea oil rigger, "spitefully" chips golf balls at a Greenpeace ship. Variety denounces the "jingoistic, thank-you-America-for-saving-the-world message" and beefs about a scene where Willis and his colleagues, who helped save the world by blowing up the interplanetary object, ask, in return, to be exempted from the income tax. The New York Observer is offended by the Greenpeace interlude, "jingoistic invocations of God and country" and "the publicly espoused conservative stands of Mr. Willis." And you were wondering how movie critics celebrate Independence Day.

~Gary Rust is president of Rust Communications, which owns the Southeast Missourian and other newspapers.