DESEG PLAN MAY BE CLOSE TO REALITY

Last month, Missouri may have reached an historic turning point in the Kansas City desegregation case. Through out-of-court negotiations, the state secured, for the first time ever, a reduction in desegregation spending. Furthermore, the plaintiffs and defendants in the case have agreed to a six month "cease fire" during which time no further court action can be taken. Instead of more legal warfare, the plaintiffs and defendants will use the six months to meet in face-to-face negotiations, outside the courtroom, in order to try to work out a final and permanent solution to the case.

This initial agreement cuts the state's desegregation costs by about $22 million per year. However, the true significance of the agreement is much greater than the immediate savings to the state: After eighteen years of fruitless legal maneuvering and endless court-mandated spending, we may finally be on the verge of negotiating a resolution to the Kansas City desegregation case.

From the very beginning, Missouri has mounted a vigorous legal defense in the Kansas City and St. Louis desegregation cases. In fact, since 1981, the state has spent over $18 million for attorneys' fees, court costs and other legal expenses associated with the cases. Nevertheless, the state's efforts have been unsuccessful. Despite the state's vehement defense in federal court, Missouri taxpayers have been forced to spend over $2.2 BILLION on court-ordered desegregation programs since 1981. And the money is just part of the story. Equally distressing is the fact that we continue to have federal courts run our schools and we continue to have lawyers and judges making education policy for our children.

The reason Missouri has been unsuccessful in ending the desegregation cases is because the state has never made a credible attempt to address the concerns of the federal courts. The state has always forcefully and consistently objected to the plaintiffs' demands. However, it has not offered potential solutions to the desegregation problem ... a problem clearly considered to be very real and very substantial by the federal courts.

The only way to end these cases, to get the courts out of our schools, and to ultimately end court-ordered desegregation spending is to give the federal courts reason to believe that the state is making a good faith and effective effort to address the desegregation issue. It is with this perspective that we have entered into these negotiations. And it is this approach that allowed us to achieve Missouri's first-ever reduction in desegregation spending.

Instead of continuing Missouri's long-standing pattern of objecting, losing, and spending, it's time to negotiate an end to these cases so that we may, once and for all, return control of our schools to our local school boards, cut and ultimately eliminate the state's desegregation costs, and stop spending our valuable resources on lawyers fees and courts costs.

Mel Carnahan is the governor of Missouri.

Tom Eagleton's column is scheduled to resume next week.