Judicial and educational disaster

If you were looking for a clear example of how not to run a school district, you probably could find no more stunning case of educational malpractice than in Kansas City, Mo.

Schools in Kansas City have fallen victim to a "triple whammy" of judicial meddling, gross mismanagement and the false belief that lots of spending guarantees academic excellence.

The shocking end result is that the school board has now voted to close nearly half of the 61 schools in the city to keep from going bankrupt.

Back in 1985, a federal judge ruled that the school district had what amounted to racial segregation, that its facilities were in disrepair, and that its academic performance was lagging. So the activist judge ordered the state of Missouri to shower $2 billion on the Kansas City district alone. It was assumed that all that money would boost test scores and that students who had been fleeing the schools would return to take advantage of pricey new amenities.

Rejoicing in what they thought was their good fortune, school officials starting spending wildly. Students in mock trial competitions were provided simulated courtroom facilities complete with a judge's chamber and jury deliberation room. An Olympic-size swimming pool was added at one school. Another got fancy recording studios. There was even money for a fencing program!

Annual spending per student rose to more than double the national average by 1991, and it's $15,000 today -- about 50 percent higher than the national average.

But for all that spending, "student achievement remained low, and the anticipated flood of students from the suburbs turned out to be more like a trickle," The Associated Press reported. The district, which had 75,000 students in the 1960s, today has fewer than 18,000, and fewer than half of all students in the city attend its traditional public schools. Most of the rest are in charter schools or private schools.

Worse still, not only is the $2 billion virtually gone, but the district is facing a $50 million budget shortfall -- forcing its decision to close almost half of Kansas City's public schools by fall. Nearly a fourth of the district's 3,000 employees will lose their jobs.

It does take appropriate funding to educate children. But as with the rest of government, "throwing money" at problems in education is not the solution. Neither is meddlesome judicial activism.