Lost opportunities

by Jack Stapleton, Jr.

The challenge of Missouri and the United States in muddling through the currently worsening economic malaise remains a critical issue in both Washington and, unfortunately, even more so in Jefferson City. This lack of progress is the fault of neither political party nor the individuals creating policies designed to ameliorate, if not end, what has grown more and more troubling in recent months.

Congress continues to fuss over aspects of President George W. Bush’s tax proposals to “get Americans back to work.” Our state’s Legislature is leaving vast gaps of needed solutions unattended while somehow hoping it will all come out in the wash. It won’t, of course. The procrastination that has engulfed our state Capitol is all the more disturbing by the annoying, cavalier explanation that the state’s treasury will muddle through — regardless of the number of Missourians whose lives will increasingly become more troubling and whose future more uncertain in the weeks and months ahead.

It is difficult to find any silver lining in plans that have been proposed in Jefferson City to balance income with outgo. This is particularly true of “solutions” that have not only been advocated but which, in light of any clearer thinking, have become permanent within the finished budget of the state. It is shocking, not to mention disheartening, to watch as the state government vainly attempts to bring the budget under control by penalizing the most vital functions mandated by the state Constitution. Severe budget surgery has been done on Missouri’s public school system.

Hundreds of thousands of tomorrow’s adults are being shortchanged before they can even get a high school diploma. Districts have been forced to cancel programs and discharge teachers to comply with the Draconian fund reductions mandated by the state. In place of devoting efforts to improving the quality of public schools, administrators have been forced to make hundreds of decisions that will bring their institutions within shouting range of a balanced budget.

Our elected representatives can manufacture all the reasons for cutting programs for school children by reducing taxes for favored constituents. One need not ask what our leaders’ priorities are; they are well known and all too obvious by their final choices. One wonders whatever happened to the grand designs that were unfolded for the nation and the state as recently as the campaign of 2000.

Governor Bob Holden campaigned on becoming the state’s “education governor,” yet that priority has been lost months ago as the state stumbled along somewhere between fiscal insolvency and generational insensitivity.

The same Draconian steps where taken when it became time to take up improved higher educational facilities, the breeding ground for Missouri’s future or the quagmire of our continued mediocrity. It is virtual sacrilege for our political leaders to say they are addressing the challenge of modern technology in the next decade simply because there will be no such promised economic development without bolstering the academic levels of its tax-supported colleges and universities.

Obviously, we are going to devote more dollars to athletic stadiums than modern training and research facilities in our higher educational institutions. And forget the value of professors and assistants whose positions have been eliminated to make room for cuts required by myopic politicians.

Not mentioned in all of this is the crisis that will soon face the state as its human service programs have been reduced or eliminated altogether. Thousands of our fellow citizens will soon be confronted with a rapidly declining state commitment to make the lives of our poorest and neediest citizens at least bearable over the next year and, perhaps, for an even longer period of time. Thank heaven the state “found” adequate money to complete a new correctional facility near Jefferson City, making our prison system the singular growth industry in Missouri. (In case you missed it, please read the previous sentence with all the irony at your command.)

If Missourians are real spectators, they will want to watch the faces of our state’s mentally retarded and mentally ill children. Their services are being reduced to accommodate a “balanced budget.” There is nothing balanced about humane services for innocent children being reduced or eliminated to accommodate what is incorrectly labeled “monetary adjustments.” In place of designating a new wild flower or authorizing special automobile licenses, wouldn’t it be nice to witness a modicum amount of interest and concern displayed for children whose every waking moment is spent in pain, disability and misery? Oh, that we had state laws requiring every politician responsible for such barbaric reductions to view the faces of these children facing the reality of the cold results of political indifference. God forbid, we should inflict our political leaders with such embarrassing, heart rendering scenes in the lives of our children.

These are not ordinary times for our country or our state nor should we accept the apologies of those who had an opportunity to alter them but made no effort to do so. It is a record without distinction or honor.

[Missouri News & Editorial Services, Inc. Copyright (C) 2003 MNES Corp.]