Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court, in a 5-4 vote, decided that the Seattle, WA, and Louisville, KY, school assignment plans were unconstitutional, since the plans were based on race. Of course, there are many people who are outraged by the decision, and some people believe that this will somehow lead to increased segregation. Yet, Chief Justice John Roberts stated why he believes the plans were unconstitutional:

"The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discrimination on the basis of race."

During the past 50 years, desegregation has worked well to a point, but instead of trying to force people  from different backgrounds to go to the same school, we should give parents options to send their kids to the schools of their choice. Through methods of school choice, from the Voluntary Inter-district Transfer Program that is used in St. Louis to send city students to the county and vice-versa, to school vouchers that allow people the freedom to choose where to send their kids, we can accomplish the goal of desegregation without the controversy. People of all backgrounds, no matter what race they are, want to choose good schools for their children, and at the end of the day, government does not need to force desegregation on people — they will choose it.

Yesterday’s Kansas City Star ran an article about congressional legislation that "would make it a criminal offense for gas prices to be ‘unconscionably’ high." The article’s headline? "Gas-price legislation would hurt consumers, oil group says" — undoubtedly true, but an unfortunate choice of words all the same.

Using the oil industry as the lone dissenting voice to legislation that seems populist and consumer-friendly on the surface makes it look like any objection to the bill is disingenous. After all, an oil industry spokeswoman would have to be against price controls, right? For those who have an instinctual us-vs.-them attitude about business, and the oil industry in particular, it seems like naked self-interest masquerading as concern for consumer welfare. But this is an objection worth heeding. If it had made a few more phone calls, the Star could well have titled its article, "Gas-price legislation would hurt consumers, says almost every economist on the planet".

The fundamental relationship between supply, demand, and price isn’t a matter of opinion or conjecture. Changing one of those variables by legislative fiat changes the others as well. If you set a cap on prices, more people will buy more gas and fewer oil producers will have an incentive to supply the market — leading to shortages. Simple as that.

Lily Tomlin once said, "The road to success is always under construction." The same can be said for Missouri’s roads — and for MoDOT’s efforts to improve its roadwork efforts.

Now that we have the great news that Missouri has "sharply improved" road quality during the past few years, it seems prescient that our newest policy analyst, David Stokes, recently wrote an article (reprinted by Missouri Political News Service) praising MoDOT for its innovative efforts to streamline its construction projects — pursuing public-private partnerships, using the "design-build" model, etc.

Competition, economies of scale, and real pricing mechanisms all make the economy more efficient — and when these principles are brought to bear in the public sector, they can make government services more valuable while saving taxpayers a bundle. Let’s hope MoDOT’s road-care policies will always remain "under construction."

An article in today’s St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that Missouri roads have improved sharply:

The report from the Reason Foundation, a non-profit policy group based
in Los Angeles, says Missouri "sharply improved" its pavement
conditions from 2000 to 2005, at a time when highway officials were
starting a construction blitz that repaired 2,200 miles of highway.

In 2000, the state’s highways ranked 38th. Today’s report puts the state at 17th.

The vast improvement in Missouri roads can be attributed to the shift in focus by MoDOT to maintenance of current roads during the past six years. There are still problems, though, with Missouri bridges, where Missouri ranks near the bottom. That should change once the contract is approved to rebuild over 800 bridges in Missouri. Another problem of note that because of the shift away from new projects, there is a list of projects that needs to be completed:

As a result, some projects have languished for years, such as building
a new Mississippi River bridge, extending Maryland Heights Expressway
and expanding the Page Avenue extension farther into St. Charles
County.

Overall, it is a great sign that Missouri is wisely investing in keeping its roads up to date and safe for its residents.

The Goldwater Institute recently issued a news release on a lawsuit filed against the Arizona Department of Education (ADE). The lawsuit aims to protect the autonomy and rights of the state’s charter schools and is in response to the following:

The Arizona Department of Education (ADE) has mandated that the schools align their curricula to an ADE-determined grade-by-grade curriculum sequence.

Part of the appeal and success of charter schools has been the ability to try new curriculum that better suits students’ interests and needs. These schools should not be required to change the very thing that makes them so successful. The charter schools involved do not appear to need any assistance in deciding which curriculum is best for their students:

BASIS Tucson, BASIS Scottsdale, Veritas Preparatory Academy in Phoenix, Chandler Preparatory Academy and Mesa Preparatory Academy — include four of the ten highest-performing public schools in the state based on AIMS test scores. Newsweek has named BASIS Tucson one of the nation’s ten best high schools for two consecutive years.

Hopefully, Missouri will not repeat the ADE’s mistake, instead allowing its growing number of charter schools the freedom necessary to provide an innovative and quality education for their students.

In today’s St. Louis Post Dispatch an article discusses the possibility that the City of Wildwood will probably not accept the petitions of its citizens who want to vote on the building of an $8 million city hall!

Residents collected roughly 3,400 signatures to get two issues on the
November ballot. Now they’re being told the city may not honor their
petitions.

It’s sad to see when governments do not listen to the people that elected them to office, especially on the local level. Hopefully, the Wildwood City Council will heed the petitions to allow an issue that involves taxpayers’ dollars being spent on this type of project to be brought to the voters. For the huge amount they are spending on this new city hall, it almost sounds like a gimmick like the monorail from the Simpsons. It looks nice, but doesn’t work too well.

In St. Louis and other cities and towns in Missouri, the use of TIFs and tax incentives to encourage development is rampant. In Columbia, Illinois, it is different. In the St. Louis Post Dispatch today an article discusses why the Columbia city council voted against two huge developments, one of which could have brought Legoland to the Midwest. One of the main reasons given by alderman Brad Oberkfell was that he wouldn’t support any project that would need tax incentives:

Previously, the council had supported exploring development
opportunities involving Columbia Crossing. But that was before the
April election. Three newly elected council members, including
Oberkfell, ran on campaigns against using tax incentives for
development purposes. And Oberkfell said the proposed theme park plan involved the potential use of tax incentives.

These leaders understand that economic growth happens when businesses see opportunities there, not because they receive tax incentives and TIFs. If businesses see potential profits in a certain area, they will come to cities to start businesses anyway. Congrats to Columbia on not giving away taxpayer dollars for private companies!

Mayor Slay wants to prohibit city government from buying bottled water:

Does that mean banning water coolers? “We’re looking at those types of things,” Slay said, emphasizing that the idea would be to replace jugs of bottled water with jugs filled from city taps.

At least he isn’t planning on naming St. Louis tap water the official water of the state of Missouri.

In a recent post, Sarah Brodsky commented on the Department of Energy’s decision to fund biofuels research centers in three other states — but not Missouri. Sarah pointed out that we don’t need government funding to support alternative fuel research, because "If biofuel is really a good idea, it’ll be profitable to invest in it even without government funds." Indeed. But there’s more to it than that. Government has a critical role in helping biofuel succeed — not more funding and largesse, but getting out of the way of real entrepreneurs.

The Cascade Policy Institute in Portland, OR, last year reported on how government regulations squelch the efforts of the best biofuel research team the nation has — farmers:

In order to sell biodiesel one must register with, and make regular reports to, the EPA and either pay $2,500 to the National Biodiesel Board or spend millions of dollars to re-prove its environmental health safety. Otherwise one faces $25,000 daily fines.

The stifling effect of these obstacles can’t be overestimated. If it weren’t for the EPA, our family would have started a biodiesel business long ago, and so would many of the farmers I’ve spoken with. Making your own fuel is a financial solution. The incentives to plant are already there and the entire process can be done on a small-scale.

Farmers know it’s a bum deal to work through a middleman to reach customers. Fuel is sure to bring in a good price, but who can say what processors will pay for oil seed stock? If farmers can’t profit directly from biodiesel they will never plant enough crops to make a dent in America’s fuel demands and the price of biodiesel will remain too high for widespread adoption.

Biodiesel represents an enormous opportunity, not only for its environmental and economic benefits, but for its liberating potential. There is a reason the terms “fuel” and “power” also have political application. Petroleum can’t be obtained by just anyone so it is ripe for control. Biodiesel can literally put power into the hands of every person.

The biodiesel opportunity has been suppressed for over a century. Rudolf Diesel designed his engine to run on a variety of vegetable oils and thought the technology would be a boon to farmers.

Now that biofuels have finally regained the national spotlight, America is at a crossroads. We can pursue subsidies and use mandates to build on the petroleum fuel model, with large-scale agribusiness supplying a few giant processors. Or we can we remove counterproductive laws for a paradigm shift to an agrarian fuel model, where local farmers grow the industry from the ground up and reap the profits.

One of the most basic truths of government intervention in the economy is that intervention begets intervention, as the unintended consequences of government action become apparent, and then have to be "fixed" through more government action, spawning still more unintended consequences that require still more intervention, etc.

Sometimes the government’s best course of action is to stay out of the way and let the market do its work, without obtrusive regulations that kill alternative energy innovations before they have a chance to blossom.

That’s right, a new program is giving kids T-shirts as a reward for wearing life jackets:

Water Patrol officers and Corps rangers on Table Rock Lake will reward children wearing jackets on boats, beaches and docks by giving them a T-shirt with the message, “I got caught wearing my life jacket.” The program will continue throughout the summer.

Why don’t they hand out life jackets or flotation devices to the kids who aren’t wearing them? I doubt anybody would put on a life jacket for the chance to win one of those T-shirts. And a T-shirt never saved anyone’s life.

Missouri was not selected to be the site of a federally-funded biofuels research center:

The Department of Energy announced Tuesday it will fund three biofuels research centers in Oak Ridge, Tenn., Madison, Wis., and near Berkeley, Calif.

I, for one, am not sorry. Economic growth happens when entrepreneurs work to satisfy consumers’ needs, not when established organizations vie for federal dollars. If biofuel is really a good idea, it’ll be profitable to invest in it even without government funds.

The St. Joseph News-Press complains that not enough Missourians from the northwest part of the state are serving on boards and commissions:

The new Seismic Safety Commission will always come from Cape Girardeau. And the governor can find a nominee for the Board of Examiners for Cosmetology and Barbers from anywhere in the state. It just seems that anywhere is rarely St. Joseph.

Gov. Blunt encourages everyone to serve on state boards:

"I encourage Missourians to explore our state’s boards and commissions and apply for an appointment that allows them to use their God-given talents to help enhance the services we deliver to Missourians each and every day," the governor said in a prepared release.

So there is the challenge. If Northwest Missouri wants someone on the lead poisoning committee or the Hispanic Business Trade and Culture Committee, we are going to need volunteers to step up to the plate.

It looks like northwest Missourians just prefer to use their God-given talents to do something productive themselves rather than to patrol other people.

Missouri’s virtual school has filled almost all of the available spaces:

Missouri’s new virtual school has only a few free slots still open, but more students can still take classes if they pay tuition, says the director of the online education program.

It’s interesting that almost no one protests the virtual school. The only complaint I’ve heard is that it doesn’t yet offer middle school courses. On the other hand, charter schools, tuition tax credits proposals, and busing programs are accused of hurting the traditional public schools.

Maybe this is because students have the option of taking one or two online courses while remaining in a public school. Other choice options like charter schools might be more popular if they offered individual courses or after-school tutoring to supplement traditional schools.

Jo Mannies blogs about the Supreme Court ruling against some of the McCain-Feingold speech restrictions. The decision was popular with some of her readers, who commented:

2. I just LOVE that part of McCain/Feingold went down today…

   Comment by tsquare — June 25, 2007 @ 2:27 pm

3. You mean that citizens of the USA are now permitted to express themselves freely even within 2 months of an election?

   What a country!!!

   Comment by chris d — June 25, 2007 @ 4:54 pm

Hear, hear. Mannies notes:

Until McCain-Feingold, such ads have had a strong presence on Missouri TV stations. They were a major presence in the 2002 U.S. Senate contest between Democratic incumbent Jean Carnahan and Republican Jim Talent.

In close races like the ones we often see in Missouri, it’s as important as ever that people be allowed to air ads about political issues.

In today’s Southeast Missourian, an article discusses the increasing popularity of the virtual school program in Missouri. In fact, it’s so popular that they have almost run out of free spots, and will have to charge tuition:

Missouri’s new virtual school has only a few free slots still open, but
more students can still take classes if they pay tuition, says the
director of the online education program.

Starting Monday, parents could sign up their children to take elementary or high school classes for the cost of tuition.

When you give parents options on where they would like to educate their children, they will take advantage of it. Now that the state sees that there is a great interest in the Missouri Virtual Instruction Program (MoVIP) it will be expanded, which will happen next year to cover middle school children. A parent had this to say about the MoVIP program, in the article:

My son is one of the high school students. What a great opportunity.

This Sylvester Brown Jr. column in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch speculates about the reasons people are pushing for charter schools and vouchers:

"Can’t you see the pattern, man?" Sol said. "Powerful folks with secret plans, always shoving blacks aside, ignoring our wishes, sometimes our votes, doing what they want …"

Sal interrupted, "That still has diddly to do with the schools."

"It doesn’t?" Sol responded. "Tell me, what part of town has received billions in investment dollars? Downtown. And who lives downtown now?"

I’d just perused a 2005 Downtown St. Louis Partnership report profiling downtown dwellers. I shared what I’d learned. About 25 percent of the 10,000 residents are single people in their 20s. Another 20 percent are in their 30s.

"Yes," Sol said, "young people who, in a few years, will have school-age kids. That’s why we’re hearing about future charter schools and vouchers. It’s not about kids in school today. They’re planning for the future."

I can see why people would think that public school reform isn’t "about kids in school today." We’re told again and again that the public schools just need more time to improve; meanwhile, teenagers graduate (or don’t) year after year without the skills they need to succeed in life.

However, I don’t think vouchers and charter schools fall into that category. There already are charter schools, and Mayor Slay wants to open others right now — not sometime in the future when there are more white kids in the city. There doesn’t seem to be much enthusiasm for vouchers here, but the tuition tax credit proposals that were advanced in the last few years would have been effective immediately.

And I find it impossible to believe that all of these different reform strategies are just part of a conspiracy to make the city nicer for white people. Bad public schools hurt everyone.

In today’s St. Louis Post Dispatch, U.S. mayors declare that St. Louis has the best water in the United States!

Mayors from around the country declared Monday that St. Louis water
rises to the top. The water was judged on taste, clarity and aroma.

When tax dollars are spent well, you will probably have good water! Take that, Chicago.

David Nicklaus writes about Centene’s search for a place to expand:

Richard Fleming, president of the St. Louis Regional Chamber and Growth Association, said he spoke at an RCGA board meeting Thursday about Centene’s importance to St. Louis. Centene CEO Michael Neidorff, a member of the board, was there, and other board members applauded in agreement, Fleming said.

"This company is a valued corporate headquarters," Fleming said. "They’re heavily involved in community activities and philanthropy. We shouldn’t take them for granted; we should make it clear that they’re wanted."

Missouri has already offered Centene $9 million in tax breaks, but according to Centene, that might not be enough now that they can’t use eminent domain to acquire property.

Instead of giving this one corporation a tax cut, why not pass a tax cut for everyone? We want to attract many businesses to Missouri, not just the ones that try to seize property through eminent domain, then threaten to leave when that doesn’t work. An across-the-board tax cut would be more fair to the business owners who don’t seek out special privileges.

In today’s Columbia Daily Tribune, an op-ed piece discusses the problems with the Missouri Housing Development Commission’s state tax credit program. Apparently the housing tax credits, which are supposed to be used for low-income and senior housing projects, has been going toward developers who use it as start-up funding for their projects, and then cashing it in for the full tax break:

A recent study ordered by the housing commission found the system does
produce beneficial low-cost housing but at a high cost to the state
because the tax credits usually are sold to third party investors by
developers at steep discounts.

At the end of the day, the full tax credit is not going toward the stated purpose:

Investors buy the credits, providing discounted front money so
developers can proceed with projects, then redeem the credits for 100
percent state tax reduction. For every dollar the state gives in tax
discounts, only 35 or 40 cents subsidizes housing.

Again it’s shown that while tax credit programs may sound beneficial and good, at the end of the day they aren’t used for their stated purposes. The taxpayers are picking up the bill for investments that should be covered by private investors’ own money.

An op-ed in the Springfield News-Leader explains how Missouri’s health care system has made life difficult for independent physicians — until now:

The restrictions placed on patients by their insurance companies are remarkable. Even many patients with the benefits of our present universal health coverage, Medicare, have signed over those rights to managed-care plans that restrict their choice of physicians. As independent physicians, we have been locked out of "the system" in Springfield.

Dr. Arnold, the author, suggests that we need a new law requiring insurance providers to accept any physician willing to abide by their contracts. However, help is already on the way. As Show-Me Institute Vice President Jason Hannasch writes in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, newly enacted health insurance reform will give Missourians greater control over their health care:

Rebecca Bruchhauser, our director of development, says her HSA has made a big difference in her health care decisions.

"Participating in a consumer-driven plan has allowed me to be more involved in my health care," she said. "I’ve chosen new health care providers in order to benefit from greater affordability and quality. " [...]

The new HSA legislation makes the benefits of patient choice in health care available to state employees, small businesses and many who were previously uninsured.

As more Missourians reap the benefits of HSAs, our state’s health care system will become more responsive to consumers’ needs.

Here’s an illustration of why preschool education is better when carried out in the private sector:

With the district reorganizing its staff and resources to round up children 3 to 5 into universal pre-K, parents worry that the Parents as Teachers program may get slighted.

FitzGerald’s 4-year-old son, and now her 2-year-old daughter, both benefited from the insight of their parent educator, “Ms. Cindy,” she said.

“Ms. Cindy knows my kids. They’re excited to see her,” FitzGerald said. “Will she still be coming?”

It’s disturbing that we have a program to send government workers into people’s homes to patrol their parenting. It’s also unfortunate for the disadvantaged parents who would benefit from help with their kids. When districts restructure programs like this, it disrupts the trust and relationships families have formed with the teachers. It might be a better idea to give parents vouchers for private parenting classes and preschool programs, which wouldn’t be subject to the whims of public school administrators.

In Sunday’s Jefferson County Journal, an op-ed piece discusses a way to stop spiraling property taxes in Missouri. The plan includes moving away from tax rates on residential property to a base tax that would be calculated from a house’s final selling price. After two years, any improvements made on the house would not count toward the property tax. This would reduce the penalty that people faces for making housing improvements that most homeowners do later in their lives. As the author states:

However, the question I have asked myself for years is this: when a homeowner adds a deck or another room to his or
her residence does the local or county government incur additional
expenses necessary to provide basic services to the citizens of the
community?

The answer to this question is an emphatic "No!"

This plan would also allow room for adjustments to the property tax due to cost-of-living and inflation:

To factor in inflation and cost-of-living it
is necessary to allow for adjustments in the base tax. This might be
accomplished by setting an inflation cap of 2 or 3 percent
periodically. The voters must approve any increase above this.

Overall, the plan sounds solid. Instead of basing property taxes on the infamous drive-by assessments, as has been done in St. Louis County, they should be based on uniform standards that homeowners can understand. Also, it’s about time that homeowners stopped being penalized for making improvements to their homes, by extra taxes being added by assessors to homeowners’ property tax bills. It makes no sense that homeowners are penalized for trying to improve the houses that they live in.

Here’s an article in the St. Joseph News-Press about the proposed English-language amendment:

If the ever-increasing number of students enrolled in English classes at the Ruth Houston Learning Center is any indication, non-English speaking adults in St. Joseph are in a rush to pick up the language.

Sharon Franke began teaching English at the center in October 2005. At the time, she was the sole teacher with three students. The center now requires five teachers that instruct up to 85 students.

Immigrants are already eager to learn English — even though most of these people have nothing to do with the state’s official proceedings. English is useful in everyday life. An amendment won’t make people want to learn English, but we don’t need it to. Immigrants already want to learn English.

Now it’s my turn to disagree. Not to the idea that there are too many school districts — I have no way to measure the optimum balance between the value of competition and the efficiency of consolidation — but to the notion that "too many choices" can ultimately make us worse-off.

David Stokes links to a New Yorker review of Barry Schwartz’s book The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less, noting that when faced with an ever-growing variety of products from which to choose, "at some point, the variety of choices leads to diminishing returns." I don’t dispute that this can be the case — for a majority of people, most of the time, even — but that this is no argument for artificial elimination of any of those choices.

Sometimes eliminating choices is a business strategy that makes sense. Some restaurants are getting rid of menus, some supermarkets are paring down the number of items on their shelves, and the Internet is filled with advice on how to make decisions effectively — suggesting that there’s a wide range of people out there that needs help coping with the bewildering array of choices life has to offer them.

So, yes, I grant all of this. And yet … it’s easy to forget that the long tail has become the basis for the most valuable new business plans of the Internet age. The idea here is that people have such widely varied tastes that the many items people buy very little of, with low market share, add up to a mass of options that rivals the popular items that nearly everybody buys.

Schwartz coined a couple of terms for different types of deision-makers: "maximizers" and "satisficers."

Continue reading "The Long Tail of Choice" »

Via John Combest, the Kansas City Star has an excellent editorial on future transportation funding in Missouri. Key statement:

"Any comprehensive approach should also authorize the use of tolls."

Amen to that. MoDOT simply does not and will not have the money in the long run to build and maintain the transportation system that our state’s people and economy require. Tolls are a way to finance transportation paid for by the entities that use the system. And I don’t mean just allowing MoDOT to build new toll roads. I mean using private companies to build, operate and maintain highways and bridges in Missouri under contract with the state. All options must be available to build and maintain the best transportation system possible. Much, much more on this issue in the future from the Show-Me Institute. 

I like three-toed box turtles almost as much as crayfish. But this still strikes me as a bad idea:

Legislation signed into law Thursday by Gov. Matt Blunt designates the three-toed box turtle as the official reptile of Missouri and makes the crayfish, also known as the crawfish or crawdad, the official state invertebrate [...]

Blunt said he assumes there will be more, because children get both a science and government lesson when they research and advocate for their favorite plants and animals.

"It’s amazing what they come up with up," Blunt said. "I’m sure we’ll be stunned by their innovation as we name yet another state symbol next year."

We just can’t have a symbol for every middle-school class in the country. A few symbols are cute. A few hundred symbols are a waste of time on the part of our elected officials.

I’m also bothered by the idea that kids have to get their own law passed in order to learn about the legislative process. Kids can learn about the legislative process by visiting Jefferson City, listening to debates over the internet, or volunteering for campaigns. We would never make sixth-graders governor for the day to learn about the executive branch (although a few people might like that).

Sarah Brodsky disagrees with my opinion that there are too many school districts (524 to be exact) in Missouri. Her argument is that choice breeds competition, competition benefits schools and students, and more districts means more competition. She cites a study that proves her point. I don’t doubt the study but it explicitly states that it is measuring and comparing results in metropolitan area school districts, not rural areas. From the study:

That is, the effects are substantial if one considers moving from one end of the Tiebout choice spectrum (a metropolitan area like Miami) to the other (a metropolitan area like Boston). Naturally, most metropolitan areas are between the two ends of the spectrum, and the current variation in Tiebout choice among metropolitan areas explains a modest amount of their differences in school productivity.

My point clearly stated that I think too many small, rural school districts are the primary problem here.  Further, choice is indeed a wonderful thing in many ways, but simple logic dictates that there is a limit to the top number. If 524 is not too many districts, then would we be better off with 1,200? Of course there is a limit to the benefits of choice contained by a large number of districts. I think 524 is WAY too high. The tax dollars wasted by 524 sets of administration, upkeep on a large number of underattended schools, and much more, clearly tell me the number should be much lower. What should it be? I have no idea, but cutting it in half would be a good start — and still give Missourians plenty of choice.

There is a thing as too much choice. This article sums up the various ideas very well. From my own experience as a recent father, I would call it the "Babies ‘R’ Us" dilemma. If one company had a monopoly on making baby bottles, that would be terrible. Just two companies is better, but still bad. But at some point, the variety of choices leads to diminishing returns. Just go to "Babies ‘R’ Us" and try to decide which of the two dozen brands of bottles is right for your child. If you are like me, you quickly realize that the amount of time spent trying to determine that answer would be an enormous effort that would almost certainly result in more or less a tie among the products. So you just trust that "Babies ‘R’ Us" has tested them all, and buy the ones on sale.

Blogs are no fun if all the contributors echo each other. To prevent that from happening here, the Show-Me Institute hired both me and Dave Stokes. I must disagree with Dave’s post arguing that Missouri has too many school districts. As Caroline Hoxby has shown, more districts mean more competition, which leads to higher student achievement per dollar spent. When families move to an area, they usually look at the different available school districts before buying a house. They have more options in areas where there are many different districts.

The Post-Dispatch has an article today on Fort Zumwalt School District in St. Charles County opening its fourth high school next school year. This puts Fort Zumwalt in select company, as one of only six school districts in Missouri with four high schools, out of more than 500 school districts. Others may read this article and want to congratulate Fort Zumwalt, which is fine, but I read it and despair over the enormous number of school districts that are tiny and should be forcibly merged with neighboring districts.

Most of the extremely small districts are in the rural areas, although St. Louis County has some, Hancock Place and Bayless mostly, that should merge. It’s not as if these small, rural districts just want to be left alone to operate by themselves. Many of them are currently suing the State of Missouri for more tax money. I hope they lose their lawsuit and the state refuses to increase financial support for any school district below a set number of students.

Missouri has as much duplication in government as any state. The examples abound: too many St. Louis City Alderman, to many St. Louis County municipalities, too many state representatives, too many separate counties, and way too many school districts.

On another note, the new school, Fort Zumwalt East, has chosen its new mascot and colors: the Lions, and black and gold. Nice to see they are starting off the new school by copying everything from University City High School. Next, I bet Fort Zumwalt will put enormous lion statues at the entrance to O’Fallon.

On Missourinet, a post encourages all of us to serve on state boards:

Jessica Robinson with the Governor’s office says there is bound to be a board or commission that appeals to just about every Missourian.

No kidding. There’s a Wine and Grape Board, a Committee of Interpreters, a Holocaust Education and Awareness Commission, Interior Design Council, and the Committee of Marital and Family Therapists. My favorite is the Board of Geologist Registration. Members of this board get paid to attend meetings and conference calls about licensing geologists. Those meetings probably seem fun if the alternative is studying rocks.