Big Carrot

But can the state swallow it?

"At first I couldn't believe it," says St. Louis School Board Staffer Eugene Uram. "Then I thought, 'What a lovely, creative idea.'"

What intrigued Uram was a plan put forth by the Reagan Administration and the school board to integrate schools in St. Louis (where 79% of pupils are black) and surrounding suburbs (84% white). Instead of compulsory cross-district busing, they proposed to offer a remarkable reward to suburban whites who voluntarily enroll in some city schools and to city blacks who choose to transfer to mostly white schools. The Administration and the school board asked U.S. District Judge William Hungate to require the state of Missouri to pay college tuition for pupils who voluntarily transfer to increase integration: one semester of free college education at any of Missouri's 30 public campuses in return for each year of participation in the program from kindergarten through twelfth grade. Says Craig Crenshaw, the Justice Department attorney who originally thought up the idea: "It's a tremendous carrot." The head of the St. Louis chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Dr. James A. De Clue, agreed. Said he: "We are totally in favor."

The financially pressed Missouri government is anything but happy, claiming it cannot fund the tuition plan, which is likely to cost $6 million or more a year. Says Missouri Attorney General John Ashcroft: "The bankruptcy of the Justice Department's argument shows that they have nothing to offer but the state's own money." There was concern as well that the plan was unfair to students who did not transfer. For example, white students who come into a black classroom would get college scholarships for being there, while black classmates in the very same room would have no special incentives.

Judge Hungate's ruling is not expected for several weeks. Meanwhile, Justice Department experts in Washington note that compulsory busing between St. Louis and its suburbs would also be expensive. There is now no precise dollar limit on the tuition bonus. The St. Louis plan is very much an experiment, and it might not work. Yet it is clear that integration needs new approaches. Observes School Expert James Coleman, a busing critic: "One of the problems with desegregation plans in general is that they have been punitive. Children and their families have ordinarily not received any benefit, and they've borne the total cost."

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