Education: Yes!

• Share

To the sober, civic-conscious Kansas City Star, the city's school system was in "a terrible mess." Moreover, it was attracting unfavorable attention outside Kansas City. Something, cried the Star, had to be done.

For two years the people of Kansas City had done nothing at all. For one thing, they had let their schools squeak by without enough money. Every time the school board tried to raise the school levy, they voted it down. Finally, in a desperate economy move last year, the school board pared the school year from 40 weeks down to 34.

That brought down on Kansas City the icy scowl of the powerful North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools. At its meeting three weeks ago, a special committee of the association recommended that Kansas City be dropped from its accredited list. One possible effect of such a blacklisting: Kansas City high-school credits would fall to a discount for college entrance. Quickly Kansas City appealed, said it was going to vote again on raising the school levy by 38%. The N.C.A.C.S.S. granted a three-month reprieve.

With that, the city went to work for its schools. Day after day the Star printed cartoons, pictures and editorials urging the people to vote "Yes." Locals of the C.I.O. and A.F. of L. bade their members vote the same; so did the real-estate board, the Merchants Association and the Chamber of Commerce. A lawyer named John. Mc-Evers set up a campaign committee, soon had 9,000 block workers ringing doorbells all over town. Roman Catholic Bishop Joseph Marling threw his weight in favor of more money for the public schools.

Last week Kansas City voted. It was one of the biggest turnouts in a school referendum in the city's history. The vote: over 2 to 1 in favor of the levy. After months of inaction, Kansas City had faced reality, had voted enough money to put its schools back on a 40-week season, and to stay off the N.C.A.C.S.S. blacklist.