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AFTERNOON SESSION

(The committee resumed at 2:30 p. m., pursuant to the luncheon recess.)

Senator ELLENDER. The meeting will be in order, please.

Will all those who have statements to submit for the record come up and submit them at this time.

Give your name and whom you represent.

Mr. DRISCOLL. My name is W. A. Driscoll, county superintendent of schools, Montgomery County, Dayton, Ohio. I am filing a statement from the executive secretary of the Ohio Education Association, representing some 40,000 teachers.

Senator ELLENDER. Thank you.

(The statement submitted by W. A. Driscoll is as follows:)

Hon. JAMES E. MURRAY,

OHIO EDUCATION ASSOCIATION, Columbus, Ohio, January 22, 1945.

Chairman, Senate Committee on Education and Labor,

Washington, D. C.

DEAR SENATOR MURRAY: In connection with S. 181, I wish to write you concerning Ohio's interest in the progress of this bill.

The platform of the Ohio Education Association, the adoption of which was renewed on December 29, 1944, declares that

"The Ohio Education Association endorses the principle of Federal Aid to public education provided the legislation involved does not interfere with State and local management of the schools but will secure greater equalization of educational opportunity."

Ohio shares with all other States the common problem of inadequate compensation for its teaching staff. Teachers' salaries in Ohio are not adequate to compete with other types of employment into which teachers are qualified to enter. These salaries have not been adjusted to correspond with the rise in living costs and do not attract the entrance of young people into teacher training courses. As of December 1943, 1,482 Ohio teachers were employed on annual salaries of $1,000 per year or less, 6,100 were receiving salaries of less than $1,200 per year, and 24,483 were employed on salaries of $2,000 or less per year. Certainly, the first two categories are definitely on a substandard wage basis and those in the last-named category earn less than the average wage paid factory employees in the United States. In September 1944 the legislature provided temporary additional money which has made increases of from $100 to $200 per teacher possible.

This year 200,000 Ohio children have new teachers in their classrooms due to withdrawals for war service or employment in other fields plus a very high number of transfers from one teaching position to another for economic betterment. Considerably more than half of these children are being taught by teachers whose qualifications are below State standards and who can serve only because they have been granted temporary certificates by the State department of education. More than 5,000 temporary certificates have been granted.

The decline in the college enrollment of young people preparing to teach is alarming, and Ohio's experience corresponds with the national trend. Teaching does not compete in economic attractiveness with other callings and the source of supply is thus rapidly shrinking. The 5,000 temporary certificates already cited strikingly point up the supply situation in Ohio. This figure means that more than one-eighth of Ohio's teachers have qualifications which are below the State's reasonable standards.

There is urgent need for making additional money available to correct immediately injustices done teachers in the matter of their compensation but, perhaps even more important, is the effect that lifting of the salary level will have upon the flow of future recruits to teaching ranks. If present trends are not arrested, the postwar situation in our public schools will be a sorry one indeed.

It will not do to dismiss the whole matter as merely a self-centered desire of teachers for more money. The whole structure of a high quality of education for Ohio's youth which has been laboriously built up over a period of years can be

FEDERAL AID FOR EDUCATION

wrecked by a steady dry rot, the onset of which is graphically indicated by the figures already cited. The effects of a short-sighted policy toward schools today will be felt for a generation or longer.

Yours very truly,

Senator ELLENDER. Next, please.

W. B. BLISS.

Mr. MANNING. C. G. Manning, superintendent of schools, Lewistown, Mont. I am presenting a statement from the Montana Education Association. Mr. Chairman, will I have a chance to supplement that statement later?

Senator ELLENDER. Yes, sir; if you have anything else you would like to add to what you are putting in today simply send it to Chairman James Murray, of the Education and Labor Committee, Washington, D. C.

Thank you.

(The statement submitted by C. G. Manning is as follows :)

Senator JAMES E. MURRAY,

MONTANA EDUCATION ASSOCIATION,
Helena, Mont., January 22, 1945.

Chairman, Senate Committee on Education and Labor,

Senate Office Building, Washington, D. C.

DEAR SENATOR MURRAY: The Montana Education Association, at its annual meeting, adopted the following resolutions:

"Be it further resolved, That the Montana Education Association, recognizing that education is a local, State, and National problem, reaffirm its stand in favor of Federal aid to education without Federal control as provided in S. 637 and H. R. 2849.

"Be it further resolved, That the Montana Education Association endorses a program for thorough and regular medical and dental inspection of all elementary and secondary school children, both city and rural, and for medical and dental treatment for all children found defective; these services should be organized as a regular part of the school program, the cost of which should be borne jointly by the community, the State, and the Federal Government."

Montana at the present time is probably the best situated financially in its history.

Since the bottom of the depression, we have increased the salaries of our school people from an average of $1,025 to $1,800. In spite of this effort, we find that the number of teachers employed has been reduced from 5,428 in May 1940 to 4,694 in September 1944. Of these 4,694, about 1,100 are teaching on emergency certificates based on qualifications as much as 2 years below the minimum requirements fixed by law. Over 1,500 married women are teaching, of whom at least two-thirds will drop out as soon as the war is over.

The total enrollment in our teacher-training institutions, both public and private, has dropped to about 250 with not more than 100 becoming available for replacements for the school year 1945-46. Our normal turnover is about 10 percent or 470; while for the last 4 years, it has averaged three times that figure. Of the returning veterans, former educators, only 1 out of 10 is coming back into school work. Even to hold our present staff of poorly prepared and temporary teachers, we must increase salaries by at least $200 on the average.

Our State legislature is now in session and proposals have been presented requesting enactment of bills that will adequately finance that minimum program. Already has come the statement from the floor leader in the House, the taxpayers' association, the board of equalization, and others, "Where is the money coming from?" This indicates a feeling that Montana cannot adequately finance its The only alternative is Federal school program from local and State sources.

aid as provided in S. 181 and H. R. 1296.

Montana's difficulty arises from two sources:

1. About 50 percent of our produced wealth leaves the States and becomes the property of nonresident owners before it can be taxed.

2. We are subject to droughts, high shipping rates, and the fluctuations of price and demand due to the fact that we are a producer of raw materials, rather than finished products.

73384-45-pt. 1-10

We believe that, if the local and State units cannot adequately finance education, the Federal Government must. Our postwar economy will succeed only in proportion to the development of our human resources.

Very truly yours,

Senator ELLENDER. Next, please.

M. P, MOE, Executive Secretary.

Miss DODGE. Grace L. Dodge, president, Maine Teachers' Association. This statement comes from our State teachers' association and was filed previous to the changing of the number on the bill, but we are heartily in accord with the pending bill.

Senator ELLENDER. Thank you.

(The statement submitted by Miss Grace L. Dodge is as follows:)

Hon. JAMES E. MURRAY,

MAINE TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION,"
Augusta, Maine, January 28, 1945.

Senate Office Building, Washington, D. C.

DEAR SIR: At the annual meeting of the representative assembly of the Maine Teachers' Association last fall the following resolution was adopted by unanimous vote:

"Resolved, That we actively support measures to provide greater Federal aid, without Federal control of educational policy, for the public schools of this Nation. This step is necessary because the Federal Government has so far extended its system of taxation that we in Maine find it apparently impossible to secure the funds necessary to support an adequate educational program by means of our present tax structure which places most of the burden on the overtaxed real estate of our communities."

Although this resolution does not mention the specific bills now before Congress, the Maine Teachers' Association does endorse Senate bill 181 and urges its immediate enactment to help remedy the crisis that many schools in northern New England are facing.

Respectfully yours,

Senator ELLENDER. Next, please.

GRACE L. DODGE, President.

Mr. ROGERS. My name is Charles M. Rogers, superintendent of schools at Amarillo, Tex., president of the Texas State Teachers Association. I am filing a statement containing a resolution of the State association favoring Federal aid and setting forth some figures with reference to the teacher situation in Texas at this time as a result of a survey in Texas in October. This statement represents some 47,000 teachers in Texas.

Senator ELLENDER. Thank you.

(The statement submitted by Charles M. Rogers is as follows:) TEXAS STATE TEACHERS ASSOCIATION, INC., Fort Worth, Tex., January 18, 1945.

Hon. JAMES E. MURRAY,

Chairman, Senate Committee on Education and Labor,

Washington, D. C.

DEAR SENATOR MURRAY: Below I quote a resolution passed by the State house of delegates of the Texas State Teachers Association at its last meeting, held in the city of Forth Worth, Tex., on November 25, 1944.

"We affirm our belief in the need of Federal aid for public education, without Federal control."

In further support of the need for Federal aid for education, I give you the following facts developed from a recent survey of Texas schools, covering 37,071 teaching positions. This survey revealed that there were in Texas schools 1,619 vacant teaching positions when the schools opened in September. Eight hundred and sixty-nine of these places were still open on October 28. At the opening of school, 7,992 of the 37,071 teachers on whom information was received were new to their positions and 6,146 of the teachers surveyed held substandard qualifications. Vacant teaching positions, the rapid turn-over in

teaching personnel, and the lowering of teachers' qualifications are traceable directly to the low salaries paid teachers in this State, and members of the Texas State Teachers Association feel that Federal aid for education offers the only hope of relief during the emergency.

Thanking you and other members of your committee for any consideration that you may give this letter, I am,

Sincerely yours,

Senator ELLENDER. Next, please.

B. B. COBB, Secretary.

Mr. RAWLINS. R. E. Rawlins, superintendent of schools at Pierre, S. Dak. I am presenting this statement on behalf of the State Teachers Association and our legislative commission, and I will also later submit for the record a statement on this subject from Hon. M. Q. Sharpe, the Governor of South Dakota.

Senator ELLENDER. Thank you.

(The statement submitted by R. E. Rawlins is as follows:)

Hon. LISTER HILL,

SOUTH DAKOTA EDUCATION ASSOCIATION,
Sioux Falls, S. Dak., January 27, 1945.

Chairman, Senate Committee on Education and Labor,

Washington, D. C.

DEAR SENATOR HILL: The Educational Finance Act of 1945 (S. 181) is essentially in accordance with the resolutions which have been adopted by the South Dakota Education Association over a period of many years. In 1943 the SDEA legislative commission proposed to our delegate assembly that "the South Dakota Education Association endorse the Educational Finance Act of 1943 (S. 637) as a proper method of providing financial aid to schools under local and State control. We urge our Senators and Representatives to continue to actively support. Federal aid to public schools." Again last fall our educational policies commission proposed this resolution: "That the people must be brought to a realization that education is the responsibility of the whole Nation if there is to be equality of educational opportunity. The financial support of education must be secured wherever it is found and spent where it is needed." Both of these recent resolutions were adopted by our delegate assembly and constitute the standing policy of the South Dakota Education Association.

South Dakota has always maintained high educational standards, and these teaching standards have been dependent upon well-trained and competent teachers. Our biggest problem during these war years has been to maintain competent teaching staffs. We have found that competition for teachers is on a national basis. Salaries in South Dakota have always been low, but they are so far out of line with other States at the present time that it is impossible to retain many able teachers and impossible to replace them with persons of like training and experience.

The State department of public instruction, in a preliminary report on teachers' salaries for 1944-45 appearing in the February number of the South Dakota Education Association Journal, shows that of the 6,969 teachers in the elementary and secondary schools, 2,556 receive less than $1,200 in salary (of these, 2,301 are rural teachers, 176 are elementary, and 76 high school in town schools). Also 2,429 teachers receive salaries this year between $1,200 and $1,500 (of these, 1,251 are rural teachers, 1,076 are elementary, and 90 are high-school teachers in towns and 12 are supervisors). One thousand two hundred and twenty-nine teachers receive salaries between $1,500 and $2,000, and 765 receive salaries over $2,000.

Our department of public instruction has tried to maintain certification standards but this has been impossible. To meet the challenge of keeping schools open in wartime, the department has worked out three ways: (1) Renewed certificates without the additional training which is usually required for renewals, especially of certificates which have been lapsed. We have no records as to how many such renewals have been made, but I know that it is very considerable. (2) Encouraged high school seniors to attend 6 weeks of summer school and write an examination for a second grade certificate to permit them to teach in the rural schools, and last summer, if they attended 12 weeks, no examination was required. Before this drive came on, 37 such second grade certificates were issued in 1942-43, and in 1943-44, 625 second grade certificates were issued.

Approximately as many additonal certificates were issued during the present year so that we now have some 1,200 high school graduates with from 6 to 12 weeks of review courses teaching in our rural schools; (3) Permits have been issued to 617 persons last year and probably as many or more have been issued the present year.

Since the second grade certificates are in force for 2 years, it is fair to assume that we now have about 25 percent of the teachers in South Dakota with certificaton standards considerably below those which would be normally permissible. In our rural schools approximately half of our teachers have certificates which are below the standards customary 3 years ago, and the department is now considering reducing the requirements in town elementary schools from 2 to 1 year of preparation above high school. Many of these teachers are doing excellent work. Many of those who haven't taught for 15 to 20 years are now back in the classroom due to the dire need that exists in the community.

The assessed valuation of South Dakota has gone down from 24 billion dollars in 1920 to about one billion dollars at the present time. Our population has decreased from 642,941 in 1940 to an estimated 540,000. A great deal of the loss of population has occurred in the rural areas and in small towns. With the decrease in population there has also been a decrease in the ability to support local schools.

Our State finances have never been large in South Dakota, and we are laboring under the burden of repaying the costs of an expensive rural credit experiment some twenty-five years ago. Such help as we might reasonably expect to secure from the State, will have to be used to pay off the rural credit bonds. The present State legislature finds itself faced with a problem of paying off some nineteen million dollars in bonds within the next 5 years.

Two years ago the State division of finance and taxation made a survey of the tax levies of the various districts in the State. They found that 50 percent of the town schools were levying the legal mill levy of 25 mills for current operation of schools. A partial survey which is in progress at the present time indicates that almost 70 percent of the town schools are now levying the limit. The same survey also indicates that approximately 40 percent of the high schools are unable to levy an amount sufficient to carry on their educational program. In Spink County 12 schools requested a total budget of $200,000 and the county auditor was compelled by law to reduce this to a total of $132,500. Nine Turner County schools requested $156,500, and the auditor reduced this by nearly $20,000. One consolidated school west of the river prepared a budget that called for $24,000, but the county auditor was limited by law to spread $9,270. Forty percent of the high-school districts in the State can levy only 78 percent of the amount that they need for current operation, and deficit financing of schools is on the increase. In spite of better incomes for individuals, many town schools will be unable to remain on a cash basis. We believe that the enactment of the Educational Finance Act of 1945 will do much to keep the schools going in South Dakota.

Sincerely yours,

S. B. NISSEN, Secretary.

PIERRE, S. DAK., February 10, 1945.

Mr. R. E. RAWLINS,

Superintendent, City Schools, Pierre, S. Dak.

DEAR MR. RAWLINS: Referring to your request that I furnish a statement of my opinion and attitude on the subject of Federal aid to public education in the States, I will say that I am submitting the following statement which you may use as a part of your evidence or record by filing it with the proper committees of Congress or with departments of the National Government as you may see fit.

1. In general, my idea is simply this: I think that substantial Federal aid would be beneficial provided it carried with it no requirement for Federal management, supervision, or dictation of any kind to any of the States or their institutions on matters of education.

2. It seems to me proper for the Federal Government to use some of its income to aid the States in education, because proper education is of much importance to all levels of government from the Nation down. However, there is so much diversity of various conditions and environment over a country as large as ours, that I am doubtful of the advisability of trying to set up general Federal

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