Dr. TINK. We have just adopted a single salary schedule, that goes into effect next September 1. Mr. KEARNS. In Newark they would be what? Dr. TINK. Considerably higher. Mr. KEARNS. We had testimony here yesterday from $2,600 to $5,100. Dr. TINK. That is the range. Our minimum under the new salary schedule is $1,800, our maximum, $4,200, with increases for higher degrees. Mr. KEARNS. What do your rural teachers get? Dr. TINK. Our minimum salary, until about 3 weeks ago in New Jersey, was $1,200 in second-class counties, $1,500 in our three first-class counties. I do not know what the average is. I can't answer that question. Mr. KEARNS. I wanted to bring that for the record, Mr. Chairman, so that Mr. Fuller was here, and you see you have practically the same salary average of New Jersey rural schools as you would in Pennsylvania, which was the $1,400 minimum that they must pay in Pennsylvania, and they ran from $1,200 to $1,500, which would practically average that. In New Jersey, in order to receive your State remuneration, that they allocate to the school district in Kearny, do you have requirements as to school attendance in order to get that amount of money? Dr. TINK. The State aid system is a development of a good many years, and the moneys are distributed on various bases. A certain amount, which is a flat amount for superintendents, principals, and supervisors. Another one for teachers, for instance, is $200. Then there is another amount based upon the amount of transportation involved, another amount based upon the number of crippled children concerned in any situation, and there is another amount divided on the average daily attendance. I would say there have been about 15 different measures, which determine the distribution of the State aids to local school districts. Mr. KEARNS. Under Act 403, of Pennsylvania, which I wanted to bring out here, which gives the school district or the Commonwealth their moneys, that is paid out on aggregate attendance. In other words, if your average attendance over the school year is 91 percent, you get 91 percent of the full amount that you could receive. In other words, the school superintendent is held responsible, through his attendance officers, and through home-room teachers, to get those children into classrooms every day, and I want to go on record here to say that any type of allocation of any money, whether it be Federal or State, I think should be based upon that prerogative, because it is most important and it keeps the teachers and administration on their toes to get the children in the classroom. Mr. McCOWEN. Mr. Kennedy. Mr. KENNEDY. Might not one of the solutions to prevent Federal domination of the education system be for the Federal Government to give to the citizens of the State of New Jersey a tax reduction? You could place on the money saved a special tax to take care of your educational requirements. Do you think that would be a good idea? Dr. TINK. Mr. Kennedy, I don't mean to be facetious, but that is so theoretical, and based upon so many complicated issues, such as tax bases, and whether this legislation will actually go into effect, and how the State could recapture it, and to what extent, and for what purpose that I couldn't possibly give you an answer. I just don't know. Mr. SCHWABE. Will the gentleman yield? Mr. KENNEDY. Yes. Mr. SCHWABE. I might throw some light on that part of the problem to state that 20 years ago the local governments received out of the tax dollar 56 percent, most of which went to the schools, and the Federal Government received only 27 percent. That was in 1927. Last year, in 1946, there was a vastly different picture. The Federal grab of the tax dollar amounted to 74 percent. The local governments received only 14 percent, so I think we had better think about the facts of the situation a little bit. The Federal Government has already seized a large portion of what there is to be had, and even so, your State of New Jersey is far more able to finance the schools today than the Federal Government. Dr. TINK. That statement I couldn't accept. I don't know what evidence you have for it, Mr. Schwabe. Mr. SCHWABE. I do not have time to explain it. Mr. McCOWEN. Mr. Gwinn. Mr. GWINN. You said you weren't well prepared on finances. I wonder if at a later date you would like to discuss that financial question? Dr. TINK. I would like to, but I am afraid I would have to do a great amount of work and study. Mr. McCOWEN. On behalf of the committee, Dr. Tink, we wish to thank you for your appearance and your statement, and I desire personally to express my appreciation for the fine cooperation of the members, because by that we have been able to finish our program today. We will stand adjourned until tomorrow at 10. Thank you all. (Whereupon the subcommitte adjourned at 11:55 a. m until 10 a. m. the following day.) FEDERAL AID TO EDUCATION FRIDAY, MAY 2, 1947 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SUBCOMMITTEE No. 1 Washington, D. C. The subcommittee met at 10 a. m., Hon. Edward O. McCowen (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. Mr. McCOWEN. The committee will come to order. The hearings of the committee on H. R. 2953. There will be no hearings after today until next Thursday and Friday, and then they will be for those Members of Congress who have not yet appeared, and who have introduced bills in the House on general Federal aid. Notice will be sent to each member of the committee, of course. I am sorry that we have no more members present to start, but since we have a full schedule of four witnesses and only until 12 o'clock, we had better start and we at least can get all of these statements in the record, and it will be understood at this time that, if there is no objection, all statements will be introduced into the record at the beginning of each witness' appearance, after they state their name and position. I believe that Dr. Ralph McDonald, of the National Educational Association, is first. Mr. McCowEN. Please state your name for the purpose of the record, and your position. STATEMENT OF DR. RALPH MCDONALD, SECRETARY, NATIONAL COMMISSION ON TEACHER EDUCATION AND PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS OF THE NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION, WASHINGTON, D. C. Mr. McDONALD. Mr. Chairman, I am Ralph McDonald, executive secretary of the national commission on teacher education and professional standards, a commission which was established by the National Educational Association for the purpose of carrying on a continuing program of recruitment and selection and preparation of teachers. We appreciate very much the opportunity of sharing with you our experience in relation to this critical problem. The present shortage of teachers is so serious as almost to defy description. There are today approximately 870,000 elementary and secondary school teachers employed in the public schools. This number is 200,000 short of the minimum teaching force needed for the present elementary and secondary school enrollment. The number of elementary school children will increase heavily during the next few years as the 13,000,000 children born since Pearl Harbor enter the elementary schools. Approximately 15,000 teaching positions are now vacant because school boards have been unable to secure people of any kind to fill them. Legal certification standards for teachers are set by the various States, and many States have very low standards. There are still a few States which issue regular teaching certificates to high-school graduates. Certification requirements were revised steadily throughout the country until about 1939, but there have been very few States raising their standards since that time. Despite these very low certification standards, a recent survey shows that 123,492 of the people employed are holding positions on emergency licenses. These emergency teachers are individuals who are unable to meet even the lowest requirements for standard teaching certificates. Most of the emergency teachers are wholly unqualified, and the damage they are doing both to the children and to the Nation is incalculable. It is estimated that 350,000 trained and qualified teachers have left the profession since 1939, over and above normal losses. Since we normally replace 50,000 or more teachers a year, it is evident that more than 700,000 teachers have quit the schools since 1939. In my opinion, these estimates are conservative. In an analysis made in May 1946, I found that 633,200 teachers had quit since 1939, of whom I estimated 300,000 were well-trained, long-experienced teachers, the others being people who had taught for 1, 2, or 3 years and then quit. The shortage of teachers when expressed in quantitative terms constitutes a major national emergency. When considered in qualitative terms, however, the shortage of teachers becomes a national tragedy. On the surface, so far as the numbers reveal the situation, there are approximately 725,000 teachers now employed who hold regular certificates. Not more than 500,000 of these teachers at the outside are really qualified to teach. For 20 years we have recognized that the minimum requirement for teaching should be 4 years of college education. Tens of thousands of the teachers now employed on the basis of standard certificates are merely high-school graduates, not qualified by any stretch of the imagination to teach boys and girls to meet the complex problems of today. Tens of thousands of others have had only a smattering of college education, leaving them woefully lacking in the knowledge needed to teach. Even among the college graduates who are remaining in the classrooms, there are countless thousands who are not qualified. Many capable, dynamic, outstanding people have left teaching and their places have been taken by individuals with callow, anemic, colorless personalities, who can never do the job of teaching children. Literally millions of our American children are being denied their birthright because of the unbelievably low quality of instruction they are able to secure from the people who are called their teachers. At a time when the United States must accept a world leadership which no other nation ever had, the strength of the Nation is wasting away from within through the disintegration of our teaching force. I should like to point out that we still have several hundred thousand excellent teachers in our schools. Nearly all of these are women who entered teaching 10, 20, 30, and 40 years ago, and are holding on despite heavy sacrifice because they are dedicated to their work. The number of these good teachers is declining sharply year by year. In State after State, half or more of the present corps of qualified teachers will reach retirement age during the next 10 years. The most serious aspect of the problem is that college students are shunning the teaching profession. A small number of outstanding young people who are public-spirited, self-sacrificing, and missionminded are preparing to teach, but the number is but a fraction of the supply needed. This is especially true of elementary school teaching, the most important and the most difficult of all instruction. A survey recently completed by the North Central Association of Secondary Schools and Colleges reveals the stark facts. This survey covered all the colleges and universities which prepare teachers in 20 States, including liberal arts colleges and universities as well as teachers colleges. In June 1946 these institutions of 20 States turned out only 3,757 elementary teachers as compared with 10,182 in June 1941. The number for June 1947 is even less than 3,600. The trends indicated by the north central survey are undoubtedly Nation-wide. The consequences of these trends to the detriment of the Nation cannot possibly be overestimated. If the trends of the past 10 years are permitted to continue, the quality of instruction in our schools will within another 10 years deteriorate to the point that we would be better off to close at least half of our schools and leave the education of the children to chance. Such conditions do not exist in the other great nations. England thinks it has a bad teacher shortage, and the Government has been sponsoring a tremendous program of teacher recruitment, even paying all expenses for teacher education students. But England's shortage is not nearly so bad as the shortage in our most favored State. Normally, England has an annual teacher replacement need of 6,000 in a total of 200,000 teachers-1 new teacher for each 33 positions. In the United States our normal ratio is 1 new teacher to each 10 or 12 positions; in the fall of 1947 our school boards will be looking for 1 new teacher for each 4 or 5 positions. As for Russia, that nation is apparently paying its teachers more than people receive in other professions, and is granting teachers special privileges in order to get the most capable men and women into their schools. Just as Germany did under Hitler, Russia under the dictators is feverishly educating her young people-giving them skills and abilities to make the nation as strong as possible. We stopped Hitler's Germany because in the twenties and thirties we gave our boys and girls better education than German children received. We are still far ahead of Russia, because of our earlier superiority in education, but Russia is now putting much more emphasis upon education than we are. The truth of the matter is that the United States is committing national suicide by the slow but sure process of educational anemiaprogressive educational anemia. To teach we need-we must have-the most outstanding personalities of our time. We must have men and women, not just women teachers. They must be strong and vigorous, keen of intellect, balanced in outlook, superior in personality traits, deep rooted in their |