MINIMUM SCHOOL PROGRAM FOR THE NATION

The funds are so distributed as to guarantee, in conjunction with State and local school revenues, a minimum school program averaging not less than $40 per pupil in average daily attendance each year in every school district in the Nation. Reduced to its simplest terms, the computation of Federal aid for each State under the act is made in the following manner:

1. The cost of the foundation program is computed by multiplying $40 by the number of children, 5 to 17 years old, inclusive, in the State.

2. State income payments, averaged for a 5-year period, are then multiplied by 1.1 percent (1.1 percent is used because for a recent year (1942-43) approximately 1.1 percent of national income payments would have been required to finance the $40 program on a Nation-wide basis. For that reason the percentage ratio of 1.1 was accepted as the "standard effort" which every State would be expected to make in helping to finance the minimum education program).

3. If (2) is greater than (1) the State is then eligible to receive not more than $3 per child of school age. If (1) is greater than (2), the State is then eligible to receive the difference in Federal aid, provided, however, that in no event would the State receive less than $3 multiplied by the number of children, 5 to 17 years old, inclusive, in the State.

The formula employs child-population and State income-payments data established by the Department of Commerce.

Census population figures are used instead of average daily attendance because (1) methods of computing average daily attendance vary greatly among the States, (2) the use of federally derived data places all States on the same uniform basis, (3) such data are established by a disinterested agency, and (4) the use of census data in allotting funds offers a larger assurance that the States will be in position to provide the instruction necessary to educate all children of school age.

Table 1 shows the amounts of Federal aid the States and Territories would have received for a recent year under the provisions of H. R. 2953.

For the particular year for which the computation was made, 19 States would have received aid in excess of the minimum grant of $3 per child of school age. The remaining States-29-would have received Federal funds equal to the number of children of school age multiplied by $3. Of this group of 29 States, 6 would have participated in the so-called equalization program but each in an amount less than $3 times the number of children of school age, 5 to 17 years old, inclusive. Under the minimum apportionment of $3 per school child the amounts of Federal aid allotted to States in this category would be increased to the $3 per school child level.

TABLE 1.-Estimated distribution of funds under H. R. 29531

TABLE 1.-Estimated distribution of funds under H. R. 2953'-Continued

In no event would any State receive a grant of Federal aid in an amount less than $3 multiplied by the number of children, 5 to 17 years old, inclusive, in the State.

Approximately one-sixth, or $55,000,000, of the maximum authorization under the act would be required to finance the $3-per-school-child distribution to those States which are not entitled to Federal funds greater than that amount under the equalization provisions of the formula. Supporting the minimum $3-perschool-child distribution to these States are the following considerations: (1) There are no States in which education in some school districts is not financed on a near poverty level; (2) inasmuch as all States contribute through taxes to the proposed Federal-aid program, all States are entitled to at least a minimum return for the support of their own schools; and (3) the Federal-aid program offered in H. R. 2953 conforms closely to the best features of outstanding Stateaid programs in the Nation.

STATE ACCEPTANCE PROVISIONS

States are not required to qualify for the benefits of the act. Those that do qualify must, however, designate the State treasurer, or other appropriate State official, who is to receive the funds; authorize the State educational agency to represent the State in administering the funds; provide for a State audit of such funds; submit reports to Congress on money received and how expended, as is done in the administration of Federal land-grant college funds; transmit notice of acceptance and certified copies of legislative enactments and the official regulations issued by the State educational authority, in connection with Federal funds, to the Federal Government; and show that the Federal funds are not applied for the purpose of reducing State and local effort to finance their public elementary and public secondary schools. The Federal funds are to be used to supplement, not to displace, State and local school revenues.

MINORITY RACIAL GROUPS

H. R. 2953 establishes safeguards in the use of the funds by the States for the education of members of minority racial groups. This it does in several ways. First, the bill provides in section 7 (a) (1) (F) that in States where separate public schools are maintained and operated for minority races, the apportionment of such funds for such schools shall be "just and equitable." A "just and equitable" apportionment is defined in section 9 (d) as "a proportion of said funds not less than the proportion that each minority racial group in such State bears to the total population of that State."

Second, it is provided in section 7 (a) (2) that the minimum $40 school program shall be provided “in local school jurisdictions where separate schools are maintained for separate races" in the same way such program is provided in other public schools.

Third, in section 7 (a) (1) (F) it is provided that the "just and equitable" distribution, cited above, shall be guaranteed "without the reduction of State and local moneys expended for educational purposes during the fiscal year ended in 1947 for public schools for minority races."

SCHOOLS TO BENEFIT UNDER THE ACT

H. R. 2953 is a public elementary and a public secondary school bill. Section 6 (a) provides that the funds authorized under the act shall be disbursed by the State to local school districts or other public education agencies, for all types of current expenditures (excluding interest, debt service, and capital outlay).

Section 6 (b) states that the definition of a public school is a State function and shall remain a State responsibility. In some States public funds are expended by public agencies under public control for the transportation of nonpublic school children. Some States spend their own money for textbooks for the same children. Section 6 (b) authorizes the States to use Federal funds available under H. R. 2953 in the same way they use their own State and local school revenues; provided, however, that the ratio of Federal funds used for nonpublic school pupils shall not exceed the ratio of State and local funds so expended. The support of this provision is based upon the principle of adhering as closely as possible to State control of educational policy.

RIGHT OF APPEAL

In the event a question arises at any time in the administration of the provisions of the act, the State educational agency has the right of appeal to the United States Commissioner of Education, and from him to a United States district court, which "court shall have jurisdiction as to both fact and law."

SEPARABILITY

In the event any part of the act should be held invalid, other parts of the act will not be affected thereby.

Mr. McCOWEN. We have assigned the greater part of the hearing in this 10 to 12 period to Members of Congress who have bills introduced. There was, however, a prior commitment by the chairman of the full committee that I did not know about when the schedule was made up, and one other that had been overlooked. Since these two witnesses had been promised first and second places, we should hear those first.

The time is limited in each case this morning to 15 minutes. A statement, of course, may be filed, although the Members of Congress may have their own wishes in that respect, and each of those Members in due time will be heard on his own bill, so that his bill and his remarks thereon may be available to the committee for its careful

attention.

The first witness will be Mr. Epstein, representing the Emergency Council of Newark Teachers Organizations.

Mr. Epstein, for purposes of the record, will you state your name and the organization you represent.

STATEMENT OF BENJAMIN EPSTEIN, REPRESENTING THE EMERGENCY COUNCIL OF TEACHER ORGANIZATIONS OF NEWARK, N. J.

Mr. EPSTEIN. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, the teachers of Newark are deeply appreciative of the right to present their views at this very important hearing. We have come here deeply convinced that unless strong and immediate measures are taken to assist the public schools throughout the country, the critical difficulties of American education will very shortly lead to a point of collapse.

It would seem that there is no longer any need to convince ourselves that the situation exists. The exodus of teachers from school jobs has been and continues to go on en masse. Well-trained replacements are unavailable, so that in ever-increasing numbers inadequate personnel is being recruited into teaching. Gifted young men and women no longer consider teaching a desirable profession and our schools of education find it difficult to recruit teacher candidates at a time when all other branches of university training are jammed beyond capacity. Hundreds of American classrooms had no teachers at all. It does not require the intercession, however welcome, of radio comedians and commentators to convince ourselves that the major causes of these conditions are the unbelievably low salaries and the economic insecurity which American teachers are called upon to face.

Moreover, the American school plant has in a great many areas, especially large cities, reached the point of physical deterioration. Anyone familiar with the needs of schools must know that twentiethcentury education is hampered by nineteenth-century buildings and equipment. A vast program to reconstruct our buildings and modern