MIGRANT CHILDREN EDUCATION TUESDAY, MAY 3, 1960 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SUBCOMMITTEE ON GENERAL EDUCATION, Washington, D.C. The subcommittee met, pursuant to recess, at 10 a.m., in room 429 Old House Office Building, Hon. Cleveland M. Bailey (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. Present: Representatives Bailey, Wier, Green, and Frelinghuysen. Also present: L. K. Alderman, chief clerk; R. C. Derrickson, investigator; Melvin W. Sneed, minority clerk; and R. E. McCord, clerk, Subcommittee on General Education. Mr. BAILEY. The subcommittee will be in order. Hearings on H.R. 9872 and H.R. 10378 began yesterday. It was our privilege to have the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare make known their position on this proposed legislation. Today we are starting off by hearing a part of the witnesses who care to testify in favor of the legislation. Some of the members of the subcommittee will arrive later. Right now, in order to save time, since we have four witnesses for this morning's session, I think it is best that we proceed with the hearing, At this time Miss Edith E. Lowry, Division of Home Missions, National Council of Churches, will be our witness. Will you come forward and take your place at the witness table. Miss Lowry, you may identify yourself to the reporter as to your name and whom you represent and then you may proceed with the presentation of your testimony. STATEMENT OF MISS EDITH E. LOWRY, DIVISION OF HOME MISSIONS, NATIONAL COUNCIL OF CHURCHES Miss LowRY. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My name is Edith E. Lowry. My home is in Plainfield, N.J. As a citizen of New Jersey I am especially appreciative of the interest Senator Harrison Williams is taking in the problem of the migratory farmworkers and their children as he serves as chairman of the subcommittee of the Committee on Labor and Public Welfare appointed to study the migrant problem. I am associate executive secretary of the Division of Home Missions of the National Council of Churches and am speaking in behalf of the national council. One of my responsibilities is to direct the migrant ministry which was established 40 years ago. In this program the national home mission boards of 23 denominations, State 41 and local councils of churches and churchwomen work together through the Division of Home Missions in the following 34 States to improve the working and living conditions of the migratory farmworker: The staff includes 40 full-time supervisors and program staff, 500 seasonal staff and 8,200 community volunteers. This is in addition to committee members, local, State and National. Our 40 years of working directly with the migrant people has given us an intimate knowledge of their problems and those facing the communities near the camps and the employers of migrant labor. In our approach, we have two major emphases: first, the direct sources to meet the immediate day-by-day needs of the migrants. These include day care centers for the young children, educational projects for children and adults, recreation, health services, welfare aid, counseling, education in citizenship responsibility, and nonsectarian religious services. The cooperation of related public agencies is enlisted with the hope that our projects will serve as a demonstration and stimulus to encourage the public agency to provide the service. This does happen and is well illustrated by the summer school program for migrant children in New York State. The first summer school for migrant children in New York State was established by the migrant ministry in 1951. In 1959 the State operated five such schools. The second major emphasis is a long-range effort to solve the basic social and economic problems that cause many hardships and injustices. This means study, evaluation, and education of the public to develop understanding and support for constructive legislation and other efforts to correct the basic problems. In September 1951 the general board of the National Council of Churches adopted a policy statement in support of measures intended to solve many of the problems. One of the items listed is "Improved educational facilities for migratory workers and their children." I submit a copy of this pronouncement for the record, and it is attached to the testimony. I have cited the history of our relation to the migrant problem to indicate the measure of our concern. We have seen the great human waste through the years as these children drop back in the grade, become discouraged and drop out, little better equipped for life than when they started. Our experience in working with them convinces us that given a chance, they have a far greater potential than is usually believed. It is heartening to know that there is proposed legislation before you that would grant payments to assist in providing improved educational opportunities for children of migrant agricultural employees and to provide grants for adult education for migrant agricultural employees. I wish to speak to the principles in bills H.R. 9872 introduced by Representative Edith Green and H.R. 10378 and H.R. 10379 introduced by Representative Cleveland M. Bailey. The recognition of the severe financial burdens placed on local educational agencies in providing education for migrant children strikes at one of the basic problems facing local school boards. In general rural areas where resources are most limited is where the migrant concentrations are found. We heartily favor the principle of providing from Federal funds assistance to local educational agencies in providing education to the children of migrant agricultural employees during the regular school year. We believe the principle of providing assistance for the establishment of summer schools for the children of migrant agricultural employees is sound. The experience gained from the summer schools that have been operated by public and private agencies proves the importance of summer schools as a supplement to the regular school program. For migrant children it provides opportunity to make up schoolwork lost by frequent moves and makes possible more individual help than is available in the regular school. We believe the principle of providing planning grants to States is as important as the payments to local education agencies for regular school and for summer schools as there are many factors in addition to the financial burden that are involved in providing education for migrant children. Recognition is given to this in the bill as it indicates the planning grants are to include provision for developing and carrying out programs to encourage such children to attend school and to improve the quality of education offered these children. We would cite the following factors: 1. The inadequacy of present child labor laws and their enforcement. Frequently there is not State legislation to supplement the national which itself is not comprehensive. 2. The low economic status of the migrant family is often a factor as the children often have to work to help feed the family. 3. The curriculum must be relevant to the experience of the migrant children if it is to have meaning and capture their interest. Several significant experiments have been made. 4. Teachers of migrant children need help in understanding the real needs of the children and in knowing the best techniques. Several efforts are underway to help meet this need-one at Florida State University at Tallahassee, Fla., and one at the University of Arizona at Tempe, Ariz. 5. Coordination of educational programs of the various States with each other is imperative to provide continuity for the migrant children. In regard to the proposed bill to provide education for adult migrant agricultural employees, I want to stress the importance of this. The same need exists for the adults as for the children for curriculum that is relevant to their experience and for teachers who have the understanding and the necessary skills. They have missed so much—that is, the migrant adults have missed so much-in their childhood that they need every possible opportunity for education so that they may become increasingly able to take their rightful place as citizens in a democracy. (The following document was submitted for the record :) THE CONCERN OF THE CHURCHES FOR MIGATORY FARM LABORERS Adopted by the General Board, September 19, 1951 In view of the present national interest in the problems of the migratory farm laborers aroused by the report of the President's Commission on Migratory Farm Labor, and the long-standing concern and work of the churches for the welfare of this group, the General Board of the National Council of Churches issues this statement concerning the present situation. For 30 years the churches have cooperated through the Home Missions Council, now the Division of Home Missions, in providing a program of Christian service in thousands of migrant camps across the country. From this intimate contact with the situation we are convinced that the major problems include the following: 1. Migrant children have a limited opportunity for schooling due to the lack of adequate school facilities available to them; the interruptions of schooling by work in the field and frequent migrations, and often the exclusion of migrant children from local schools. 2. The lack of provision for the care of preschool children while parents are working causes neglect of many children. 3. Health problems are created by crowded and unsanitary housing; the ignorance of good health habits; the inability to pay for medical care; and the ineligibility of non-residents for public health services in the community where they are temporarily employed. 4. The low economic status and insecurity of migratory farm workers is a basic problem. The primary causes are the irregularity of employment due to an inadequate plan for the effective recruitment, fair employment and equitable distribution of seasonal farm labor by manpower agencies; the taking advantage of migrants by some employers and labor contractors; and the exclusion of migratory farm workers from legislation covering minimum wage, unemployment insurance, and old-age and survivors insurance. 5. Migrant people do not have an opportunity to participate in the life of the communities they touch because of mobility; the hostile attitudes of many communities; the inability of transients to establish legal residence and qualify for welfare assistance; the loss of the vote. 6. Migrant people are unable to be a part of established church life because of mobility. 7. Migrant people face discrimination based on race, color, or national origin in employment, the use of housing, community facilities, and public services furnished by the State and local governments. Because of the problems enumerated above, we are sensitive as Americans to the fact that a million migratory farm workers and their families, citizens of our own land, do not enjoy the human rights and privileges which the General Assembly of the United Nations has agreed should be a "common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations." The "Universal Declaration of Human Rights insists that everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedom *** without the distinction of race, religion, origin or status. Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favorable conditions of work, and to protection against unemployment; to join trade unions and to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and his family." While advances have been made, they are the exception rather than the rule. The most significant changes such as the establishment of clinics to serve the migrant workers, the improvement in housing for migrants through a housing code for migrant camps, and the inclusion of migrant children in local schools by State regulation, have come in New Jersey and New York State, where interdepartmental agencies at the State level have coordinated the services of the various State departments and initiated a program to meet the needs of the migrants coming to these two States. Similar agencies in other States using migrant labor are needed and likewise an interagency body on the national level— to stimulate and coordinate the efforts of the public agencies. The above analysis of the problem coincides in general with the findings of the President's Commission on Migratory Farm Labor. Without assuming either responsibility or special competence with regard to the technical details of legislation, we believe that the churches should support measures intended to provide the following: 1. A plan for the effective recruitment, fair employment practices, and equitable distribution of seasonal farm laborers. 2. A more effective utilization of domestic seasonal farm labor. 3. The importation of foreign workers only when necessary to supplement the domestic labor supply, with adequate provision made for their welfare. 4. The discouragement of the practice of importing foreign workers from economically depressed areas as a means of their rehabilitation, with emphasis instead on the encouragement of efforts such as the point 4 program. 5. The extension of minimum wage legislation, social security benefits, and labor legislation to include migratory farm laborers. 6. A Federal housing code for migrant camps to set a minimum standard for all States. 7. The extension to migratory farmworkers and their families by the communities in which they are employed of the health and welfare services available to their own residents. 8. The regulation of the methods of transportation of workers from area to area and from State to State to insure their safety and humane treatment. 9. The protection of the children of the migratory workers by more effective enforcement of the Fair Labor Standards Act as amended in 1950 to make it compulsory for children under 16 to attend school when schools are in session. 10. Improved educational facilities for migratory workers and their children. 11. Provision for the implementation of the above measures so that they apply equally to all workers without regard to race, color, or national origin. The responsibilities of the church are twofold: First, the direct ministry to help meet the day-by-day needs of the migratory farmworkers and their families; second, the long-range program to solve the basic problems. We urge the church to give serious consideration to the following suggested program of action: 1. The study of the problem nationally and as it involves the local community. 2. The study of the report of the President's Commission on Migratory Farm Labor, followed by appropriate action. 3. The study and support of legislative measures which contain provisions for the implementation of the above recommendations (1 to 11), as the passage of legislation and its enforcement are dependent upon public support. 4. The wide use of the motion picture produced by the Protestant Film Commission, "Again * **Pioneers!" followed by discussion for action, using the discussion guide prepared for this purpose. 5. The inclusion of migrant people in the fellowship of the local church, 6. The strengthening and expansion of the cooperative ministry of the churches, which has brough the Gospel and many social services to thousands who because of their migrating are not usually reached by the local churches and other community agencies. For the past 30 years the national home mission boards have cooperated in an inclusive ministry in migrant camps-providing religious services, Sunday schools, pastoral services, day care centers for the small children, educational programs for the children of school age, club activities for the youth, community wide programs for all those in the camps, and referral services to public agencies in cases of need. The cooperation of local church and community groups, the employers of migrant labor and the migrant people themselves is enlisted in developing these programs now underway in 25 States. Many of these activities, particularly in the health and educational fields, have served as demonstrations which stimulated public agencies to take up the idea and incorporate it into their ongoing program. The child care centers for the children of agricultural migrants in New York State and the public health nursing program in migrant camps in California are examples. |