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Last month, the Anchorage Community College celebrated its 12th anniversary. It opened in 1954 with an enrollment of 384 students. Now there are 2,000 students enrolled, and in the 12 years of its existence 28,000 different individauls have enrolled in its various courses. Alaska's situation with respect to the support of public higher education is not unique. During the past 6 years, within the individual 50 States, State tax fund appropriations for the operating expenses of higher education have more than doubled, and large sums have also been provided for capital expenditures.

I have no doubt, therefore, that each Member of the Congress could speak with pride about the advancement of higher education in his State. But no one can speak with pride about the advancement of public higher education in the District of Columbia. Here there has been no progress. On the contrary, ground has been lost.

Thousands of capable and worthy high school graduates who cannot afford to pay the tuition fees charged by private institutions are still denied an opportunity for higher education. Only a comparatively few young people who plan to become teachers may enroll in the District of Columbia's Teachers College.

I sincerely hope that the proposed legislation will receive prompt and favorable consideration.

Mr. Chairman, I would like placed in the record at this point a news release from the University of Alaska commemorating the 12th year of educational service in Anchorage.

Senator MORSE. Without object, the news release will be inserted in the record at this point.

(The document follows:)

[News release from University of Alaska College, Alaska, Feb. 8, 1964]
ANCHORAGE COMMUNITY COLLEGE CELEBRATES 10TH ANNIVERSARY

An anniversary is being celebrated in Anchorage this month which marks a milestone for public higher education in Alaska.

The Anchorage Community College will commemorate its first 10 years of service to the community with a week of civic events starting with an anniversary luncheon on Saturday. A special anniversary music program on Sunday will be followed by testimonials of appreciation by civic groups during the week. The numerous events scheduled mark the opening of the college on February 8, 1954, under the College Enabling Act passed the year before by the State legislature.

The college is operated by the university as an integral part of the State's system of public higher education in cooperation with the Anchorage Independent School District. It is the oldest of five public community colleges in the State. Ketchikan and Juneau-Douglas Community Colleges will celebrate their 10th anniversaries later this year. Palmer and Sitka Community College are most recent additions.

When the college first opened its doors 384 students enrolled. Today more than 1,600 students are taking credit or noncredit courses. One of the fastest growing areas has been the college credit program in which 900 students are taking freshman and sophomore college classes.

In recent years the college has added to its vocational and technical courses full programs for training practical nurses and technicians in electronics.

Its total program, emphasizing continuing education for everyone, attracts students from age 19 to 90. It has gained widespread popularity through its four music group affiliates: the Anchorage Community Chorus, music festival, community college ensemble and symphony orchestra.

Most of the college's classes meet in the Anchorage West High School in the late afternoon and evening. There are approximately 60 part-time and 11 fulltime instructors. Gene Short has been the resident director of the college since 1959.

Senator GRUENING. I am extremely grateful to you for this opportunity to testify on behalf of this good cause which you have so effectively sponsored as you have had many important improvements in the field of education.

I want to say to those present no one has done more to mold public education than the Senator from Oregon, and I am happy to be associated with him in these and other causes.

Senator MORSE. I appreciate very much your personal remarks and I appreciate the very helpful statement that you have made.

I was just about to tell you how proud I am to be associated with you in this and on other issues. In effect, I am not so sure that by cosponsoring this education bill we are not doing more for the security of our country than those who are killing American boys abroad.

Senator GRUENING. I would share that view most emphatically. Senator MORSE. Our next witness is Miss Flaxie M. Pinkett, president of District of Columbia Citizens for Better Public Education, Inc.

Miss Pinkett, we are delighted to have you.

STATEMENT OF FLAXIE M. PINKETT, PRESIDENT, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA CITIZENS FOR BETTER PUBLIC EDUCATION, INC.

Miss PINKETT. Thank you, Senator Morse.

Senator MORSE. Proceed in any way you desire.

Miss PINKETT. The District of Columbia Citizens for Public Education, Inc., is an area wide organization dedicated to the improvement of public education in the District of Columbia.

May I submit for the record a full statement of our views together with a leaflet that we have developed to acquaint the community with the legislation before us.

Senator MORSE. Miss Pinkett's full statement will be incorporated in the record and the exhibit to which she refers will be incorporated in the record at the close of her testimony.

Miss PINKETT. Thank you.

Much of what I want to say has already been said, both by the committee chairman this morning and other witnesses, so I will condense it even further.

We wholeheartedly endorse the purpose and principles of the legislation under consideration today. Public higher education in our society is no luxury. It is a necessity-for the community and the individual. It is a necessity for the Nation.

Our President and Vice President, 56 percent of our State Governors, the chairman of this subcommittee, along with 60 percent of the Senators, and 49.2 percent of the Members of the House of Representatives attended institutions of higher learning.

These hearings have brought forth for the record massive and convincing testimony demonstrating from every point of view the need for both a 4-year public college and a 2-year community college in this city. Today we wish to emphasize the impact of this legislation on the community and its citizens.

No one can deny the urgency of equipping children with the knowledge and skills which prepare them to become useful members of society. We frequently overlook, however, the tremendous cost to a

community when the demand for education beyond high school cannot be met.

The influx of skilled, educated people into Washington becomes a doubtful economic benefit in the long run. This influx only isolates the poor, the untrained, and the uneducated who fall even farther behind the technological advances, fall into hopelessness, ignorance and poverty, crime and diseases.

Our rising birthrate places additional strain on community resources for welfare, health, and crime prevention. For a community to expose itself to this type of life is tantamount to economic and social suicide. We completely support the judgment expressed in the report of the President's Committee that "the most urgent educational need in the District of Columbia is hope." The way to infuse hope into our public school system is to provide opportunities beyond high school. Your legislation will do just that.

It will open the door at the end of the high school corridor so that secondary education will no longer be a dead end journey for twothirds of our children. Washington has the highest per capita income in the country. We have unexcelled cultural and research resources, libraries, and museums, to stimulate and broaden the interest of our children.

We are immersed in the intellectual and political ferment of the Capital of the Nation and the hub of the free world. Yet our loss rate for students at the secondary level is the fourth highest in the Nation, higher than 46 of the 50 States. The opportunity for public higher education will change the attitude of many children. It will inspire them to prepare themselves for a future of their own choosing. It will reduce the waste of human resources represented by our lost children, children lost to themselves, to the community, and to the Nation.

Perhaps the most dynamic thing that will come from this will be parents and teachers who will be able to motivate youngsters with the simple phrase "when you go to college***," and from the first grade forward opportunity for improvement becomes something taken for granted.

Senator Morse has emphasized the problem of the average student. He may be a non-grade-oriented student, a "late bloomer," the "C" student whose potential cannot be determined in high school. Yet no one can say what leaders may rise from these ranks if the doors are not shut in his face before he has a chance to develop his full capabilities. We need continuing public education after high school.

Previous testimony has established its widespread availability elsewhere and the irony of its virtual absence in the District of Columbia. Here flowers, trees, and shrubs, are given more opportunity to grow than are our young people.

Mr. MORSE. I want to thank you very much. (The statement follows:)

STATEMENT OF FLAXIE M. PINKETT, PRESIDENT, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA CITIZENS FOR BETTER PUBLIC EDUCATION, INC.

MARCH 24, 1966.

I am Flaxie M. Pinkett, president of District of Columbia Citizens for Better Public Education, Inc. As an organization with an area wide membership dediIcated to the improvement of public education in the District of Columbia, we thank you for holding these hearings and for sponsoring this legislation. We want

to express our gratitude especially to the chairman who has done so much to forward the cause of quality education for our children.

We wholeheartedly endorse both the purpose and principle of the two bills under consideration here today. We know that public higher education in our society is no luxury-it is a necessity.

What should we have done for political leadership without it? Both the President and Vice President were educated at public institutions of higher learning. Fifty-six percent of our State Governors received all or part of their higher education at State universities and land-grant institutions. The chairman of this subcommittee is one of the 60 percent of Members of the Senate who were similarly educated, and 49.2 percent of our Representatives attended publicly supported institutions of higher education.

These hearings have brought forth for the record massive and convincing testimony demonstrating the need for both a 4-year public college and a 2-year community college in the District of Columbia. This testimony has provided strong statistical support from every point of view for the need for these institutions. We will not duplicate here the information of the experts. We want to emphasize the impact of this legislation on the community and its citizens. In terms of human development and in terms of busines, industry, and government utilization, the need for publicly supported education beyond high school is better documented in the District of Columbia than anywhere in the country. Without public higher education we continue to ignore one of the chief sources of community wealth, which contemporary economists agree comes more from investment in human capital than from any other single type of investment. Our society cannot prosper in an age of advanced technology and automation without high quality education beyond high school. In this complex modern world 12 years of education are not enough. The denial of a college education to a willing and qualified young person is at once a personal tragedy, and to this city and to our Nation an incalculable loss.

THE HUMAN VALUES

We completely support the judgment of the report of the President's Committee that "the most urgent educational need in the District of Columbia is hope." There is only one way to infuse that hope into our public school system, only one way to provide the motivation which can insure that school will be an elevating and maturing experience—that way is to provide opportunities for education beyond high school. This legislation will have a profound influence on the entire structure and spirit of our community. It will open the door at the end of the high school corridor so that high school will no longer be a dead end journey for two-thirds of our children.

When we open that door, we will change the attitude of many children from the time they enter school throughout their educational experience. We will stop the waste of human resources involved in our lost children, children who are lost to themselves, the community, and the Nation.

We are engaged in a campaign to beautify the District of Columbia. This is all to the good. But what of the lives of the children who are going to grow up in that beauty? Are we going to build an alabaster city where citizens are afraid to walk the streets at night for fear of violence from the people who have been lost as responsible citizens because their lives lacked the element of hope? The Congress has activated a war on poverty in our city where the goal is to help people help themselves. Higher education is the essential means to that end.

The Nation's Capital has many special factors in its favor in keep its children in school. We have the highest per capita income in the Nation. We have unexcelled cultural and research resources, libraries, and museums to stimulate and broaden the interests of our children. We are immersed in the intellectual and political ferment of the Federal City and the hub of the free world. Yet, our loss rate for students at the secondary level is the fourth highest in the Nation-higher than 46 of the 50 States. We need the opportunity for continuing education after high school-the door at the end of the high school corridor must be thrown open.

It is hard to imagine a single action the Congress could take which would be more significant in changing the attitudes of the parents of our children-attitudes passed down every day to their children. These parents have learned that without education there is no real hope for improvement of one's position in life, no real opportunity to rise in our society. These parents cannot motivate

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their children. But let the Congress open the door at the end of the high school corridor so that it is no longer a dead end, and for both parents and children the whole outlook changes. From first grade forward opportunity for improvement becomes something taken for granted. Parents' words repeated over the years, "when you go to college * * *," will change the whole environment from one of stagnation to one of hope.

And what of the teachers? Our teachers cannot motivate many of their students today. They cannot promise what does not exist-opportunity. Open the door at the end of the high school corridor and the world changes. Open that door and suddenly children whose horizons have been limited by rundown tenements and alley playgrounds find the whole world spread out before them. Senator Morse has emphasized another problem which a public college would solve the problem of the average student who may not realize his full capabilities in high school. He may be a non-grade-oriented student, a "late-bloomer," the "C" student whose potential cannot be determined in high school. He is the average citizen, yet no one can say what leaders may rise from his ranks if the doors are not shut in his face before he has a chance to develop his full capabilities.

Special emphasis in the consideration of this bill must be given to the tremendous need for improved teacher training in the District of Columbia. Our school system needs 1,000 new teachers every year, yet the District of Columbia Teachers College can provide barely one-tenth of that many. A fully staffed liberal arts college with a broad curriculum will upgrade the inspiration, training, and motivation of the teachers it produces and will multiply their numbers. Mr. John Holden spoke earlier in these hearings of the vital need for continuing adult education, and of the 100,000 "functional illiterates," the 100,000 nongraduates of high school, and the 50 percent of nongraduates among the college-trained population in the District of Columbia. The broad continuing education program of a 4-year college will be a dynamic factor in the life of the community, permitting our citizens to review and renew their education, strengthen and update their training, and stay abreast of progress in a world driven by what Walter Lippmann has called "the acceleration of history." It will permit a constant upgrading of our labor force and a continual rebuilding and reenforcing the very foundations of our society.

In conclusion, Mr. Chairman, we would stress the urgency of this legislation. In a real sense the legal doctrine of the last clear chance applies to our educational system every day of every year. Each day we keep the door of higher education closed in the face of our children we build new problems for our city. Each day may constitute a last clear chance for some child who is on the verge of being lost because he or she has no hope of obtaining the education which makes possible the achievement of self-respect and status as a contributing member of the community.

In every State, public higher education is recognized as a basic right of citizenship. What the Nation has granted as a birthright of its citizens the Congress must no longer deny to the children of the Nation's Capital. We must open the door to our children.

Mr. Chairman, we thought it would be appropriate to include in our testimony the statements of some of the high school boys and girls whose lives will be directly affected by this legislation. We have invited young people from five local high schools to join us today and present brief statements of what the opportunity for a public college education would mean to them.

(The following is a reproduction of a pamphlet published by District of Columbia Citizens for Better Public Education.)

WHY CAN'T TOBY GO TO COLLEGE?

Tobias Thompson, 12 years old and living in Washington, D.C. Toby says he wants to build roads and highways someday. His teachers say he's bright enough. But to become a highway engineer he will need college training. Toby is trapped. Why?

Toby's family is poor. On its income there is no money to put aside for college. By the time Toby is 16, about 70 percent of all jobs in the United States will require more than a 12th grade education. By 1970, an eighth grade education will limit Toby to only about 6 percent of all jobs. If Toby does not drop out of school, if he graduates, what can he possibly find to do? Clearly, if Toby is to get out of his trap, he will need more training than he can get in high school. This is more than Toby's problem. It's the District's problem.

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