mediate service, arranged summer training programs in 12 universities, and handled all requests from local school systems. During the past year the Corps has been at work in 275 schools and 111 school districts in 29 states, and the demand for their services is ever growing."

The reports on the work of the Teachers Corps with the disadvantaged have all been almost universally positive. It has worked much better than I think either the Office of Education or Senator Kennedy and I thought it would. We had great confidence in it, but it has worked better than we thought it would. But the fact that there is continuous uncertainty as to whether or not they can get the interim funding in order to recruit additional members of the Corps to train during this summer, the uncertainty as to whether the program will continue at all, has had a deleterious effect, and I am hopeful that we can finally get the authorization and appropriations and have some stability in the program.

Senator RANDOLPH. Thank you, Senator Nelson. Now, Senator Kennedy, I believe that you are ready to give your part of the joint

statement.

Senator KENNEDY of Massachusetts. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

I want to once again express my own personal appreciation to the chairman of the subcommittee, Senator Morse, and through Senator Morse to you, Senator Randolph, for once again entertaining the testimony of Senator Nelson and myself. We have appeared a number of different times before this subcommittee; we have also had the good opportunity to, a fine opportunity to, appear before the Appropriations Committee on two different occasions, and certainly the subject matter which we bring again to the attention of this subcommittee is well known to it and well known to the members.

I will say that we have certainly received the enthusiastic support, I believe, from the members of this subcommittee and generally from the members of the full committee.

Rather than review the testimony itself, we appreciate the fact that you hace placed it in the record, but we do feel that once again the record is extremely clear with regard to the success of this program. Limited as it has been, we have seen that it has been uniformly endorsed and supported in the areas in which it has touched the lives of many of the disadvantaged young people throughout our country. I think not only does the testimony that Senator Nelson mentioned about the National Advisory Council on Education to Disadvantaged Children testify to the value and importance of this program, but also a recent survey made by the NEA of superintendents and principals of schools through the country who have had a direct contact with this program, have generally enthusiastically endorsed this program itself.

So we come to this subcommittee, we believe, with a solid record of achievement and accomplishment. We did start out a program that was limited, but nonetheless, I think that it has, as Senator Nelson has mentioned, far exceeded our highest expectations.

In fact, my conversations with Commissioner Howe and others who have been directly related to this program, indicated that they feel that there is room for expansion of this program, to send some

10,000 interns and senior teachers into the disadvantaged areas of our country, and that they would be enthusiastically received.

I know, Mr. Chairman, that there have been a number of amendments to the legislation which was initially introduced by Senator Nelson and myself, that have been directed toward some of the problems or questions which have been raised by those who have expressed reservations about the Teachers Corps program. They have been incorporated into the legislation. I share with Senator Nelson the reservations about what we can actually expect a young person to exist and live on with a $75 a week salary and $15 per dependent, although this is in the legislation and it was in the wisdom of this committee to continue that provision, in its own judgment with regard to the successful implementation in this program, and I would reluctantly go along with it.

There have been other amendments which will be testified to this morning which have been addressed with regard to strengthening the local veto over interns and experienced teachers. Also with regard to with respect to the State agency of education having a veto right as well. These are certainly three areas where there have been changes made in the program.

And also there has been stated a limitation about the recruiting of experienced teachers, confining it to a particular school district.

This, I find objectionable, Mr. Chairman, and I hope during the course of the markup some amendment can be made, although I think it is helpful to have testimony on that matter by the members of this committee, to see if those who are charged with that responsibility feel that this serves as a hindrance to the effectiveness of the program.

I want to say once again, Mr. Chairman, I feel that the record itself speaks for itself. The facts and the figures are dramatic, they are clear, of the record, I believe, that has been made.

Once again we can echo, Senator Nelson and myself, the achievements and the accomplishments of the program and our testimony records Senator Nelson's own experience in visiting Teachers Corps schools in his own State. I have had a similar opportunity in Massachusetts, and can certainly report from personal experience both in the school district, my contact and conversations with the young people, they feel they are performing a terribly important and vital function.

I think not only are they providing advantages to those who are disadvantaged in my State of Massachusetts and generally around the country, but I also think that we are interjecting and infusing the general educational framework of our country with a new appreciation and understanding of the problems of education in disadvantaged areas. I think this is obviously overlooked.

So I appreciate the kindness of the subcommittee in permitting both Senator Nelson and myself to appear here, and I thank the Chair for including these remarks in the record.

Senator RANDOLPH. Thank you very much, Senator Kennedy.

The matters of concern that you mentioned will be explored with the administration spokesmen, because I think they are necessary of clarification, of even perhaps change and strengthening in some particulars to perhaps take advantage of that which we have learned by experience.

I wish to add to what Senators Nelson and Kennedy have said as to my belief in the validity of this program. I have followed it very closely in West Virginia, where there is general agreement that it is valuable, and rather than to find it in a state of deterioration we need to give prompt attention to keep it effective and virile.

Thank you very much.

(The joint statement of Senators Nelson and Kennedy of Massachusetts and the letters referred to above follow :)

JOINT STATEMENT OF HON. EDWARD M. KENNEDY, A U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF MASSACHUSETTS, AND HON. GAYLORD NELSON, A U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF WISCONSIN

Mr. Chairman, we appreciate the opportunity to submit this statement to the subcommittee on behalf of the Teachers Corps legislation now under consideration.

As cosponsors of the original Teachers Corps legislation, we have followed with great interest the development of this program throughout the United States.

The present enrollment in the Teachers Corps is 1,200 interns and experienced teachers. Although this is a smaller total than we had envisioned, the program during its first year of operation has been an unqualified success. The subcommittee will hear detailed testimony on the progress of the Teachers Corps from the Corps director, Mr. Richard Graham. We would like to highlight at this time some of the public reactions to the program we have received or noticed.

On April 20 the National Advisory Council on the Education of Disadvantaged Children issued a report on the effectiveness of the Teachers Corps. That report was clear in its findings that "The National Teachers Corps is too badly needed and too promising to be either discontinued or treated as a temporary stopgap. Of all the present investments of public effort, few are likely to yield so large a return." The report went on to state: "The National Teacher Corps has proved itself a useful weapon in the attack on the disadvantaged under which too many American children labor. The direct effect on the children with whom the corpsmen work would be justification enough to continue that work. The Corps quite clearly will have other effects as well. The most significant of these may very well be its influence on the capacity of the educational systems of the universities to reach those children who have been most grievously neglected." : City officials, school administrators, and teachers throughout the United States have been equally enthusiastic about the work being done by the Teachers Corps.

This year Senator Kennedy visited the Teachers Corps program operating within the Boston public school system. The program helps four of the city schools finance their own program of special educational assistance, and it emphasizes the training of teachers to meet the special needs of disadvantaged children whose education has been handicapped by the effects of poverty.

There are 19 people in the program, four experienced teachers, and 15 intern corpsmen. The interns are training at Boston College under the direction of Professor of Education Dr. William M. Griffin, and are pursuing a special graduate program leading to a master of arts

degree in education. At the completion of the graduate program, they will be certified to teach in the State of Massachusetts.

Their legacy, in the Boston public school system, will be stimulated teaching professionals and enriched children, who, because of programs designed specifically to help them, are nearer to becoming participating members of our society than they would otherwise have been. Last December Senator Nelson visited the Teachers Corps team working in Rufus King High School in Milwaukee. Members of this team worked with students who had been failing three or more of their academic subjects. These boys and girls were from disadvantaged areas, and had lost all motivation to succeed in school. After working with corpsmen on a 1-to-1 basis for only 4 months, 50 percent of these children showed academic improvement. Mr. John Powers, the principal of Rufus King High School, told Senator Nelson that discipline and attendance problems have been substantially reduced. During the term prior to the work of the Teachers Corps team, these students averaged 18.3 days absence per semester. Since the arrival of the Teachers Corps team, the rate of absence has decreased by almost 50 percent to a rate of 10.2 days per semester. This dramatic improvement in the lives of these children has been a direct result of the dedication of the Teachers Corpsmen.

Beyond the fine work of the Corps and the benefits it is bringing to many of the educationally deprived youths of our Nation, we would like to bring to your attention the record of dedication of the Corps members. We do not believe that any other Federal voluntary program has suffered the unusual experiences the Teachers Corps has in the Congress, yet continued to survive and remain attractive to the youth of our country. As a result of congressional delays in its early days, the Corps had only 6 weeks to organize; yet, it recruited 1,200 college graduates for immediate service, arranged summer training programs in 12 universities, and handled all requests from local school systems. During the past school year the Corps has been at work in 275 schools in 111 school districts in 29 States, and the demand for their services is ever growing.

The unstable record of the Corps progress through Congress should have guaranteed that the young American educators attracted to it would quickly fall away, leaving the Corps abandoned-but they did not. Further, they ask us not to abandon it. We would like to cite the funding history of the Corps to make the point that despite the uncertainty that has surrounded its development, the Corps has lived. This fact, we believe, is a tribute to the Corps administrators, its members, and the basic worth of the Teachers Corps concept.

The authorization of the 1965 Higher Education Act expires this June 30, and with it, the Teachers Corps authorization. The administration has recommended that the Teachers Corps legislation be transferred to the Elementary and Secondardy Education Act, a step which, in our judgment, is logical and practical.

The Teachers Corps is an imaginative and innovative approach to the desperate educational problems of America's poor elementary and secondary students. It is appropriate for the program to become a part of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, an approach which we originally favored in 1965.

There are other proposed changes in the current law, which, in our judgment, pose several serious problems.

As the subcommittee is aware, interns are currently paid according to the starting salary of teachers in their district. The experienced master teachers are paid on rates commensurate with their colleagues of equal experience in the school system.

Section 114 of S. 1125 would lower interns' salaries to $75 a week plus $15 for each dependent. This amendment would not affect interns already enrolled in the Corps.

Adoption of this amendment would create severe difficulties in the administration of the Teachers Corps. Interns are paid only for the weeks they work. This totals 38 weeks a year, which at $75 per week, would mean an annual income of $2,850. The money is not to be paid through the university, but through the school system, and would be subject to all Federal, State, and local taxes.

Married teacher corpsmen with families will find it especially difficut to live on this small Teachers Corps stipend. In many cities it is absolutely necessary for corpsmen to maintain a car, which causes additional expense.

We have a chart which describes the actual effect the proposed salary change will have on interns in several cities. We ask unanimous. consent that the chart be inserted in the record at this point.

Based upon single intern with no dependents, Federal income tax and FICA withheld. No State or municipal taxes were deducted.

We have grave reservations concerning the effect this change would have on recruitment of interns. Despite the current low rate of attrition we fell that many interns would not be able to make ends meet at this salary and that they will be lured away to other jobs. The Director of the Wisconsin Teacher Corps project has informed us that this prospect has already lowered morale among prospective Teachers Corps participants. It would become infinitely more difficult to attract top-quality personnel to the Teachers Corps at the lowered salary base.