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(The letters referred to follow :)

Hon. WAYNE MORSE,

AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR
AND CONGRESS OF INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATIONS,
Washington, D.C., June 22, 1967.

Chairman, Education Subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Labor and Public Welfare, New Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C.

DEAR SENATOR MORSE: The AFL-CIO supports enactment of H.R. 10943, the House Education and Labor Committee reported bill amending and extending title V of the Higher Education Act of 1965.

We are convinced that this legislation is urgently needed to meet the nation's critical shortage of adequately trained teachers. H.R. 10943's major purpose is aimed at helping to attract and qualify new educational personnel.

The AFL-CIO would be less than honest, however, if it did not express its disappointment with the proposed amendments to Part B of title V dealing with the Teacher Corps. The elimination of national recruiting and the turning over of the program's management to state and local school authorities, we believe, weakens the original concept of the Teacher Corps. In addition, we are fearful that the new emphasis at the state level will result in the loss of many dedicated young people who would otherwise have been attracted by a national program.

We would like to suggest that your committee give serious consideration to one specific change in the Teacher Corps provisions of H.R. 10943. Section 514 (a) provides a maximum weekly pay of $75 per week plus $15 for each dependent for teacher-interns. The AFL-CIO believes that a more equitable pay would equal 90 percent of an entering teacher's salary in the local school district. We understand that there has been some discussion of this proposal by members of your committee and we would hope that it is approved.

The AFL-CIO is pleased with the inclusion in the bill of the National Advisory Council on Education Professions Development and Section 518, Teaching Children of Migratory Agricultural Workers.

Despite our disappointment with the proposed changes in the Teacher Corps, the AFL-CIO strongly urges speedy approval of this legislation by your committee. The overall merits of the Teacher Corps call for its continuation. The AFL-CIO recognizes that either lengthy deliberations or substantial changes in H.R. 10943 would result in the death of the Teacher Corps as of June 30, 1967. I hope that you will place this letter in the record of your hearings. Sincerely yours,

ANDREW J. BIEMILLER, Director, Department of Legislation.

Hon. WAYNE MORSE,

AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS, AFL-CIO,
Washington, D.C., June 23, 1967.

Chairman, Education Subcommittee,
U.S. Senate.

DEAR SENATOR MORSE: As the Washington Representative of the American Federation of Teachers, a national, professional teachers' union of more than 130,000 classroom teachers affiliated with the AFL-CIO, I urge you and members of the Subcommittee to approve the extension of the education legislation before you today. This legislation includes:

1. Aid to Indian school children and Department of Defense Overseas Dependents Schools under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. 2. Aid to handicapped children under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

3. Extension of Public Law 815, concerning funds for school construction; and

4. Approval of the Education Professions Development Act. Primarily, however, we urge you to approve the provisions relating to the Teacher Corps. The American Federation of Teachers has supported a National Teacher Corps in principle from the very inception of the idea. We did so because it represented the first effort of the United States Government to assist in recruiting and encouraging high school graduates to enter the teaching pro

fession. There are now slightly more than 1,200 Teacher Corps members, gamely proving the value of the Teacher Corps concept. They portray living evidence for the continuation and expansion of this program.

Not only will the proposed extension and expansion of the Teacher Corps, as contained in H.R. 10943 Amendments and Extension of the Higher Education Act, fulfill neglected educational needs of millions of impoverished children, but, it will additionally stimulate teacher morale and bring dignity to the teaching profession in every segment of our school system.

Unfortunately, the concept of the Teacher Corps will be diluted by the elimination of the "national" image if your subcommittee accepts the House approved amendments which shift responsibility for curriculum and recruitment from the United States Office of Education to local schools and colleges.

We also feel that the success of the Teacher Corps program depends on the enlistment of competent, well-qualified, aspiring teachers. The reduction of the weekly grant to Corps members from pay equal to the Starting Teacher Salary to $75.00 per week plus $15.00 per dependent will mitigate against our best qualified students entering the Corps. While we realize that these Corps members do not teach a full day, we also realize that low salaries will deter bright, young people from entering the Corps.

We, therefore, suggest that the minimum salary paid to these students be at least equal to starting teacher salaries. We have always been complimentary of legislation that specified that employment of personnel shall be at the prevailing wage. In all of our previous testimony we called specific attention to the fact that one of the unfortunate omissions in our education legislation was and is the failure to provide direct funds or incentives for increased teacher salaries. Sincerely,

CARL J. MEGEL, Washington Representative.

Senator YARBOROUGH. I call our next witness at this time, Mr. John F. Nagle, chief of the Washington Office of the National Federation of the Blind.

Mr. Nagle, will you come around.

Mr. Nagle, it is now by the clock 10 minutes to 12. Due to a matter pending on the Senate floor, no committee can meet after 12. You and the other witnesses who are to testify this morning have 10 minutes, so you may proceed in your own way and present your statement as you see fit.

STATEMENT OF JOHN F. NAGLE, CHIEF, WASHINGTON OFFICE, NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND

Mr. NAGLE. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, my name is John F. Nagle. I am chief of the Washington office of the National Federation of the Blind. My address is 1908 Q Street NW., Washington, D.C.

I am appearing here today, Mr. Chairman, to express the supporting views of the National Federation of the Blind with reference to the provisions of S. 1125 which are designed to improve and strengthen special educational programs for handicapped children, and which would, thereby, better the educational opportunities of such children.

Mr. Chairman, as blind adults, we of the National Federation of the Blind are determined that physically and mentally impaired children must be assured a fair chance to live normal lives in spite of disabling conditions.

As blind adults, we know from own personal experience that worthwhile, productive lives can be achieved by disabled persons, for many of us have done so.

But we also know that there are many others among our numbers who have failed to reach or even approach this satisfying objective because they had not been properly prepared and equipped to function without sight in a world geared to sight.

As blind persons, we know that a physically impaired person needs determination and courage in no small measures, but he also needs specialized help if he is to overcome successfully the handicapping conditions of his impairment.

He needs a sound and realistic comprehension, not only of the limitations of his disability, but of equal importance, he needs a sound and realistic understanding of the nearly limitless possibilities of accomplishment still available to him even though he is disabled.

He needs sufficient training in the skills and techniques peculiar to his disability-he must learn, and learn well, the alternative ways and means that have been devised to reduce or remove the restrictions of his disability.

Then, with this proper philosophic orientation, with a developed ability to use disability skills-with this solid foundation, Mr. Chairman, the disabled person needs the same opportunity for general education available to others, followed by further education in a specialized field of economic endeavor.

With these essential needs met, and met fully and sensibly the disabled person is equipped to cope with the adverse circumstances of life which will confront him all of his life; he is prepared and able to function successfully and competitively with physically fit men on a more enarly equal basis.

Denied all this or any of this, Mr. Chairman

Denied a wise and well-balanced understanding of the difficulties incidental to his disability-uninformed of the almost limitless potentialties of worthwhile living and achievement still available to him in spite of his impairment;

Denied adequate training in the skills and techniques of his disability;

Denied a chance for general education equal to that available to the physically fit, and denied occupational training according to interest and aptitude;

Denied all this or any of this, Mr. Chairman, the disabled person exists but does not live-however well his bodily needs may be met by family or welfare authorities.

Filled with fears, lacking the ability to help himself-unskilled as a disabled person; uneducated as a person; untrained and unprepared to earn a living and support himself-such a disabled person lives a wasted, worthless life, when the whole world awaits his conquest and needs his contributions such a person lives with despair and emptiness, when, given a fair chance, he might achieve fulfillment of his dreams and possibilities.

Mr. Chairman, we, blind adults, seek for the handicapped children of today a better opportunity than we had as disabled persons yesterday.

The National Federation of the Blind, therefore, vigorously and emphatically endorses and supports the provisions of S. 1125 which would strengthen, broaden, and improve federally assisted educational programs for handicapped children.

Specifically, Mr. Chairman, we support section 151 which would authorize the establishment of regional resource centers

To provide testing and evaluation services to determine whether a child is really physically or mentally handicapped, to accurately ascertain the nature and the extent of the handicapping condition or conditions, to correctly diagnose the special educational needs of singly or multihandicapped children, to develop programs that meet these needs, to further and advance the development of special educational programs in the schools, agencies, and institutions in the respective regions where the resource centers are situated.

Mr. Chairman, no such facility now exists, that includes within it specialists in all of the physical and mental disorders and disabilities— and that is thus able and equipped to provide answers, help and services to the parents of a child which is "different" from other children, a child that does not seem to fit into the usual and recognizable disability categories.

Mr. Chairman, the National Federation of the Blind endorses and supports section 152 of S. 1125, which is directed toward increasing the number of professionally qualified personnel entering the field of special education-as teachers, psychologists, therapists, social caseworkers, research specialists.

It is not enough, Mr. Chairman, merely to determine the educational needs of handicapped children, to devise special educational programs, to develop specially required tools, equipment, and other instructional materials, to create new methods and ingenious techniques of teaching.

For all this will be lost, wasted, and unavailable in the education of handicapped children if teachers in sufficient numbers, if supportive personnel in all specialties, cannot be induced to prepare for entry into the special education field, cannot be persuaded to seek employment in special education programs once they have acquired the requisite training.

Section 152 of S. 1125, as Federal law, would make it possible to accelerate and expand present efforts to recruit college and university students, general education teachers, and other specialists in general education to enter the special education field.

The National Federation of the Blind endorses and supports section 155 of S. 1125, to include Interior Department-operated schools for Indian children, and Defense Department-operated schools for overseas dependents within the scope and benefits of title VI of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

It is our belief, Mr. Chairman, that physically and mentally defective Indian children, that physically and mentally defective children of military and Defense Department civilian personnel stationed at bases outside of the United States have the same need for and the same right to receive, and accordingly should receive, the same equality of educational opportunity, provided through special education programs, available and afforded to American children residing in the United States.

The National Federation of the Blind endorses and supports section 156 of S. 1125, to expand existing instructional media programs to include all handicapped children and adults.

By authorizing the conducting of research in the use of educational media-by serving to stimulate, encourage, and promote the discover

ing and devising of new and better instructional instruments, tools, equipment, and apparatus.

By authorizing the production and distribution of educational media for the use and benefit of handicapped children and adults. By authorizing the training of persons in the use of educational media to be employed in the instruction of the handicapped—in the use of the newly devised and developed educational instruments, tools, equipment, and apparatus.

By making all of this possible, Mr. Chairman, section 156 of S. 1125, as Federal law, should result in greatly improved educational programs, and thus, educational opportunities, for the handicapped-it should result in greatly advancing and equalizing the opportunities of physically and mentally handicapped children and adults to achieve self-reliant, constructive lives.

But, Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, it is neither sensible nor just for you to act to improve and equalize the educational opportunities of handicapped children and adults, and at the same time permit a continuation of discrimination in empoyment based upon physical impairment, discrimination which denies equal employment opportunities to such persons, which permits hiring officials in the field of education to continue to discriminate and refuse to hire professionally qualified handicapped persons for positions in the education field.

Therefore, the National Federation of the Blind proposes and recommends that the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, as amended, be further amended as follows:

Title VII of P.L. 89-10 is amended by adding at the end thereof the following new section:

Prohibition against discrimination in employment by reason of physical impairment

Section 707. It is the policy of the United States that the blind, visually handicapped and physically disabled shall be employed in any program or activity supported in whole or in part by public funds authorized and appropriated under this Act on the same terms and conditions as the able-bodied, unless it is shown that the particular disability prevents the performance of the work involved.

Mr. Chairman, it is enacted law and established public policy in the United States now that it is wrong to deny employment to a person by reason of his race, creed, color, or national origin.

Now, if such a person is otherwise qualified for a position for which he applies, he must be given fair and equal consideration for employment to such a position.

But the recently adopted sweeping statutory changes do not encompass within their scope discrimination based upon physical impairment, nor do they provide a means of redress to the physically impaired job applicant who is denied fair and equal consideration for a position for which he is trained and well prepared and qualified.

As a result, the employer who would not dare refuse employment because of a person's race or his religious belief will, without the slightest hesitation, refuse employment to a physically handicapped job applicant, and he will even declare, in writing, that his refusal is based upon the person's physical impairment.

Mr. Chairman, today as a hundred years ago, discrimination exists against the employment of physically disabled persons throughout our

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