SEC. 2. No department, agency, officer, or employee of the United States shall · exercise any direction, supervision, or control over, or prescribe any requirements with respect to any school, or any State educational institution or agency, with respect to which any funds have been or may be made available or expended pursuant to this Act, nor shall any term or condition of any agreement or any other action taken under this Act, whether by agreement or otherwise, relating to any contribution made under this Act to or on behalf of any school, or any State educational institution or agency, or any limitation or provision in any appropriation made pursuant to this Act, seek to control in any manner, or prescribe requirements with respect to, or authorize any department, agency, officer, or employee of the United States to direct, supervise, or control in any manner, or prescribe any requirements with respect to, the administration, the personnel, the curriculum, the instruction, the methods of instruction, or the materials of instruction, nor shall any provision of this Act be interpreted or construed to imply or require any change in any State constitution prerequisite to any State sharing the benefits of this Act.

APPROPRIATION AUTHORIZED

SEC. 3. For the purpose of more nearly equalizing public elementary-school and public secondary-school opportunities among and within the States, there is hereby authorized to be appropriated for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1948, the sum of $150,000,000; for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1949, the sum of $200,000,000; for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1950, and for each fiscal year thereafter, the sum of $250,000,000 to be apportioned to the States as hereinafter provided.

APPORTIONMENT

SEC. 4. Ninety-eight per centum of the funds appropriated under section 3 of this Act shall be apportioned to the respective States, excluding those enumerated in subsection (G) of this section, in the following manner:

(A) Multiply (a) the number of children from five to seventeen years of age, inclusive, in each State, as determined by the Department of Commerce, for the third year next preceding the year for which the computation is made by (b) $40. (B) Multiply (a) the average of the annual income payments for each State, as determined by the Department of Commerce, for five years including the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh years next preceding the year for which the computation is made by (b) 1.1 per centum.

(C) If, for any State, the amount calculated under (A) exceeds the amount calculated under (B), the difference shall be the amount of Federal aid due each such State.

(D) Determine the percentage ratio of (a) the amount spent in each State from local and State revenues for current expenditures (excluding interest, debt service, and capital outlay) for public elementary-school and public secondary-school education for the third year next preceding the year for which the computation is made, to (b) the average of the annual income payments for each State, as determined by the Department of Commerce, for five years including the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh years next preceding the year for which the computation is made.

When the percentage ratio thus determined in (D) for any State is less than 2.5, the amount of Federal aid due each such State, as computed under (C), shall be proportionately reduced.

(E) Determine the percentage ratio of (a) the estimated current expenditures (excluding interest, debt service, and capital outlay) in each State from local and State revenues for public elementary-school and public secondary-school education for the year for which the computation is made, to (b) the average of the annual income payments for each State, as determined by the Department of Commerce, for the most recent three years, for which annual income data are available in the year next preceding the year for which the computation is made. When for any year the percentage ratio thus determined for any State, after the fourth year of the operation of this Act, is less than 2.2, such State shall be ineligible to receive any part of the funds authorized in section 3 of this Act for the year for which the computation is made, and shall remain ineligible for that year until such time as revised estimates of expenditures, as determined in the preceding paragraph of this subsection, produce a percentage ratio equal to or greater than 2.2.

(F) In the event 98 per centum of the funds authorized for any fiscal year in section 3 of this Act are insufficient to pay to all eligible States the full amount

of Federal aid due each such State, as computed in subsections (A), (B), (C), and (D) of this section, the amount of Federal aid paid to each eligible State shall bear the same ratio to the amount of Federal aid due each such State as the total amount of Federal aid paid to all eligible States bears to the total amount of Federal aid due all eligible States.

(G) From not to exceed 2 per centum of the funds appropriated under section 3 such sums as may be necessary shall be apportioned by the Commissioner to Alaska, Hawaii, the Canal Zone, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, the Virgin Islands, and Guam according to their respective needs for additional funds for public elementary and public secondary schools upon the basis of joint agreements made with their respective State educational authorities.

CERTIFICATION AND PAYMENT

SEC. 5. The United States Commissioner of Education shall certify regularly the amounts allotted under this Act to each State that has accepted the provisions of this Act to the Secretary of the Treasury, who shall, through the Division of Disbursement of the Treasury Department and prior to audit or settlement by the General Accounting Office, pay to the treasurer or corresponding official of such State the amount certified for each fiscal year in four equal installments, as soon after the first day of each quarter as may be feasible, beginning with the first quarter of the fiscal year for which appropriations made under the authorization of this Act are available. Each such treasurer shall account for the moneys received, and shall pay out such funds only on the requisition of the State educational authority.

AVAILABILITY OF APPROPRIATIONS

SEC. 6. (A) In order more nearly to equalize educational opportunities, the funds paid to a State from the funds appropriated under section 3 of this Act shall be available for disbursement by that State to local public school jurisdictions, or other State public education agencies, for all types of current expenditures (excluding interest, debt service, and capital outlay) for public elementary-school and public secondary-school education.

(B) No provision of this Act shall be construed to delimit a State in its definition of its program of public education: Provided, That the funds paid to a State under this Act shall be expended only by public agencies and under public control, except that in any State in which funds derived from State or local revenues are disbursed to nonpublic educational institutions for expenditure for any of the purposes for which funds paid to such State under this Act may be expended, funds so paid to such State may be disbursed to and expended by such institutions for such purposes; but the amounts disbursed during any fiscal year to any such institution from funds paid to a State under this Act shall not exceed an amount which bears the same ratio to the amount disbursed to such institution during such fiscal year from funds derived from State or local revenues as the aggregate of amounts disbursed by such State during such fiscal year from funds paid to such State under this Act bears to the aggregate of amounts expended during such fiscal year for current expenditures (excluding interest, debt service, and capital outlay) for public elementary-school and public secondary-school education in such State from funds derived from State and local revenues.

STATE ACCEPTANCE PROVISIONS

SEC. 7. (A) In order to qualify for receiving funds appropriated under this Act a State

(1) through its legislature, shall (a) accept the provisions of this Act and provide for the administration of funds to be received; (b) provide that the State treasurer, or corresponding official in the State, shall receive the funds paid to that State under this Act and shall be required to report to Congress, through the United States Commissioner of Education, on or before the 1st day of November of each year, a detailed statement of the amount so received and of its disbursement; (c) provide that its State educational authority shall represent the State in the administration of funds received; (d) provide for an audit by the State educational authority of the expenditure of funds received and apportioned to local school jurisdictions, or other State public educational agencies, and for a system of reports from local school jurisdictions and other public educational agencies of the State to such authority; (e) provide that the State educational authority shall make reports to the Commissioner with respect to the progress of education on forms to be

provided by the Commissioner, which reports said Commissioner shall convey to the Congress with recommendations for such revisions of this Act as in his judgment the Congress should consider, with particular reference to recom mendations arising from changing conditions in our national economy; (f) in States where separate public schools are maintained for separate races, provide for a just and equitable apportionment of such funds for the benefit of public schools maintained for minority races, without reduction of the proportion of State and local moneys expended for educational purposes during the fiscal year ended in 1947 for public schools for minority races: Provided, That in any State in which the legislature has not taken the action specified in this section, the chief executive of such State may, until such action has been taken or until six months after the adjournment of the first regular session of the legislature in such State following the date of the enactment of this Act, whichever first occurs, take such action for such period as is required by this Act to be taken by legislative enactment;

(2) either through its legislature, or through its State educational authority, if the legislature so directs, provide in such manner as to comply with the provisions of section 6 of this Act a plan of apportioning the funds authorized in section 3 of this Act that will make available, not later than the fourth year of the operation of this Act and each year thereafter, from all sources, to all local school jurisdictions not less than $40 per annum per pupil in average daily attendance for current expenditures (excluding interest, debt service, and capital outlay) for the maintenance of a program of elementaryand secondary-school education. The plan shall provide that in local school jurisdictions where separate schools are maintained for separate races current expenditures (excluding interest, debt service, and capital outlay) for the schools maintained for each separate racial group shall be not less than $40 per annum per pupil in average daily attendance; and

(3) shall transmit through its State educational authority to the United States Commissioner of Education official notice of acceptance and certified copies of the legislative enactments and the official regulations that may be issued by the State educational autohrity in connection with such funds. Any amendment of such enactments and revisions of official regulations shall in like manner be transmitted to said Commissioner.

(B) The funds appropriated under the authorization of this Act shall be allotted only to those States which, during the fiscal year preceding the fiscal year for which the apportionment is made, have provided from State revenues for all public elementary-school and public secondary-school purposes not less than either the total amount, or the amount per pupil in average daily attendance, actually spent for such purposes in the fiscal year ended in 1947. The funds allotted to any State from the funds appropriated under section 3 of this Act shall be paid by the State authority only to those local school jurisdictions that from State and local funds (which shall not be interpreted to include funds made available under this Act) pay average monthly salaries to their teachers not less than the average monthly salaries paid as of February 1, 1947, or the nearest prior date when school was in session.

RIGHT OF APPEAL

SEC. 8. In the event a question arises at any time with any State educational agency, in any State eligible to share the benefits of this Act, involving the administration of this Act in relation to the purposes for which it is intended, . such State educational agency shall have the right to appeal such question, with such statements and evidence as in its judgment are appropriate, to the United States Commissioner of Education: Provided, That within ninety days after such appeal, if not satisfactorily terminated, the State educational agency shall have the right to appeal to a United States district court and such court shall have jurisdiction as to both fact and law.

DEFINITIONS

SEC. 9. As used in this Act

(A). The term "State" shall include the several States, the District of Columbia, Alaska, and Hawaii, Puerto Rico, the Canal Zone, American Samoa, the Virgin Islands, and Guam.

(B) The term "legislature" means the State or Territorial legislature or other comparable body, except that in the District of Columbia it shall mean the

Board of Education, and in American Samoa and the Virgin Islands it shall mean the Governor.

(C) The term "minority race" or "minority racial group" shall mean any race or racial group that constitutes a minority of the population of the continental United States.

(D) A just and equitable apportionment, allotment, or distribution of the funds provided under this Act for the benefit of a minority racial group in a State which maintains by law separate educational facilities for such minority racial group, means any plan of apportionment, allotment, or distribution which results in the expenditure, for the benefit of such minority racial group of a proportion of said funds not less than the proportion that each such minority racial group in such State bears to the total population of that State.

(E) The term "State educational authority" means, as the State legislature may determine, (1) the chief State school officer (such as the State superintendent of public instruction, commissioner of education, or similar officer), or (2) a board of education controlling the State department of education; except that in the District of Columbia it shall mean the Board of Education, and in American Samoa, Guam, and the Virgin Islands, it shall mean the Governor.

(F) Annual income payments for each State, as determined by the Department of Commerce, shall be defined as the total amount of income in cash and in kind received by residents of each State, from business establishments and governmental agencies, consisting of (1) wages and salaries after deduction of employees' contributions to social security, railroad retirement, railroad unemployment insurance, and Government retirement programs; (2) proprietors' incomes, representing net income of unincorporated establishments, including farms, before owners' withdrawals; (3) property income, including dividends, interests, and net rents and royalties; and (4) other income payments including direct relief, work relief, labor income items such as pensions, compensation for injuries, and social insurance benefits, mustering-out payments to veterans, and family allowance payments and voluntary allotments to dependents of military personnel (allocated to State of dependents' residence).

SEPARABILITY

SEC. 10. If any provision of this Act or application thereof to any State, person, or circumsatnce is held invalid, the remainder of the Act, and the application of such provision to other States, persons, or circumstances shall not be affected thereby.

Senator AIKEN. We have here this morning one of the sponsors of S. 81, Senator Green of Rhode Island, and we should like to hear from Senator Green at this time. After Senator Green testifies, we then will call on President Conant, of Harvard University, and I think he will have ample time to present his testimony and discuss this situation with members of the committee.

Senator Green.

STATEMENT OF HON. THEODORE FRANCIS GREEN, A UNITED STATES SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND

Senator GREEN. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, I am mindful of the fact that I have been requested to present simply a brief statement. I assume that opportunity will be given later to amplify it and present additional facts.

Senator AIKEN. Yes, there certainly will be, Senator.

Senator GREEN. This measure, S. 81, which I introduced in the Senate for my colleague, Senator J. Howard McGrath and myself, aims to provide Federal funds to be used to supplement the present inadequate salaries of public-school teachers.

I am advised by John W. Studebaker, Commissioner of the United States Office of Education, that the only Federal funds furnished to the States for teachers' salaries are those supplied to land-grant

colleges, something less than $6,000,000 a year through the United States Office of Education, and approximately $21,000,000 a year for certain aspects of vocational education of secondary school grade in the fields of agriculture, trades and industries, home economics, and to a very limited extent in business education. These two amounts are utilized in providing some of the money which certain school teachers are paid.

This bill, S. 81, has the merit of being direct, brief and unambiguous. It authorizes an annual appropriation of $15 per pupil to be used to supplement teachers' salaries.

My colleague and I arrived at this figure of $15 per pupil after conferring with several noted educators, all interested in the teachers'. present plight of underpayment. At $15 per pupil, the appropriation authorized would amount to some $259,000,000 based on the reported daily attendance in 1943. Assuming an average pupilteacher ratio of 30 pupils per teacher, the measure would authorize an appropriation sufficient to provide an increase amounting to about $450 a year for each elementary and secondary school teacher in the United States and its Territories.

The bill is designed to be exclusively a teachers' salary improvement measure. Insofar as the present critical teacher shortage stems from the inability of the States and communities to provide more adequate salaries for elementary and secondary school teachers, Federal assistance is definitely needed and desirable.

As originally introduced, payments would be made directly to the school districts. However, we have been advised that in order to comply with this provision of the bill, the United States Office of Education would need a very large staff. I sent copies of this bill to all State directors or commissioners of education in the country and requested their comments and suggestions. Practically all of them, while approving of the other provisions of the bill, suggested that the bill be amended so that the funds would be channeled through the State director or commissioner of education, instead of directly to the officials of a given school district. We believe this suggestion is a good one, and consequently, we have drafted an amendment to S. 81, which we intend to introduce in the Senate, and which will in effect provide that the payments be made, not to the school districts, but to the State education officials.

The replies we have received from the various commissioners and directors of education have, indeed, been gratifying and at a later date I shall present a complete report of these replies to this committee and insert them in the Congressional Record.

There are no stringent Federal controls provided for in this bill, and no attempt is made in behalf of the Federal Government to dominate education in the States or local communities. The only requirement is that certified reports must be made as to average daily attendance. The bill is designed to meet a specific need; it is to render direct assistance to the elementary and secondary public-school teachers in the country in their struggle to maintain a decent standard of living. Thus it goes to the heart of our present educational problem.

The United States now spends only 1.5 percent of its national income for its schools as compared with 3 percent spent by Great Britain and 7.5 percent by the Soviet Union. The cost of the program proposed of direct Federal aid for teachers would raise our present ratio by