provided in S. 472 which is consistent with our traditional concept of public education or will we wait until the situation has become so acute and the demand so great for something to be done that the Congress under the pressure of the moment will provide a form of Federal aid in violation of our traditional concept of local control and public funds for public schools? If there is doubt about the possibility of the latter course, I suggest a study of congressional action of the past 15 years-the NYA, the CCC, certain educational aspects of the WPA, or of more recent date the Lanham Act, and the present law governing the school-lunch program. It has happened and is happening all the time. Many of us are convinced that the only way by which local control over our public schools can be preserved is by the passage of S. 472 or a similar measure.

It should be pointed out, and I think this is important, that individual States, as well as communities, vary and will continue to vary as to their economic status and as to their sources of revenue for educational support. In most States the funds for State support of education are derived from special tax levies which are subject to wide fluctuations. I think that is true in Arkansas as well as New York or New Jersey and most other States, so that it is possible that some of those now holding favored positions may experience drastic reductions in the years ahead. S. 472 would be a solid bulwark of stability to offset such tragic fluctuations as are sure to come in the wake of a rapidly changing economy.

May I reiterate that Arkansas is not begging for alms. We are well up the ladder in the matter of effort toward financial support of our public schools. We are improving rapidly the economic status of our people through a cooperative effort of State government and private business pointed toward the gradual development of our resources, both human and material. The average per capita income has risen from 30 percent to 60 percent of the national average in the last few years and will continue that upward trend. We are now paying in excess of $100,000,000 per year in Federal taxes, as compared with less than $10,000,000 a few years ago.

We are supporting Federal aid to education as provided in S. 472, because the assistance that measure will provide us will enable us to further the productivity of our people. With such assistance we can take our place in the next decade among those States of our Nation which will be able not only to carry our own load but also to contribute to those which by virtue of being in a less favored position may need help. When that time comes we will again be on hand, urging the continuation of these same democratic principles which are embodied in this proposal. We merely covet for our people and for those of other areas the opportunity, now and in the future, to make our maximum contribution to our country in terms of its economic, social, and spiritual welfare.

Senator AIKEN. Thank you, Mr. Jones.

Are there any questions?

If not, we will continue with the next three witnesses, and the Chair thinks we can get through with them this morning.

The next three witnesses seem to come from the grass roots of the field of education, and the first witness comes from a State where I expect those fields are covered with snow this morning, at least I have heard so.

Mrs. Flora Harriman, Hampden, Maine.

STATEMENT OF MRS. FLORA HARRIMAN, TEACHER AND

PRINCIPAL, HAMPDEN, MAINE

Mrs. HARRIMAN. I am Mrs. Flora Harriman, of Hampden, Maine. I am a full-time teacher and principal of a three-room rural school which enrolls 105 pupils.

I am speaking in favor of the passage of S. 472 because I am convinced by my 16 years' teaching in poorly equipped schools that we are cheating our boys and girls.

Like many of Maine's teachers, I started teaching (with only one summer's training) in a 9-grade, 1-room school, with 40 scholars ranging in ages from 5 to 16. My annual salary was $540.

Summer schools and in-service work have given me a bit over 2 years of teacher training.

Last year, legislation helped Maine teachers to receive $1,000 per year.

This year, our contracts in Hampden allowed us $1,050. Upon petition we were granted a $50 raise. Following a town meeting we were raised to the present salary of $1,260.

May I make a statement regarding our own school? We now spend well above the $40 per pupil yet these are the conditions:

I am the only teacher of 30 boys and girls. Besides my teaching duties I am responsible for part of the janitor work. We are more fortunate than many schools in having an aged man come in mornings to build the fire and do part of the sweeping. He leaves the schoolhouse at about 8:30, not returning during the day. In cold weather our old wood furnace must have very careful attention at least every hour.

Besides tending the furnace, cleaning of our room, washing windows, care of our old-fashioned dry toilets, scrubbing the drinking fountain, displaying the flag, and looking after snow that works into the basement walks are all mine to do or to interest the children in doing. Of course, I am personally responsible for fire drills, school boy patrol, and part of the playground duty.

During the cold months I take my hot plate to school and heat one dish to supplement the noon meal. Even though the hot plate collapsed one noon and we saw 14 cans of tomato soup in action running over the floor, this has proved to be valuable enough to justify the effort. Each child furnishes soup or milk for the meal, as well as his own dishes and silver.

Our school nurse has about 12 towns to cover with so many situations that hers would tend to become the teacher's job.

A sincere teacher is willing to do anything possible to help her pupils. Yet, these extra, jobs that could be taken care of otherwise, if school finances permitted, rob the boys and girls of time that belongs to them.

Our parent-teachers' organization had town water installed in our building. However, because the building is so cold in winter the water freezes on severe days. This makes any improvement in sanitary conditions impossible.

The children are aware of many of our needs. They raise money by going from house to house, in their own time, selling greeting cards to parents and friends who are interested in their school. In this

way we finally gathered together enough money to redecorate the walls of the schoolroom and to buy shades for the windows. The boys got together and from orange crates donated by a local storekeeper, they constructed bookcases and painted them with paint brought from one of the homes. The desks showed a long history of disinterested occupants by their deeply carved initials and carefully outlined hearts. Each pupil became responsible for his or her desk top. After 6 weeks of sandpapering and scraping with glass during our recesses we had surfaces ready to fill in with plastic wood and cover with shellac and varnish. These supplies we bought from our card sales.

Any paints or hand-work materials the pupils buy from their own earnings. One boy wisely said, "We work hard selling cards so we'll have something to do extra work with.”

I wish that I might have a pleasant picture to paint for you. That, however, is not the case. Lest my remarks lead you to think that we have no good schools in Maine, I wish to first of all point out that Maine and New England do have many good schools, good equipment, and fine teachers. It is the inequality and inability of the towns to support education which prompts the statements I shall make. In my State we have a total enrollment of about 165,000 pupils. These pupils attend schools under greatly diversified conditions.

The most important single aspect in any educational program is the teacher herself. Of Maine's 6,000 teachers, more than 3,000 have had less than 2 years of professional preparation. This condition arises not out of lack of interest on the part of our personnel in improving themselves, but, rather, out of the economics of the situation. Until 1943 many Maine teachers worked for annual salaries of $520 or less. In 1943 the State enacted a minimum-salary law requiring towns to pay at least $720 per year. This law was further revised in 1945 providing for a $1,000 minimum. The present Maine Legislature is considering an increase in this minimum to $1,500.

The point I am attempting to make is that our teachers have not had sufficient salaries to enable them to live for a full year and include costs of summer training. In many instances they have been forced to seek employment during the summer to balance their personal budgets. The local communities have made tremendous efforts to increase the salaries of their teachers. However, during the past 7 years, Maine, in common with other States, has found its professional ranks depleted as good teachers have left their classrooms to seek employment that offered better security. Almost without exception they will tell you that they prefer teaching but they could not live on the salaries offered.

The State has attempted to deal with this condition by increasing subsidies to towns. However, there seems to be a definite ceiling on what the legislature finds it possible to assemble in revenues. The ninety-third legislature is grappling with the problem in an effort to spread its tax base and provide new revenues.

The foregoing seems to indicate that our problem is basically one of finance. Ideally, perhaps, the State and local units of government should assume full responsibility for the education of children. We have had a century of experience with this type of organization and we still find the glaring inadequacies which I have mentioned. There

seems to be but one answer and that is the acceptance on the part of Federal Government of responsibility for providing the children of the country with at least a minimum of educational opportunity. Senator AIKEN. Thank you, Mrs. Harriman.

I got 50 cents for being a janitor in the summer and $1.50 a winter, and Senator Ellender suggests that that is all I was worth. He is nearer right than he thinks he is.

The next witness is Nannie Rucker, teacher in the elementary schools of Rutherford County, Tenn.

STATEMENT OF MRS. NANNIE RUCKER, TEACHER, RUTHERFORD COUNTY, TENN.

Mrs. RUCKER. My name is Nannie Rucker. I teach at Emery Elementary School, a one-teacher school located in Rutherford County, Tenn. I believe I am typical of the teachers who teach in many rural one-teacher Negro schools in Tennessee.

Rutherford County is a rural county located in middle Tennessee, approximately 28 percent of the county's population being Negroes. Emery community is a typical rural Negro community, in which practically all of the citizens make their living by farming. Only two families in the Emery community own their farms. The remainder "share crop." Most families in the community have from 4 to 12

children.

My school has enrolled this year 41 students, and my average daily attendance is usually around 30 students.

SCHOOL DUTIES

Since there is no other teacher in my school, I teach all eight grades of the elementary school. Following are the subjects I teach in each grade:

First grade: Reading, writing, spelling, number work, drawing, physical education.

Second grade: Reading, writing, spelling, number work, science, drawing, physical education.

Third grade: Reading, writing, spelling, number work, geography, science, language, drawing, physical education.

Fourth grade: Reading, writing, spelling, arithmetic, geography, science, language, drawing, physical education.

Fifth grade: Reading, writing, spelling, arithmetic, geography, science, language, drawing, physical education.

Sixth grade: Reading, writing, spelling, arithmetic, geography, conservation, history, drawing, physical education.

Seventh grade: Reading, writing, spelling, arithmetic, science, geography, language, history, conservation, drawing, physical education.

Eighth grade: Reading, writing, spelling, arithmetic, science, geography, language, history, conservation, drawing, civics, physical education.

In addition to teaching my regular subjects, I endeavor to give our children worth-while experiences which otherwise would be denied to them. Many of them have never been to town, have never seen a show, have never seen a post office, have never been in a bank,

have never seen a train, et cetera. Each year I try to provide such experiences for all of them.

As in many rural Negro communities, our health problem is extremely acute. There is constantly the danger of communicable diseases. To combat these, I take all of my children into Murfreesboro to obtain innoculations and necessary treatment from the county health department. It becomes necessary to administer first aid to some child almost every day. Since few of our families have the facilities or the inclination to keep their children clean, I devote a portion of every day to having many of the children wash their hands and faces and brush their teeth. As few of them have tooth brushes at home we have each student keep and use his own tooth brush at school.

The sex education of Negro children in our community is completely neglected in their homes. Hence, I help all of the children approaching adolescence with the solution of the problems they are soon to face.

Although we do not have regular school lunches at our school, I warm the food that the children bring for themselves. Frequently they bring raw eggs and potatoes, which I boil for them for their lunches.

As comparatively few of my students have adequate clothing, particularly for the winter months, I secure necessary clothing for them from the county welfare office, Red Cross, and other organizations and individuals.

We have one school bus which transports the children from one section of the community, but I transport a number of the other children to school from other sections of the community in my car. During rainy weather, I must help the smaller students across a nearby creek on foot stones, since there is no bridge across it.

Although some free textbooks are furnished through the sixth grade, it is my responsibility to see that textbooks are obtained for the students in the seventh and eighth grades, and to arrange for the purchase of supplementary materials which are used in all the other grades. In most cases it is necessary for me to arrange programs at the school through which I may raise money for the purchase of such materials. Since we have no janitor service, the children and I must build and maintain our fires, clean our room and make minor repairs on the building. During the past year our repair work has included installing and painting three window sashes, repairing our porch, propping up our coal house, which finally blew away, wiring the stove pipe to the ceiling of the room, and installing a number of window panes.

Since the county health department has declared our water supply to be unsafe, we carry our water from neighboring houses.

COMMUNITY SERVICE

Our school is the center of community activities, and I am primarily responsible for the initiation and the supervision of most of these activities, such as plays, games, singing festivals and lectures of interest to the adults in the community.

I try to visit in the homes of all my students some time during the year, and I visit some of them many times, as problems arise which necessitate my working with the parents. Seldom a day passes during which I am not asked to render some service to the families