of our small high schools, which make up more than half the high schools in the United States. Most schools with fewer than 300 students enrolled presently lack facilities for testing, counseling, and guiding students. A number of ingenious suggestions have been developed in recent years about ways in which these services could be brought to schools on a part-time or traveling basis, somewhat in the way that traveling libraries are now being made available in many rural sections of the country.

The third proposal regarding Federal scholarships is one that has troubled me a great deal. Because our oragnization runs scores of these programs, we have a direct interest in this matter.

As you know, the interest in Federal scholarship programs runs back more than 150 years. So far as I know, Thomas Jefferson was the first man to suggest the idea back in about 1800, and John Quincy Adams was also enthusiastic about this possibility.

I am generally in favor of almost anything that will help us reduce materially the 150,000 to 200,000 of our brightest young people who now fail to go to college each year. By superior students I refer in general to the top 30 percent of our young people in the college-going age, who have roughly the mental ability of the average person who now graduates from college.

In the minds of most people, the best way to persuade these bright youngsters to go to college is to provide them with scholarships of one type or another. But our experience with these programs demonstrates quite conclusively that, desirable as the objective is, it is not likely to be achieved in any substantial way by a Federal scholarship program.

As I believe others have previously testified before your committee, the results of the national merit scholarship program, one of the programs that our organization is currently conducting, indicate that at least 95 percent of the top 7,500 students identified by the NMS tests would have gone to college even though they had not received a scholarship.

In our Oklahoma talent search, the results pointed to a similar conclusion. Of the 100 top-scoring 12th graders throughout the State, 93 actually went to college the following fall. Of the top 400, 316 went the following fall, and many of the other 84 expected to go later, after they had finished their military service or other obstacles had been cleared away. Interestingly, in the Oklahoma experiment, the vast majority of these students had no scholarship assistance of any kind.

The general conclusion I have reached somewhat reluctantly after reexamining our own experience and that of other research groups in the field is that most of the real wastage of talent does not occur among the brightest 1 or 2 percentthose who usually win the scholarship. It is much more likely to be found among the students who, while not being at the very apex of the intellectual pyramid, are somewhere in the upper 20 to 30 percent-the solid citizens who are highly capable but not outstandingly brilliant. Scholarship programs, even very large ones, are still not large enough to reach most of the students in this group.

I am aware that the next few years are especially critical ones from the talent wastage viewpoint. It is clear now that our country made a major mistake during World War II when its brightest students who intended to become scientists were not deferred from military service to continue their studies. At least 19,0000 scientists at the doctor of philosophy level are now irrevocably lost to our country because of this national policy mistake which, incidentally, was not repeated in England, Germany, or even Russia.

Because the young people now in college or soon to matriculate are "depression babies" when the birthrate of the country was abnormally low, we must do everything we can in the next 5 years to identify the brightest of this relatively small group and encourage them in every possible way.

Over a period of years, the rising American living standard, plus better guidance, will largely solve this difficulty. Our immediate problem is, therefore, a temporary one.

I tend to feel, however, that money spent on the training of guidance counselors and for student guidance and testing will have much larger effects in salvaging talent than the providing of direct scholarships. Additionally, Federal scholarships would tend, I fear, to preempt the scholarship field, and would discourage many State and local governments that are now actively considering the inauguration of scholarship programs or have already started them. The same point is also true for business corporations and all sorts of civic and community groups that are interested in providing scholarships.

Although various studies have seemingly shown that about half of the bright young people who are not now going to college give financial reasons for their decisions, I suspect that the real problem is largely motivational. Lack of finances is an easy verbal excuse to cover a variety of deeper and more important reasons for dropping out of school.

The core of the problem, I have concluded, is motivational. And the motivation to go to college can best be stimulated through some of the channels I have previously mentioned. For the remaining cases where there is true financial need, I would rather see the establishment of financial loan programs, such as the college-on-the-cuff idea suggested by Dr. Seymour Harris, the distinguished economist from Harvard University. And money now tentatively earmarked for scholarships would, I think, be much more usefully spent on the training of counselors and for early testing and guidance programs.

Finally I would like to say just a word, in addition to my prepared statement, about the summer training institutes of the National Science Foundation, a project which I understand comes within the authority of this committee.

The SRA evaluation study showed clearly that the summer institutes have served as an effective, if still minor, catalyst in scientific education, especially at the high school level. The institutes' strongest apparent benefit has been that of bringing participating teachers up to date in their knowledge of recent scientific advances.

The study showed that the institutes have been of almost equal value as a professional stimulant, arousing in teachers a renewed enthusiasm for their subjects. They were also found to have been of considerable practical value in providing the participants with entirely new teaching techniques.

The summer institutes have also been of considerable benefit to the college and universities who sponsored them, the study found. From special new courses developed for use in the institute themselves, many of these institutions have gone on to make and to plan changes in their own regular teacher-training curriculums that will be of increased help to high school science and mathematics teachers.

In summary, this program has already had considerable educational impact. It comes close, in my opinion, to being a breakthrough educational idea. I would like to see it extended to the improvement of teaching quality in all areas of the high-school curriculum, as well as down into the elementary grades. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Mr. ELLIOTT. Our next witness this afternoon is Mrs. Marie R. Turner, superintendent of the Breathitt County schools at Jackson, Ky.

I am going to yield to my good friend and colleague, the gentleman from Kentucky, Mr. Carl Perkins, to introduce Mrs. Turner. Mr. PERKINS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mrs. Turner is no stranger to the committee. In fact, she appeared here at our first school construction hearings in 1952. I think she is one of the outstanding school superintendents of the country and has always made a contribution. She has been very much interested in school construction throughout the years and knows the problems of youngsters, for she has been serving in her present capacity for approximately a quarter of a century now.

The committee will be glad to hear you, Mrs. Turner.

STATEMENT OF MRS. MARIE R. TURNER, SUPERINTENDENT OF THE BREATHITT COUNTY SCHOOLS, JACKSON, KY.

Mr. TURNER. Congressman Perkins, Mr. Chairman, I deeply appreciate the opportunity to appear before you in the interest of legislation dealing with the question of our great and strong Nation giving assurance that no student of ability will be denied an opportunity for higher education. Also, that provisions be made to enable our teachers to enrich their knowledge of the subject matter which they teach.

We all know that 12 years of education is not enough for most of our people in this complex world of today. We realize that all education faces new challenges in this age of anxiety. Scientific achievements, growing populations, et cetera, have helped to create these challenges and to make it imperative that our Nation provide for increased opportunities to our young people for more education and better training. Our Nation is constantly demanding bettertrained citizens.

Only a few years back nuclear energy and television were dreams of the future and, today, they play an important part in our daily lives. Our world today is so different from even 25 years ago. These rapid changes bring us face to face with the fact that education and education, alone, is the key to understanding and mastering this world.

Gentlemen, for years I have watched the undeveloped brains of some of our finest young people wash down the river like erosion of our soil, because of the lack of financial aid for higher education.

Breathitt County, like other mountain counties, is a poor county; in fact, it is unclassified when it comes to agriculture, mining, or industry, but we can be classified as one of the richest counties in America's greatest asset-her children.

To prove my point, in one of our small elementary schools we have nine sets of twins, and you have the picture. These children are all from very poor families. Cordus Hudson, a school janitor, has 8 children including 2 sets of twins. What does the future hold for these twins and other children like them? Two of them already have expressed a desire to become doctors, 1 a scientist, and 4 would like to become teachers.

Many of our young people have startling beauty and this outward charm is matched in many cases by brilliant natural ability. Here is Breathitt's greatest asset-her finest potential for contributing to the welfare of the Nation.

Mr. ELLIOTT. May I interrupt you right there, Mrs. Turner? Do you have copies of your statement?

Mrs. TURNER. Yes, sir.

Mr. ELLIOTT. I am agreeing with everything you have to say, and I am not one of those people who think we can settle this problem with a public-relations program.

Mrs. TURNER. No, sir.

Mr. ELLIOTT. Of course you cannot. The idea of dealing with the problem that affects America by going around to a few individuals and companies and clubs and urging them to send these bright children to school who otherwise have no opportunity to go, is to my way of thinking, just as impractical an approach as could be made to the problem.

Mrs. TURNER. Mr. Chairman, I have been trying that for 27 years, and that is why I am here.

Mr. ELLIOTT. How many of these children whose pictures you have given me here who are as bright as a pin down there in the hills of Kentucky and who should, by right, have an opportunity to have an education, have been able to go through the public relations method?

Mrs. TURNER. Not a single one. I want to go back to the summer school program that they have been talking about for scientists. For

4 years we have been trying to get our science teacher qualified to go to a summer school on a scholarship, but he did not have enough training in science to meet their qualifications to enter the summer school. So I have to disagree with the previous speaker.

Are we losing some of our best minds? Is Breathitt County and the Nation making the most use of the youths that are being graduated from high schools? May I repeat, one of the greatest riches of Breathitt County is her young people. These are youths that both the Nation and the State need. They are needed to become teachers, scientists, doctors; they are needed to build a stronger State, and a more powerful country. They are neded, if we are to maintain our place in the sun.

Before these young people can fill the needs of our country, they must have training beyond the high-school level. They must have advanced education which is expensive and, therefore, impossible for most of our students.

Out of our senior class of 137 students, less than a fourth come from families who can afford to give them a college education, and not all of these families will have a great enough appreciation of the value of a higher education to plan or to sacrifice for it. This, plus the fact that fortune doesn't always bestow her favors on the families with the most intelligent children, adds up to a great loss of one of our richest natural resources.

Both the National and State Governments have agencies that deal with the conservation of wildlife, forests, water, et cetera. Why not an agency for the conservation of brains? Congressmen, in Kentucky we have several programs beyond the high-school level. We have numerous part-time scholarships. Still we are losing practically two-thirds of our high-school graduates. In 1956 only 7,079 highschool graduates out of 22,575 entered college. Why?

Russia doesn't allow the economic level of the family to stand in the way of higher education for her brighter students. Even backward Mexico culls out-through tests at different grade levels-the intelligent boys and girls and gives them a higher education, regardless of the financial standing of the parents.

It seems that America may well be losing her richest resource, because she is failing to educate many of her best minds simply because they lack the necessary funds for an education. If other countries can afford to foot the bill for higher education, then it seems that America must also afford it.

In the latter part of May our high school will graduate 137 seniors. What will become of them? Some few will go on to college. Most of the students who go to college will enter teacher training, since there is a small teachers college in our town. A few will return to the farm, but two-thirds of the class will leave the State and go north to take jobs in shops and factories.

Mr. ELLIOTT. Let me interrupt you there. A lot of them who have gone forth are coming home these days, are they not?

Mrs. TURNER. Yes, sir; plenty of them. We had 16 children walk into our 1-room school last week because of the unemployment situation.

Mr. ELLIOTT. We are having the same experience in my district.

Mrs. TURNER. To the recent high school graduate the wages offered by these jobs will look good, but their lack of training will forbid any

sort of advancement to them. Thus many fine and capable minds will have settled into mediocre ruts that require little, if any, of the intelligence of the graduate.

In our county-and we are a typical mountain county-there is little chance for the bright boy or girl who lacks sufficient funds to obtain a higher education. The junior college in town will extend credit to those few who want teacher training. A small private college in the State opens its doors to some of the better girl students, but to be eligible, these girls must either be orphans or from broken homes.

Another college will give a few full workshops to the highest ranking students in the class. And then there is our star basketball player who will be able to choose from the 30 or more offers that he has from colleges and universities that would like him to wear their colors.

The universities and colleges are clamoring for Don who is 6 feet 6 inches and a high school wonder on the hardwood. They send him invitations to visit their schools and they pay his way so that these visits can be possible. Don is poor; he is the son of a mountain dirt farmer and a basketball scholarship will be his only means of getting a higher education.

Even with all of these offers to select from, Don may not go on to college for he is just an average student with almost no ambition at all. He does not have the drive nor the intelligence to become a coach; in short, Don has nothing to offer except a few exciting moments on the basketball floor.

The colleges and universities, however, are eager to have Don. Don has a brother who will also graduate in May. Billy is a better student than Don; he ranks in the middle of the class; is a mainstay in the boys' chorus, and he could do well in college. But Billy's father will not have the money to send him to college and, since he doesn't play basketball, the universities aren't interested in him.

In the upper third of the class there is Jim-a bright, alert boy who has taken all the science, math, and language that our high school has to offer. He can't play ball, and he doesn't have any money, but he will probably go to college anyway. He'll go to school a semester and then he will have to drop out to work until he earns enough for another session of college. He'll go to the teachers college because it is cheap and it is close to his home. He has the capabilities to enter the field of science, but he cannot afford the expensive training that this would require.

Jim cannot afford to enter the field of science, but in today's world our Government cannot afford for him not to enter it. In Russia and even in Mexico his counterpart-Ivan or Pablo-will enter the field of science and, if they cannot afford the required costs, their govern

ment can.

Could our Government perhaps loan Jim the money that he would need in order to continue his education? If Ivan and Pablo are to become scientists, then it is necessary for Jim to become one. Jim's becoming a scientist, or a doctor, or a teacher would get a high rate of interest on the money that the Government had invested in him. Two or three years ago our graduating class saw the science and citizenship awards accepted by an eager, alert, young girl. She had all the qualities and attributes of the patient, methodical scientist; she had a dream-to someday assist or lead in medical research. She

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