fellowships for graduate study at graduate schools selected by such service personnel.

"TERM AND PAYMENTS

"SEC. Fellowships awarded under this title shall be for periods of study not exceeding a total of eleven months, within a total of two calendar years, in the case of any service personnel, and shall provide such service personnel with payments at the rate of $160 per month for each month of study, plus payment of tuition charges and required standard fees for such study, and plus an additional amount of $36 for each such month on account of each dependent. The total of such payments in the case of any such service personnel shall not exceed $2,860, exclusive of payments on account of dependents.

"DETERMINATION OF ELIGIBILITY FOR AN AWARD OF FELLOWSHIP

"SEC. (a) The Commissioner shall, upon request from any person and the furnishing of such information as may be required by the Commissioner, determine whether such person is eligible to receive a fellowship under the provision of this title, and if so eligible, furnish such persons with a certificate indicating such eligibility.

"(b) The Commissioner may award a fellowship under the provisions of this title to any person determined to be eligible who is certified by any graduate school as being acceptable and qualified for admission to such school.

"MILITARY RECORDS

“SEC. —. (a) The Secretaries of the Military Departments of the Department of Defense and the Commandant of the Coast Guard shall furnish, at the request of any person or graduate school, such information relating to such person's military service as may be determined by the Commissioner to be useful in applying for admission to a graduate school for further education under a fellowship awarded under the provisions of this title.

"(b) The record (including courses of study pursued and marks of efficiency and degree or degrees received) of any person's education under a fellowship under the provisions of this title shall be made a part of such person's military record.

"TEACHING REQUIREMENT

"SEC. As a condition to receiving a fellowship under the provisions of this title, recipients shall agree to teach, health and availability of positions permitting, in a nonprofit elementary or secondary school, or in a nonprofit college or university, in the United States for at least three school years after completing the education for which such fellowship is granted.

"PAYMENTS

"SEC. The Commissioner shall certify to the Secretary of the Treasury the amounts to be paid for subsistence, dependents, tuition, and required standard fees under the provisions of this title and the service personnel and colleges or universities to which such amounts shall be paid. In the case of such subsistence and dependents payments, the Secretary of the Treasury shall, in accordance with such certification, make such payments by check payable to such service personnel, transmitted through an official of the college or university such service personnel is attending. Such official shall be selected by such college or university. The official thus selected shall transmit such checks to the payee upon determining in each instance, and certifying to the Commissioner, that the recipient is devoting essentially full time in attendance and in good standing to the course of study for which the fellowship under this title is granted. If for any reason such certification cannot be made with respect to such recipient, such official shall return the check to the drawer for cancellation. In the case of such tuition payments or required standard fees, the Secretary of the Treasury shall, in accordance with such certification, make such payments to the college or university certified for payment.

"LIMITATION ON RECEIPTS FROM FEDERAL SOURCES

"Sec.. (a) Former service personnel shall not receive any payments under the provisions of this title, or payments of tuition or fees on his behalf, for any period for which he is receiving tuition or payments as an aid to education from

other Federal sources other than (1) a loan, (2) a monetary allowance under a Reserve officer's training program, or (3) compensation for work done by the recipient.

"(b) The receipt of fellowship payments under this title shall not be held, under any provision of law, to prevent or make unlawful the receipt of any retirement payment from any Federal source.

"APPROPRIATIONS

"SEC. There are authorized to be appropriated for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1959, and for each of the five succeeding fiscal years, $17,500,000 for fellowships under the provisions of this title.

"ADVISORY COUNCIL

"SEC.- (a) The Secretary shall appoint an advisory council composed of educators and other qualified individuals to advise the Commissioner in the administration of this title and to coordinate and advise with respect to any problems graduate schools may have in providing necessary facilities, regulations, or standards to carry out the purposes of this title.

"(b) Persons appointed to the council shall, while serving on business of the council receive compensation at rates, not in excess of $50 per day, fixed by the Commissioner, and shall also be entitled to receive an allowance for actual and necessary travel and subsistence expenses while so serving away from their places of residence.

"(c) The Secretary shall furnish the advisory council with such administrative personnel and facilities as may be necessary to carry out its duties under this title."

Mr. ELLIOTT. The next witness is Mr. Claude Farley, superintendent of schools of Pike County, Ky. The gentleman from Kentucky who represents that district in the Congress in the House is a member of this committee, Mr. Carl Perkins. Mr. Perkins is present and I will ask him to formally introduce Mr. Farley.

STATEMENT OF HON. CARL D. PERKINS, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF KENTUCKY

Mr. PERKINS. It might be of interest to the committee to know that Mr. Farley represents one of the largest counties in area in the whole United States. Pike County, Ky., has some 500 rural schoolteachers, and he has some problems in connection with his school system that I feel the committee will be interested in.

It is a great pleasure for me to present Mr. Farley as one of our outstanding school superintendents of Kentucky.

Mr. ELLIOTT. Thank you. I have 25 minutes of 10. In line with our schedule, you will have 15 minutes, which will put you to 9 minutes until 10 o'clock, and you may proceed within that time limitation in any way you see fit. We will be very happy to hear you.

Mr. PERKINS. If you prefer, Mr. Farley, you may insert your prepared statement in the record and make an extemporaneous presentation, or you may read it. The House goes into session at 10 o'clock this morning, which is kind of unusual, and that is why you are being limited in time.

STATEMENT OF CLAUDE H. FARLEY, SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS, PIKE COUNTY, KY.

Mr. FARLEY. I did not know you folks met schedules. We are used to schedules in the schools. If we did not have schedules we would not get our work done.

I would like to digress from time to time during the 15 minutes allowed me, but I had probably better start by saying my name is Claude H. Farley. Since 1934 I have been superintendent of schools in Pike County, Ky. First of all, let me thank you most sincerely for this opportunity of appearing before you. I am here today to plead for Federal aid on a substantial and continuing basis and to show that such aid is the only hope that our boys and girls have for obtaining an adequate education. Some of the emergency bills in your hands are quite praiseworthy, but none of them should be allowed to obscure a basic issue which faces our country. The real question is, Will the Federal Government assume its rightful share of obligation for educating America's children? An affirmative answer to that question, in my opinion, would guarantee the perpetuation of our democracy more surely than would any other conceivable act within the power of Government.

Before I proceed further, let me tell you something about my county. Pike is the easternmost county of Kentucky, bordering Virginia on the east and West Virginia on the north. With an area of 779 square miles, it is Kentucky's largest county. In topography it is extremely rough. It is in the coal-mining region and is suffering severely from unemployment. The population has increased 258 percent in the past 50 years. Our people tend to have large families, and the ratio of children to adults is much higher than the national average. At the present moment, fully one-fourth of our total population is actually enrolled in our common schools. Of the 81,154 persons on the 1950 census, more than 98 percent were white, native stock. Our people are hardy Anglo-Saxons, conservative in outlook. For generations they have been deprived of educational opportunities. About one-fourth of our present voters have 4 years or less of formal schooling, and only 1 adult in 9 has finished high school. Yet these citizens have great faith in education. Their children are coming to school in larger numbers and staying for longer periods of time. It is our job and our earnest desire to equip them for today's and tomorrow's world. This, however, we cannot do under present circumstances, as I shall try to show by my further testimony.

Among the temporary measures under consideration, the HillElliott bill, H. R. 10381, has unusual merit. The number of scholarships plus the number of loans on liberal terms is sufficient to reach a substantial proportion of all the worthy high-school graduates in America who require such aid. Special features of the bill are important to college students and to teachers now in service. Just before I left home I checked with the principals of our three largest high schools and secured the following information: The schools enroll a total of 365 seniors. Eighty-nine of these young people, or 24 percent, plan to enter college next fall. One hundred thirtysix of them, or 37 percent of the total, are being deprived of a college education entirely or primarily for lack of money. Kentucky now ranks 45th among the States in the percent of college graduates in her total population. We can hardly hope to improve this situation so long as large counties like Pike are losing one-third or more of their capable high school graduates because they lack money for a college education. The Hill-Elliott bill would do much to correct this situation on a temporary basis. Its only weakness on such a

basis is its failure to emphasize other fields of scholarship than science, mathematics, and languages. Viewed in a larger setting, of course, the bill is like many others in that it is set up as a defense measure and neglects to state frankly that the Federal Government shares with the several States a continuing responsibility for educating the Nation's youth.

The time has come, I think, for abandoning the popular myth that education is solely a function of the separate States. The Federal Government has recognized the importance of education and has contributed in a small way to its support for at least a century. Today, more than ever before, it is impossible for any State to isolate itself against the rest of the country, educationally or otherwise. The American people are on the move, and the illiteracy of Pike County, Ky., makes its mark on Detroit and Columbus. Recently a northern governor created quite a stir by complaining that the influx of Kentuckians and West Virginians was diluting the educational standards of his State. I claim no originality when I say that ignorance is dangerous and incompatible with democracy; that it cannot be confined within State boundaries; that the national welfare demands its abolition; and that this goal cannot be reached until the Federal Government assumes a larger and more realistic share of the financial burden. Today that Government is taking such a large share of our national income that many States are having difficulty in financing their customary activities. In other words, Uncle Sam is taking the cream from the tax source in the Nation, and I feel that it is neither safe nor morally right for him to leave the several States saddled with an educational burden which only a few are able to bear. Let me illustrate now by listing some of our problems in Pike County. Our needs are of all sorts, but I shall discuss three in particular. They are teachers, buildings, and transportation.

We have 619 teachers employed this year, and one-fourth of them are on an emergency basis-that is, they fail to meet minimum requirements for holding legal certificates. Many of our classrooms are still crowded with 45 or 50 children, and a few of them contain more than 60 each. We need 100 additional teachers to reduce our load to a ratio of 30 pupils per teacher. If we add this need to the number of emergency permits issued this year, we have a total shortage of 250 teachers in one county. Our schools range in size from 1-teacher to 45-teacher institutions, and the shortage affects practically every school in one way or another. There is a great and continuing need for teachers at the elementary level. At the high-school level there is a serious shortage in every field of study. As an example of our problem, let me tell you about our school at Phelps, located in an incorporated village on a paved road 45 miles from the county seat. The school building is one of our newest and is comfortable enough by local standards. There are 900 children enrolled in 12 grades. We had planned to use 31 teachers this year, but when school opened we had found only 5 persons with legal certificates. After several weeks of searching and confusion we were able to round up 24 emergency teachers, some of whom had 1 year of college and some of whom had no college training whatever. That gave us a total of 29 people, leaving two positions still vacant to this hour.

Mr. ELLIOTT. Let me interrupt the gentleman. That is in the good year 1957 that this took place. Is that right?

Mr. FARLEY. 1958. We are short two, yes, sir; beginning in September.

Mr. ELLIOTT. So you are not talking about a theoretical situation or something that you read about in the papers.

Mr. FARLEY. That is what is happening to our children now in Pike County.

May I proceed?

Mr. ELLIOTT. You may proceed.

Mr. FARLEY. A few miles east of Phelps and beyond the end of the paved road lies Knox Creek, a large rural area bearing a proud old American name. The creek originates in Virginia and flows into the Tug Fork, a stream once surveyed by George Washington. On the Kentucky side there are nine small schools with a total of 11 teachers. As a rule these teachers have only a high school education and are woefully unprepared for the strenuous job of teaching on Knox Creek. They live among parents who in 1958 are unable to read or write. Large numbers of children have managed somehow to the eighth grade without having met a qualified teacher in their lives. Many of them have enough ambition to wade muddy trails to our bus lines and ride to Phelps. They are far from ready to do acceptable high-school work. These children have strong intelligence and might still succeed if given personal attention by skilled and sympathetic teachers. What they are likely to receive, however, can be surmised from the facts I have given about the situation at Phelps.

It happens that the Phelps area contains a number of fine old families with great ability and determination. Many young people have pulled themselves up by their bootstraps and have gone out to succeed in competition with the world. Actually, the community has produced enough good teachers to fill every room in the local school, but those people are now scattered in far-flung communities in Florida, California, and Ohio, among other places.

Why don't they stay with us? Why don't our Pike County teachers in general stay with us? One look at a couple of figures tells the story. Our average instructional salary is $2,600; the national average is $4,520. We are constantly straining ourselves to put a larger share of our budget into the salary fund. We are taxing our people locally to the limit of the law. We are seeking more help from Frankfort, but there is a definite limit to that source.

The unequal distribution of wealth in America and the nature of our tax structure together make it impossible for us to pay decent and attractive salaries to hold our teachers unless the Federal Government comes to the rescue and assumes a substantial part of the burden. As I have stated already, I believe that this action is both necessary and obligatory from a moral standpoint.

Our building needs in Pike County are still overwhelming in spite of all the efforts we have made. We have today 65 1-room structures, 44 2-room structures, 9 3-room structures, and 23 larger structures containing from 4 to 45 classrooms each. Nearly all our small buildings and many of our larger ones are of cheap frame construction. They fail to meet minimum standards of safety prescribed by our own State fire marshal. They have neither indoor toilets nor drinking facilities. They are perched on dangerous hillsides or on tiny plots along our

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