Hearings

FEDERAL AID TO EDUCATION

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 9, 1947

UNITED STATES SENATE,

COMMITTEE ON LABOR AND PUBLIC WELFARE,

SUBCOMMITTEE ON EDUCATION,

Washington, D. C.

The subcommittee met at 10 a. m. in room 357, Senate Office Building, Senator George D. Aiken presiding.

Present: Senators Aiken, Smith, Ives, Thomas (of Utah) and Hill. Senator AIKEN. The meeting will come to order.

The immediate responsibility of this subcommittee is to consider legislation in the field of Federal aid to education. This is a preliminary hearing on four bills that have been introduced to date, dealing with the question of Federal aid to education at the elementary and secondary school levels. Subject to the approval of the subcommittee regular hearings are tentatively scheduled to get under way on April 21.

The witnesses scheduled to be heard at this preliminary hearing include the sponsors of the four bills on Federal aid, and Dr. James B. Conant, president of Harvard University.

The bills under consideration, the over-all objectives of these bills, and their sponsors are:

S. 81, to assist the States in improving and maintaining their systems of free public education by providing funds to be used for supplementing teachers' salaries; sponsored by Senators Green and McGrath.

S. 170, to authorize the appropriation of funds to assist the States and Territories in increasing the rate of salary payments to teachers in the public elementary and secondary schools; sponsored by Senator McCarran.

S. 472, to authorize the appropriation of funds to assist the States and Territories in financing a minimum foundation education program of public elementary and secondary schools, and in reducing the inequalities of educational opportunities through public elementary and secondary schools, for the general welfare, and for other purposes. Sponsored by Senators Taft, Thomas of Utah, Ellender, Hill, Smith, Cooper, Chavez, and Tobey.

S. 199, to authorize the appropriation of funds to assist the States in more nearly equalizing educational opportunities among and within the States by establishing a national floor under current educational expenditures per pupil in average daily attendance at public elementary and secondary schools and by assistance to nonpublic taxexempt schools of secondary grade or less for necessary transportation of pupils, school health examinations and related school health services, and purchase of nonreligious instructional supplies and equipment, including books. S. 199 is sponsored by me.

In beginning the consideration of these bills, this subcommittee is fully aware of the grave crisis confronting the elementary and secondary schools of the Nation.

I cannot presume to speculate as to any final action which may be taken by this subcommittee. I am sure that we are keenly conscious of the fact that any solution or partial solution of the teachers' problem and in turn of the whole school problem will require that we face the following stark facts:

Teachers are grossly underpaid; their tenure is insecure; their morale is undermined; they are leaving the schoolroom for better jobs; classrooms are overcrowded; school buildings and equipment are run down and inadequate; and college students are boycotting the teaching profession.

The most obvious symptom of the educational problem is the shortage of good teachers.

The shortage of teachers is traceable primarily to the terribly inadequate pay they receive. The low salaries are explained largely by insufficient funds for éducational purposes.

It is a matter of history that we have never provided adequately for our school program. There are those who protest that we cannot spend money to modernize our school system.

We must face squarely the issue of finding some way to provide more money for the elementary and secondary schools of the United States or suffer the consequences of permitting our school system to degenerate still further.

The most precious asset this Nation, or any nation, has is its children. To conserve and develop this human resource is the best insurance we can have for the future greatness and security of our Nation. Our teachers are the developers of our human resource. They are the molders of our future citizens-our destiny.

It is time for us as a Nation to do something about the crisis in education.

Senator Hill, I understand you have a statement.

Senator HILL. Mr. Chairman, you have stated that education in the United States is in a crisis. I shall not undertake to organize or report the evidence in support of that conclusion. Undoubtedly that will be ably done by persons who will appear during the course of our hearings.

I do want to say, however, that a 6 months' survey of the Nation's schools by a distinguished authority for the New York Times brought the conclusion that although American schools did not suffer a single air raid, "they are being wrecked just as surely as though they had been blasted by heavy bombers."

The war alone did not bring education to the low level at which we find it today. Basic causes, such as disparities in child population and in tax ability among the States, are of longer standing. Some States now spend 60 times as much per classroom as do other, poorer States.

I have here before me a chart prepared by the National Education Association, or rather submitted by the National Education Association, which shows that in California there were income payments of $9,005 per child of 5 to 17 years of age in 1945, whereas in Mississippi, there was only $1,974 per child of 5 to 17 years of age. This gives us

some idea of the disparity in wealth among the States of the United States.

Educational neglect of millions of our youth will exact disastrous penalties from the Nation in the next few swiftly moving years.

First, we call upon our young people for vital services in time of war and find them in dangerously large numbers unable to respond to the demands of the hour.

Second, we expect them to be of great help in constructing the defenses of peace, not only in this country but throughout the world. Without benefit of a sound general education, they cannot effectively undertake this great responsbility.

Third, we expect every citizen to strengthen our national economy. Ignorance is the foe of prosperity. The future frontiers of expanding American business will largely be determined by the training our young people get. Educated people want more, earn more, buy more, produce more in order to satisfy their desires.

The economic welfare of our Nation is inextricably tied to the kind of education we make available for our youth.

The broad purpose of S. 472, a bill to which our chairman has referred is directed at the greater equalization of educational opportunity by improving the schooling of American youth where opportunities are poorest. The bill undertakes to provide Federal funds where they are most badly needed without in any way impairing the quality of education in any State or community that may not directly share in the benefits of the act.

The bill has been most carefully drawn with a view to the maintenance of existing State control of educational policies. I come myself from a State where the principle of State rights is most zealously regarded. I would not support this bill if I were not convinced beyond all doubt that it leaves to Alabama, and to every other State, existing State authority over such vital matters as school administration and personnel, what shall be taught, how it shall be taught, supervision of instruction, the definition of public education, and other matters that determine the kind of education available for our young people.

In its emphasis upon a minimum foundation school program for American youth the bill follows a tradition that has long been established and followed in many of our States. There must be a floor under the educational structure of our Nation if our country is in reality to become a land of equal opportunity for our young people. While I am convinced that education is a chief function of the States and localities, I am equally convinced that the Federal Government also has a responsibility to see that American school children have the opportunity to get a defensible minimum education. Our children are not only citizens of the communities and the States in which they live. They are citizens of the Nation. They have national obligations which disregard State lines. They cannot meet these national obligations of citizenship if they are not adequately educated.

Our Federal Government has recognized its responsibilities in the field of education since its earliest years by enacting more than 150 Federal-aid bills to assist the States and localities in making better schools available. The need for expanding such assistance has been critical for a long time.

I express the hope, Mr. Chairman, that hearings on the pending legislation will be prosecuted vigorously and carried to a conclusion as quickly as possible. The need is urgent. We should provide the Senate an early opportunity to act on a recommendation from this committee.

Senator AIKEN. Thank you, Senator Hill.

Now, I understand that Senator Thomas has a few words to say. Senator THOMAS. Mr. Chairman, if Senator Hill will permit, I would like to have my name identified with his statement because it expresses what have been my sentiments for a long time.

Thank you.

Senator AIKEN. Senator Smith?

Senator SMITH. Mr. Chairman, I just want to add this to what Senator Hill said. I think all of us who are sponsoring S. 472, and I am glad to be one of them, with Senator Hill, realize the crisis in the country today. The question, of course, is the extent to which the Federal Government could participate in meeting this crisis, and as Senator Hill pointed out, with adequate protection of States' rights in determining their own school policy. I feel that bill, S. 472, has been very carefully worked out to take care of these problems and to give the aid where the aid is most desperately needed.

I always have felt that the Federal Government could not extend its help to all the States in the Nation without getting into too large a bill to solve this problem, but I do think that the Federal Government has a profound interest in those areas, especially in the deep South, where equality of opportunity just does not exist.

I believe so profoundly in equality of opportunity for all of our people without regard to race, creed, or color, that I think the Federal Government has a responsibility in trying to raise the floor, as Senator Hill has said, in our educational program. So, I am very happy to be recorded as a sponsor of this legislation with Senator Hill and the

others.

Senator HILL. Mr. Chairman, Senator Taft was very anxious to be here this morning, but it has become necessary for him to be at the Banking and Currency Committee on account of consideration of the Taft-Wagner-Ellender housing bill. He still hopes to get here before we adjourn. In the event he does not get here before we adjourn, I want to ask consent that his statement may be filed at this point in the record.

Senator AIKEN. At this point, the Chair will ask to have the text of the four bills under consideration included in the record.. If Senator Taft does not get here in time to make a statement, any statement which he desires to present will certainly be printed in the record of today's preliminary hearing.

(Bills S. 81, S. 170, S. 199, and S. 472 are as follows:)

[S. 81, 80th Cong., 1st sess.]

A BILL To assist the States in improving and maintaining their systems of free public education by providing funds to be used for supplementing teachers' salaries

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That for the purpose of assisting the several States in improving and maintaining their systems of free public education by supplementing the salaries of teachers in free public elementary and secondary schools there is hereby authorized to be appropriated for the fiscal year ending

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