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(1)

Senator AIKEN. We have five other witnesses. If they were all here they would be allowed 15 minutes apiece. However, the Chair has received a note stating that Mr. Samuel R. Levering, representing the Society of Friends, made a special trip to get here and hopes to catch a train to leave within a short time. Mr. Levering's statement appears to be very short, and without wanting to injure the feelings of any of the other witnesses scheduled for this morning, the Chair thinks perhaps it might be courteous to Mr. Levering to let him testify at this time, so he can make his train and be on his way, if that is satisfactory to the members of the committee.

Mr. Levering, will you take the stand and proceed with your testimony? I don't know whether what we have here is a summary of your testimony or not, but you may proceed.

STATEMENT OF SAMUEL R. LEVERING, REGIONAL VICE CHAIRMAN, FRIENDS COMMITTEE ON NATIONAL LEGISLATION, ARARAT, VA.

Mr. LEVERING. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, I am Samuel R. Levering of Ararat, Va. That is in the Blue Ridge Mountains. I am an orchardist. I would like to have this in the record, if it is your pleasure, but not to read it, but simply point up a few highpoints on the way we Quakers, and I personally, feel about this

matter.

We favor the general principle of Federal aid to education and liberal provision of funds. And perhaps there is something I could add from my own experience.

I live in Carroll County, Va. My home is 8 miles from the North Carolina line. Carroll County is one of the counties that is called "self-sufficing" in agriculture, which simply means that there is very little to sell and very little money to buy anything with. In peacetimes the average income of the farm families there and farm labor for the family, the gross income was around $375 per family per year. During the war, of course that has gone up till now it may be in the vicinity of $800 or $900 per family per year.

This is our situation in my home county. We have a school there which is supposed to have a principal, a high-school teacher, and the two of them carry on high school, and three grade-school teachers. At this time and for this year we have no principal, no high school, and we have three grade-school teachers, of whom only one has a certificate and the other two have no qualifications except graduation from this poor rural school. That is the situation. Those of us in the community have tried to change it in various ways. Those of us who have somewhat more means than others have offered to put up money ourselves to supplement the funds available, to try to have better schools, but the county director of education says that would not work because if we did that, other school areas would be jealous, and that it would not be fair. We have tried to increase the State appropriation for schooling, State aid, and while that has been done to a small extent, it is still very inadequate, and the result is that we simply have schooling that is impossible, that is not right, that is not the proper heritage for American children.

The only way that some of us see to get decent education is to send our children away to private schools, or perhaps have them live in Washington with relatives and attend the Washington schools, as I did in my youth. I came up here and went to high school because we had no high school in our home community. We would much prefer to build up the schools in our own locality, because it is not fair for us to look forward to education for our children, and for our neighbors to have no education for their children. So I come here as one who appeals to you to make some provision which will help our situation.

Let me say this frankly: I am not proud of the school record of my own State of Virginia. We are fortieth in the relative effort we have made, relative to our income, and therefore I say we need to improve, along with many others, along that line. Right across the State line, however, is the State of North Carolina, which has low income also, and has made a real effort to provide education. I believe it ranks eleventh in the effort it has made relative to income in the United States, yet even with that effort it has not been able to establish adequate education at all, as you gentlemen realize.

Reference has been made to the fact that there is a difference in wealth, as you know, in the United States, and that some localities and some States, even if they make a really good effort, still cannot provide what is needed for the education of the children therein. So that is a fact, not a theory, and we need to extend the principle of equalization of the provision of funds to the place where the funds are available, to make possible really good education in areas such

as ours.

Perhaps that is all I need to say, except that we Quakers have always believed in education because we believe in the value of every individual and the right of every child to decent opportunity, and that applies regardless of race or creed or color or other differences. And, as you may know, on that basis we have done what we could, particularly after the Civil War, to improve educational opportunities for Negroes in the South and elsewhere.

So we think that if we are going to have a democracy that works in this country, it is important for the children in our mountain areas, in our poorer rural communities, to get good education, so that when they move up to the cities of the North or elsewhere, as many of them do later on, they will be prepared to take their responsibilities as citizens.

Considering your limitation in time, that might be all I would say, except that we do feel strongly on the matter, and we support the principle that I have seen from your attitude you gentlemen support, and we would like to do anything we can to help. I thank you.

Senator AIKEN. Are there any questions of Mr. Levering? If not, we thank you, Mr. Levering. The data that you leave will be included in the record of the hearing.

Senator HILL. Is that Mount Ararat where you live?

Mr. LEVERING. No, just Ararat.

Senator HILL. It is not the place where the Ark landed? [Laughter.] Mr. LEVERING. No, sir.

(Mr. Levering submitted the following brief:)

TESTIMONY ON S. 472 AND OTHER BILLS PROVIDING FOR FEDERAL AID TO EDUCATION, BEFORE SENATE COMMITTEE ON LABOR AND PUBLIC Welfare, ON APRIL 23, 1947

I am Samuel R. Levering of Ararat, Va., which is 8 miles from the North Carolina line. I am an orchardist. Today I have been asked to speak for the Friends Committee on National Legislation. This committee is widely representative of all Quaker groups in the United States, among whom I travel extensively.

We favor the general principle of Federal aid to education, with liberal provision of funds. There are two major reasons for this position as we see it. In the first place, the relative financial status of various States makes it impossible for all of them to afford, without undue sacrifice, adequate programs of education. The inequality of income per capita in some States relative to that in others has been well illustrated in figures published by the National Education Association. statistics relative to the two States in which I am most interested as compared with the national average and with the expenditures in New York follow:

The

In the second place, education is a national, not a local, problem. To begin with, it is a fact that low-income areas are generally marked by a high birth rate. This is especially true in the mountain and rural regions of the South. A large percentage of these children, after school age, migrate to other States. If they do not receive the proper schooling in the South where they spend their childhood, they will never get it; and the Nation as a whole will suffer from this deficiency. Real democracy and ability to participate intelligently in helping to determine the role of the United States in world affairs depend on education, which gives a vision beyond the local mountains or rural communities. Federal aid is especially necessary if Negroes and underprivileged whites are to receive adequate education. As far as Federal control of the use of funds is concerned, three remarks may be made:

1. There should be a provision that an equitable proportion of Federalaid funds must be spent for education of minority groups, especially Negroes; 2. Minimum standards of education should be prerequisite to receiving Federal-aid funds;

3. The Federal Government should have nothing to do with content taught or selection of teachers.

I should like to illustrate the way we feel about the need for education in the South by citing the situation in my own community. The school where my two daughters go, in Carroll County, Va., is supposed to have a principal, another high-school teacher, and three grade-school teachers. This year we have no principal, no high-school teacher, or high school. Of the three grade-school teachers, only one has a certificate; the other two are qualified only to the extent of graduation from this poor high school. The question might be asked, "Has anything been done to obtain improvement?" We have made efforts in various other directions but found all of them futile. We have offered to supplement funds locally to get qualified teachers, but this was rejected because that would cause dissatisfaction in other parts of the county. We have worked for more State aid. We see no immediate answer except finding private schooling for our children. But very few people in our poor rural county can afford that.

Senator AIKEN. The next witness is David I. Ashe of New York City.

STATEMENT OF DAVID I. ASHE, LEGISLATIVE CHAIRMAN, UNITED PARENTS ASSOCIATIONS OF NEW YORK CITY, N. Y.

Mr. ASHE. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, I am here representing the United Parents Associations of New York City. We are a federation of parents associations and parent-teacher associations in New York City, comprising both public and private schools, and we are chartered by the State of New York. We have been in existence for the past 25 years.

I would like to make it clear on the record, since our organization is not as well known in Washington as it is in New York, that we are nonpartisan, nonpolitical. We have members of every religious faith, every possible economic status, and of all political persuasions. Our only interest is in questions concerning the welfare of children, schools, and education, and as parents and taxpayers we have come before you today to plead for Federal aid to education.

It is our view that if our children are to be prepared to cope with the growing complexities of life, brought on particularly as an aftermath of the war, we must expand and improve our educational facilities throughout the Nation, and educational services. We believe that there can be no more worthy purpose for which public funds should be expended.

Unless the grave situation in which our public schools find themselves today is remedied, and remedied quickly, they will be faced with a progressive deterioration which will seriously threaten their continued functioning as a bulwark of our American way of life. It is hardly necessary before you gentlemen to stress the need for Federal aid. The remarks made by the members of the committee this morning have indicated that you well understand the problem, but if anyone has any doubt he has but to read the excellent theories of articles written 2 months ago by Dr. Benjamin Fine, educational editor of the New York Times, which appeared in that paper just about 2 months ago, and which were the result of a 6-month survey made by Dr. Fine after an extensive tour of the country from coast to coast. In my statement, which you have before you, I have summarized some of his conclusions, and I will not go into them at the present time. I do, though, want to point this out: New York State is among the highest in the amount spent for public education. Even in New York City, however, where I come from, there is a great and continuing exodus of competent teachers from the school system, largely because of poor compensation. Buildings are still in use in New York City which were erected before the Civil War, some in the 1940's, and they are not only dilapidated so that the children cannot possibly go there with a sense of getting a lust for learning, but they are definite health hazards and have been so found by building authorities and by medical authorities, yet children have to attend there with hazard to themselves and to their teachers.

Senator THOMAS. Are those buildings paid for, or are they still in debt for them?

Mr. ASHE. I don't know just what the exact financial set-up in New York may be on that, but I do believe that most of them are paid for. There are some newer ones, perhaps, on which some bonds still are outstanding-very few. They are paid for. However, we

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