colleges, something less than $6,000,000 a year through the United States Office of Education, and approximately $21,000,000 a year for certain aspects of vocational education of secondary school grade in the fields of agriculture, trades and industries, home economics, and to a very limited extent in business education. These two amounts are utilized in providing some of the money which certain school teachers are paid.

This bill, S. 81, has the merit of being direct, brief and unambiguous. It authorizes an annual appropriation of $15 per pupil to be used to supplement teachers' salaries.

My colleague and I arrived at this figure of $15 per pupil after conferring with several noted educators, all interested in the teachers' present plight of underpayment. At $15 per pupil, the appropriation authorized would amount to some $259,000,000 based on the reported daily attendance in 1943. Assuming an average pupilteacher ratio of 30 pupils per teacher, the measure would authorize an appropriation sufficient to provide an increase amounting to about $450 a year for each elementary and secondary school teacher in the United States and its Territories.

The bill is designed to be exclusively a teachers' salary improvement measure. Insofar as the present critical teacher shortage stems from the inability of the States and communities to provide more adequate salaries for elementary and secondary school teachers, Federal assistance is definitely needed and desirable.

As originally introduced, payments would be made directly to the school districts. However, we have been advised that in order to comply with this provision of the bill, the United States Office of Education would need a very large staff. I sent copies of this bill to all State directors or commissioners of education in the country and requested their comments and suggestions. Practically all of them, while approving of the other provisions of the bill, suggested that the bill be amended so that the funds would be channeled through the State director or commissioner of education, instead of directly to the officials of a given school district. We believe this suggestion is a good one, and consequently, we have drafted an amendment to S. 81, which we intend to introduce in the Senate, and which will in effect provide that the payments be made, not to the school districts, but to the State education officials.

The replies we have received from the various commissioners and directors of education have, indeed, been gratifying and at a later date I shall present a complete report of these replies to this committee and insert them in the Congressional Record.

There are no stringent Federal controls provided for in this bill, and no attempt is made in behalf of the Federal Government to dominate education in the States or local communities. The only requirement is that certified reports must be made as to average daily attendance. The bill is designed to meet a specific need; it is to render direct assistance to the elementary and secondary public-school teachers in the country in their struggle to maintain a decent standard of living. Thus it goes to the heart of our present educational problem.

The United States now spends only 1.5 percent of its national income for its schools as compared with 3 percent spent by Great Britain and 7.5 percent by the Soviet Union. The cost of the program proposed of direct Federal aid for teachers would raise our present ratio by

three-tenths of 1 to 1.8 percent. This is certainly not large in proportion to the wealth of our great Nation, nor in proportion to the need for good schools and good teachers, nor in proportion to what we as a Nation will get in return. No function of government is more important than public education. In a democracy like ours it is a fundamental necessity, and nowhere else in our Government are false economies so costly in the end.

Today, in a world of swiftly changing standards and events when the future peace and security of the world hang in the balance and freemen everywhere are looking to America for leadership and guidance, the kind of education we provide for our young people is more important than ever before. As a nation, our responsibility to these young people has increased. The future greatness of America, as a great nation and a world power, will depend in large measure upon the character, intelligence and degree of enlightenment of these millions of young Americans who are now in our schools. They need and are entitled to the very best in education that we as a nation can possibly give them. We must send them forth equipped to meet and solve the great problems of the future. Their future and ours demand that we do this.

The job of educating young America for its great responsibilities in the years ahead is not and cannot any longer be entirely a local or State matter. Federal assistance is not only desirable, it is essential.

We are faced with a critical teacher shortage and in several States. and municipalities emergency measures have been formulated to keep our schools open. Substitute teachers are doing a good and loyal service. However, in many cases these substitutes have only a little more schooling than their pupils. Adequate compensation should be provided for the teachers for the services they render, and it is only through Federal assistance that this compensation can be provided.

Conditions in many of our municipalities are alarming, and the reason lies in the fact that our teachers as a group are shamefully underpaid. Your committee has asked me to limit myself to a brief general statement this morning. At a later date I hope this committee will give me the opportunity to present it with additional information. I believe action should not be postponed and that some bill providing Federal assistance to the States for educational purposes should soon be enacted by this Congress.

Senator AIKEN. Thank you, Senator Green.

The Chair notes that the cosponsor of your bill, Senator McGrath, has come into the room and we will call on Senator McGrath now.

STATEMENT OF HON. J. HOWARD MCGRATH, A UNITED STATES

SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND

Senator MCGRATH. Mr. Chairman and fellow Senators, I believe that Senator Green has most adequately made a preliminary explanation of the bill of which he and I are cosponsors. Nonetheless, I am grateful to you for the privilege of appearing before the subcommittee this morning to briefly state my own views regarding Federal aid to education, and in particular to speak of S. 81 introduced by Senator Green and myself.

There are approximately 25,000,000 American children attending public schools. This figure represents more than one-sixth of our entire population. From available reports, I am advised that some 850,000 teachers are engaged in the important work of preparing these youngsters to lead useful lives, as citizens, in the thousands of American communities spread throughout the country.

Although in the United States it has always been the accepted practice to believe that the chief responsibility for education rests upon the States and municipalities, I feel that the Federal Government does have a very direct responsibility in this field. The kind of education which is provided in any State or group of States is and should be a matter of great interest to our National Government.

In our democracy, where we talk so much about equality, it seems to me that all children regardless of the place and circumstance of their birth should be entitled, insofar as we can make it so, to a fairly equal and suitable opportunity for education. Yet the facts are that great inequalities in educational opportunities have long existed among the several States. At one end of the range of expenditure per classroom unit, we find pupils in classrooms that are supported at a cost of $6,000 per year and at the other end, where the majority of our pupils are, we find classrooms where less than $100 per room per year is spent.

In other words, the difference in educational opportunities between States as of today is as much as 60 to 1.

Another kind of inequality is the difference that exists within the States. These figures are equally alarming. In 1946, I am advised many of our States, after making the greatest effort that they could to provide good schools, were still unable to finance the kind of education which the children of our Nation need and must have.

Another reason for Federal interest in education lies in the fact that every year thousands of citizens, more so now than ever before in our history, and it probably will continue to be so, move from one State to another or from one section of the country to another. Of necessity, they take with them the schooling that they have enjoyed in the locality from which they come, whether that schooling be good or poor. Those whose schooling has been poor are usually liabilities rather than assets to their adopted States or sections, as well as they are liabilities to the whole Nation.

In recent years, such migrations have become very substantial, and are still on the increase. They represent an educational problem that transcends State lines. States and municipalities have only the Federal Government to look to, to assist them in providing the assistance that they need.

Our Nation at the present time is in the midst of an educational depression, and this depression has reached the point of crisis.

Dr. Benjamin Fine, education editor of the New York Times, recently observed, and I quote:

Our schools were not bombed as were the European schools, but nearly 2 years after the end of the war, they are being wrecked just as surely as though they had been blasted by heavy bombers.

The Federal Government therefore must lend a helping hand in some form to the States and local communities if we are to save the American public-school system.

My colleague and I believe that S. 81, which is exclusively a teachers' salary measure will, if enacted into law, provide the funds necessary to increase salaries of the elementary and secondary public-school teachers.

We believe further that this bill will encourage those who are qualified to follow a teachers' profession, and further than that, will encourage those who are now leaving the profession to remain in it. The exodus of teachers from the profession since 1939 has constituted one of the greatest vocational migrations in our national history. I am advised that between 1941 and 1945 about 350,000 teachers left the classroom. This figure does not include those merely changing positions within the teaching field.

Except for those who entered the armed forces, most of these teachers have gone into better-paying jobs in industry. Moreover, these teachers show no signs whatsoever of wanting to come back to teaching school at the present level of salaries. Thus, the vitally important teaching profession has lost approximately one-third of its qualified members during the last half dozen years.

While emergency measures have been used to keep schools open and substitute teachers have been pressed into service, we definitely believe that additional compensation for teachers' salaries should be provided so that we may have for our children throughout the country a contented group of teachers who will give to the youth of the land the best service they know how.

Our bill, S. 81 as originally drafted provided that payments be made directly to the States, similar to payments for public works grants. However, as Senator Green has pointed out, the Commissioner of the United States Office of Education has indicated to us that it would require a tremendously increased staff for his office to process payments, as we proposed in S. 81. Therefore, we intend to propose an amendment whereby payments would be made directly to the authorized State agency and that agency would make the payments to various municipalities and school districts.

We believe this amendment will be acceptable to the various State directors and commissioners, throughout the country, who are interested in our bill and who have expressed an interest in the suggested amendment.

While S. 81 provides for annual appropriation of $15 per pupil in attendance, both Senator Green and I want to state that we arrived at this figure after numerous conferences with officials interested in having the Federal Government provide some funds for teachers. However, we are not definitely committed to this figure. If a larger amount per pupil is necessary, we trust that the members of the committee will take that factor into consideration.

Now, the chief argument against Federal aid to education heretofore has been the fear that it would eventually lead to domination on the part of the Federal Government over the States in matters of educational standards, curricula, and so forth. I believe the chief merit in the approach to this problem to justify S. 81 lies in the fact that we limit Federal aid strictly to one category, namely, that of assistance to improve the teaching staff. This eliminates all possibility that the Federal Government could, under the guise of its Federal aid, interfere with the right of the States to completely control their own systems and methods of education.

I want to point out that even in the matter of aid to teachers, which to me seems to be really tackling the problem at the most vital point, the matter of qualifications and eligibility to receive Federal aid as part of their compensation must be left entirely to the discretion of the several States. I realize that this committee at a future date will hold additional hearings, and at that time my colleague and I plan to present to you additional information in support of our bill which we believe is a direct and concrete proposal.

We are of the belief that S. 81 would be acceptable to the various States and would provide the necessary assistance to elementary and secondary school teachers in the United States and its Territories, and help to meet the educational crisis that is upon the country at this very moment.

Senator AIKEN. Thank you, Senator McGrath.

The sponsor of S. 170, Senator McCarran, has been unable to reach the hearing this morning so far. If Senator McCarran finds it possible to get here before the meeting adjourns, he will be heard, but if he does not find it possible, then without objection the statement which Senator McCarran wishes to make in relation to S. 170 will be incorporated in the record.

Senator AIKEN. Now, before calling Dr. Conant, the present occupant of the chair wishes to impose upon the good nature of the committee and those who are here this morning to make a few remarks-about 2 minutes of remarks-directed to S. 199, which he has sponsored.

S. 199 is divided into 2 parts. The first part would set the national minimum or foundation education program at $100 for each pupil in average daily attendance at public elementary and secondary schools. That is only a little below the national average expenditure of $119 per pupil in average daily attendance in 1944.

The formula for apportioning funds to States in S. 199 is simple and easy to understand-merely multiply the number of children attending public elementary and secondary schools in a given year by a given amount, and you have the amount that State is entitled to receive. Children in attendance at nonpublic, tax-exempt schools are not "counted in" for purposes of apportioning Federal aid to public schools but are counted separately for Federal aid purposes in title II

of S. 199.

This second part of the bill provides that nonpublic, tax-exempt schools would be reimbursed for not to exceed 60 percent of the cost of providing necessary pupil transportation, school health services, and purchase of nonreligious instructional supplies and equipment, including books.

This bill provides the basis for shifting a portion of the tax load for the support of education from the shoulders of the real estate owner in each local district, where it now rests far too heavily, to the shoulders of all who contribute through direct and indirect taxes to the Federal Treasury.

This bill also recognizes that the school problem should be dealt with as a national responsibility and not as a relief problem.

S. 199 may be summarized briefly as follows:

1. It includes absolutely no Federal control of the administration of education in the States.

2. It recognizes the complete responsibility of State educational agencies for the administration of public education in the States and wholly depends upon those agencies to carry that responsibility.