of taxation is inadequate to meet the need in many communities. The general court is planning to appropriate $2,000,000 a year for the next biennium to increase state aid to education. While this will represent a substantial gain, it does not begin to meet the need in New Hampshire. Yet it represents a severe additional drain upon the resources of the State. New Hampshire, like many other States, needs Federal aid to bring her educational system to a parity with the best. For these reasons we favor the immediate passage of S. 472. Respectfully yours, JOHN H. STARIE, Executive Secretary. NATIONAL WOMEN'S TRADE UNION LEAGUE OF AMERICA, Hon. GEORGE D. AIKEN, Chairman, Subcommittee on Education, Senate Committee on Labor and Public Welfare, DEAR SENATOR AIKEN: For many years now the National Women's Trade Union League has supported the principle of Federal aid for public education. We have deplored the pitifully low teachers' salaries and the consequent decline in the number of those entering the teaching profession and in the quality of teaching. We have been seriously concerned with this critical situation and we are convinced, now more than ever, that something must be done about it. One of our members, herself a teacher, has dug out the following facts: "That in the richest country in the world, with the record of the greatest expansion of publie schools, 2,000,000 children from the ages of 6 to 15 were not in any kind of school in 1940; that 3,000,000 adults have never attended any kind of school; that 10,000,000 adults have had so little schooling as to be practically illiterate; that 100.000 emergency teachers (teachers inadequately trained) were employed in the public schools at the close of the academic year 1945-46; that more than twothirds of all the teachers in the Nation have left the profession during the last 6 years; and that the numbers of young persons training for teaching has dropped from 22 percent of all college students in 1920 to 7 percent in 1946." Equality of opportunity is one of the basic principles on which our Nation was founded, but there is no possibility of equality of opportunity without a minimum education which will provide each person with an understanding of how to use the rights conferred upon him as a citizen. Some of the States whose children get the poorest education are, nevertheless, spending a greater proportion of their State funds on education than other more prosperous States. It is, therefore, essential that Federal aid be given to equalize educational opportunities for children, so as not to penalize a child for being born in a certain State. The National Women's Trade Union League supports these principles: Federal aid without Federal control of schools, no discrimination in educational opportunity because of race, and the limitation of use of Federal funds to such schools as the States make eligible for State and local support. These provisions are all contained in S. 472, and we therefore urge your committee to report S. 472 favorably to the Senate. Yours sincerely, Hon. ROBERT A. TAFT, ELISABETH CHRISTMAN, MARGARET F. STONE, Box 97, KEW GARDENS 15, N. Y., April 28, 1947. United States Senator from Ohio, Washington, D. C. DEAR SIR: The proposed bill S. 472, in my opinion, is but a device to regiment the youth of this country so that it will obediently accept all the propaganda which a United States Government may want to launch in order to further the schemes of power maniacs for the political and financial control of this country, if not of the world. The youth of this country is to be subjected to influences similar to those which, unfortunately for the people of this country, our temporary dicta tors have launched against the people so as to confuse them and condition them for the acceptance of any dictum, no matter how heretical and detrimental to our liberties and our accustomed way of life. Experience has proven that 95 percent of the people have no sound judgment How could they, when they are occupied with their various tasks of making a living, few of which permit them time or facilities to diagnose and examine each order for its true meaning and contemplated effect? Propaganda is the easiest thing in the world to manipulate. Anyone having the wires of Government concentrated in his hands can impose his will on the people by fair means or foul, often foul. In the past decades the country has had plenty of experience in being conditioned for the secret aims of its real rulers, and it wants no additional methods wherewith to become even more subservient. Instead of contributing to the decentralization of our Government this bill S. 472 would help to increase unhealthy centralization. Our so-called "reformers,' better termed "power maniacs," are moving Heaven and earth to decentralize Germany. If decentralization is good for Germany, it is good for us, for the same rules apply everywhere. Centralization gives the central government power over its citizens which sooner or later will turn them into subjects, subjects of the wirepullers. There is no use blinking the fact that partial control of the educational system of the States, etc., such as this bill presages, could easily be expanded into full control. That a State should have to report to a Federal commissioner the "progress of education" is in itself an intolerable infringement on the sovereignty and independence of a State. Anyone who has lived in various parts of the country, as I have, knows that each State has different requirements, that the requirements of New Mexico for example are not those of Maine and those of Mississippi not those of Michigan, and he also knows that each State is better equipped to understand its own needs than a bureaucrat, may he hold ever so weighty a degree of doctor of something. If a Washington bureaucrat has authority to decide what is good and what is bad for the children of a State, God help that State. Its people, I submit, know their wants better than anyone in far-off Washington, D. Ĉ. In the past decades the country has experienced the muddle created by such would-be counselors and felt the mess it is in. If certain States don't want to increase their educational facilities, it is their own lookout. In some cases they may have good reasons. Certainly they have the funds, and the people of each State are grown-up enough to demand a more liberal application of their funds for educational requirements. That the people have it in their hands to compel their State government was recently proven by the teachers' strike in Buffalo, N. Y. What does the bill mean by what constitutes a minority of the population of the continental United States? So mixed and little homogeneous is the population of this country that is hard to say what race is the majority or minority. Or does the bill distinguish only between fundamental human races such as whites, Negroes, Indians or Jews? This bill seems to be the opening wedge to complete national control of the child's thoughts. As such it is a danger to future democratic development, and for that reason I and my friends are opposed to it. I ask you to place this statement in the record of the hearings. A. O. TITTMANN, "113 years American." MEMORANDUM OF THE UTAH EDUCATION ASSOCIATION IN SUPPORT OF S. 472 The Utah Education Association has for many years urged the enactment of a bill to provide Federal aid for public schools. Since statehood the people of Utah have repeatedly expressed themselves as favoring the principle of equal educational opportunity for all children in the State. Their latest expression was on November 5, 1946, when a constitutional amendment was adopted by an overwhelming majority bringing Utah one step nearer the realization of the goal of providing equal opportunity to all children. We believe that this principle should apply among States as well as among school districts within a State. The State of Utah is currently faced with a serious educational problem requiring additional funds for its solution. The backbone of a good educational pro gram is a staff of well-trained, competent teachers. Yet over one-third of the teachers making up our staff cannot meet State requirements for a teachers certificate. Follow-up studies by the State board of education indicate that the principal reason that qualified teachers have left the profession is that teachers' salaries are lower than those paid in other fields. While the information contained herein concerning teacher supply applies only to the State of Utah, information which is continually being received in our office, indicates that this problem is not peculiar to our State but is a national problem. In March 1947, 431 senior students were enrolled in the four teacher training institutions in the State of Utah. This number represents the most optimistic estimate of the number of persons who will be recommended for teaching certificates for the coming school year. If all 431 students are certificated in June, and if all accept teaching positions-something less than one-fourth of the State's uncertified teachers may be replaced. A survey conducted by the State department of public instruction in 1942, however, indicated that only about 60 percent of the students graduating from schools of education in the State actually entered the teaching profession. Though no survey has been conducted since 1942 school administrators feel that this percentage relationship still holds. If only 60 percent of the 431 potential teachers accept teaching positions, less than 15 percent of Utah's unqualified teachers can be replaced next year. The foregoing figures are based upon the assumption that all of the certificated teachers now employed in schools will teach again next year. No allowance is made for those who will die, retire, or leave the profession between now and June 1948. Table I, presented below, lists the number of persons recommended for certification in Utah from 1938 to 1946 and the possible number for 1947. It will be noted that from 1941 to 1944 the number decreased steadily. Since that year there has been an increase in the number of recommendations. But reference to table II shows that the increase is not great enough to reduce the shortage of qualified teachers. Letters of authorization are issued by the State board of education to persons employed as teachers who cannot meet the State requirements for certification. TABLE I.-Total number of persons recommended for certification by the 4 institutions of higher education, 1938-1947, Utah 1942-43. 1943-44. TABLE II.-Total letters of authorization granted 1942-47 341 1945-46. 658 1946-47. 386 193 236 212 1431 1, 672 11, 768 Source: Certification officer of State department of education. The obvious conclusion is that there just aren't enough young men and women interested in education as a career to meet the present demand for teachers. It was hoped that the end of the war would see an influx of veterans to our schools of education. This has proven not to be the case. A survey conducted at the University of Utah, the State's largest university, revealed that only 1.8 percent of the undergraduate veterans registered winter quarter 1946-47 were in the school of education. TABLE III.-Veterans registered under readjustment training program, winter quarter 1946-47, University of Utah, by school, as of Feb. 8, 1947 ? Does not include veterans registered for extension division residence work or late registrations in anesthesiology. Source: University of Utah Placement Bureau. Many veterans state flatly that they cannot afford to invest their time and effort in such an unremunerative career. Table III indicates that the vast majority of veterans lean toward careers in business, engineering, law and medicine. The State of Utah is already making a substantial effort toward financing a sound public-school system. The 1947 legislature approved an equalization program that will result in an expenditure of more than $100 per census child per year for maintenance and operation-almost 3 percent of total income payments in the State on the basis of 1945 figures published by the Department of Commerce. Yet, if Utah and other States are to secure capable young men and women to enter the teaching profession, an even greater effort must be made, because present teachers' salaries cannot compete with those in private industry. Our local school districts are approaching the limit of their taxing power. Consequently to get good teachers and schools we must have Federal help. Hon. GEORGE D. AIKEN, THE UNITED COUNCIL OF CHURCH WOMEN, Senate Labor and Public Welfare Committee, Washington, D. C. MY DEAR SENATOR AIKEN: The United Council of Church Women, representing many million Protestant women throughout the country, would be very grateful if the following statement could be entered in the record of the hearings on S. 472, providing for Federal aid to education. The United Council of Church Women, representing, as it does, women in every State in the Union, is well aware of the need for Federal financial aid to public education. Of the many proposals which have been made along this line, we believe that S. 472 is the best, and, while we have some reservations about it, we wish to endorse the bill and trust it will receive favorable action. Our reservations come in the section of the bill, (6b), which permits Federal funds to be used for nonpublic schools. It seems to us that this is a threat to our American tradition of the separation of the church and state. However, we are aware of the fact that the bill very laudably protects the States from Federal control of their education, and we realized that it may be necessary to leave this problem to State control. We wish, however, to record our objection to the use of Federal funds for nonpublic education. The crisis in our school system is so acute that we urge prompt and favorable action to provide Federal aid. Very sincerely yours, CYNTHIA Wedel, Christian Social Relations. STATEMENT FROM MRS. HARVEY W. WILEY, CHAIRMAN, LEGISLATION DEPARTMENT, GENERAL FEDERATION OF WOMEN'S CLUBS FOR INCLUSION IN RECORD OF HEARINGS ON S. 472, SENATE COMMITTEE ON LABOR AND PUBLIC WELFARE The General Federation of Women's Clubs, composed of approximately 17,000 clubs and nearly 3,000,000 members, has long been interested in every phase of education. In its history of more than 50 years of service to the country, I find one educational resolution as far back as 1896. Our most recent resolution in support of Federal aid to public education, adopted in national convention, June 1946, reads: "Whereas in the United States there exists wide differences in the extent and quality of the school programs offered by the various States, particularly in the rural sections, and Whereas the States are unequal in their ability to adequately support public education, thus resulting in wide differences of educational opportunity, and Whereas existing educational inequalities cannot be removed even though the States adopt modern tax systems and allot a suitable proportion of resulting revenues to the financing of education; therefore be it Resolved, That the General Federation of Women's Clubs in convention assembled June 1946, goes on record as favoring Federal support of public education without Federal control of educational policies and programs. Here are a few facts in support of the idea of Federal aid to education: 1. Farm products and food have gone up 64 percent in the 7 years between 1939 and 1946. Nonfarm commodities have gone up 36 percent in the same period. 2. The Federal Government is taking 55 times more money in taxes than it did back in 1913. 3. While the average salary of public-school teachers, principals, and other instructional personnel rose 31 percent in the school years from 1938-39 through 1944-45, the average-salary wage of all employed persons rose 79 percent. By 1945 the estimated average wage for teachers was nearly $400 below the average employed person. 4. 350,000 qualified teachers have left the schools and 111,000 now teaching do not meet standard qualifications; 75,000 teaching positions are vacant and 5,000,000 children are not in school. The public schools, which for decades have inspired the youth of the country with fine ideals, are in distress. They will break down completely unless they can secure greater financial support. What is the answer to these problems? Federal aid for the schools is believed by many to be the only answer. The General Federation of Women's Clubs is endorsing the principles embodied in bill S. 472 authorizing 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 in the Nation. This is practically the same bill as S. 181, which we supported in the Seventyninth Congress. Bill S. 472 absolutely prohibits Federal control of education; it authorizes Federal funds in direct proportion to need and effort and in indirect proportion to the financial ability of the States to support schools; establishes a minimum foundation school opportunity in the Nation through public elementary and public secondary schools; protects the educational welfare of minority racial groups and limits the use of Federal funds to such schools as the States make eligible for State support. * We rely on the statement of Senator Taft, one of the sponsors of the bill that: "The bill is based on the theory of merely assisting the States * * so that the 48 States may remain completely free to conduct their own affairs as they wish to conduct them in this field (public education). The basic purpose is to afford to every American child an opportunity to obtain an education which at least will open up to his view the opportunities that lie before him." The bill places a $10 per annum floor on what every child may expect for a public education. In reference to controversial section 6 (B), which provides that this act shall not be construed to delimit a State in its definition of its program of public education, and further that funds paid to such State may be disbursed to nonpublic educational institutions "but the amounts disbursed during any fiscal year to any such institution from funds paid to a State under this act shall not exceed an amount which bears the same ratio to the amount disbursed to such institution during such fiscal year from funds derived from State or local revenues," I believe |