DEFINITIONS

SEC. 12. For purposes of this Act

(a) The term "Commissioner" means the United States Commissioner of Education.

(b) The term "State" means a State, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Virgin Islands, Wake Island, American Samoa, and the District of Columbia.

(c) The term "State education agency" means the State board of education or other agency or officer primarily responsible for the State supervision of public elementary and secondary schools, or, if there is no such officer or agency, an officer or agency designated by the Governor or by State law.

(d) The term "school district" means any public-school administrative unit in a city, county, township, school district or other political subdivision in a State that is under the direction of a board of education or other legally constituted local school authority having administrative control and direction over tax-supported public education.

(e) The term "school facilities" means classrooms and related facilities (including furniture, equipment, machinery, and utilities necessary or appropriate for school purposes) for education which is provided by a school district for elementary or secondary education, in the applicable State, at public expense and under public supervision and direction; and interests in land (including site, grading, and improvement) on which such facilities are constructed.

(f) The terms "constructing" and "construction" mean the preparation of drawings and specifications for school facilities; erecting, building, acquiring, altering, remodeling, improving, or extending school facilities; and the inspection and supervision of the construction of school facilities.

(g) The term "child of school age" means a child who is between the ages of five and seventeen, both inclusive.

(h) The term “school-age population” means that part of the population which is between the ages of five and seventeen, both inclusive, as determined on the basis of either the actual or estimated population between such ages for the most recent year for which satisfactory data are available from the Department of Commerce.

(i) The term "teacher" means any member of the instructional staff of a public school district as defined by the education agency of each State.

(j) The term "teachers' salaries" means the monetary compensation paid to teachers for services rendered in connection with their employment.

Mr. BAILEY. It is the information of the Chair that H.R. 96, H.R. 965, H.R. 1178, H.R. 2351, H.R. 2514, H.R. 2542, H.R. 3220, H.R. 3468, and H.R. 3864 are identical bills with what is commonly known as the Metcalf-Murray bill.

In addition to that, we have other educational bills that will come under the category of the general committee on education having to do with the elementary and secondary schools, and we will list those bills that have already been introduced.

There is H.R. 263, H.R. 385, H.R. 406, H.R. 699, H.R. 747, H.R. 909, H.R. 993, H.R. 1159, H.R. 1978, H.R. 2365, H.R. 2744, H.R. 2761, and H.R. 3904.

There will from time to time be other bills introduced that will come to this committee.

The Chair would like to announce at this time that we are going to give consideration to all of this legislation. We want each of the Members of the Congress who have introduced legislation to know that they will be given an opportunity to appear in support of their legislation at the proper time during the course of the hearing.

Since we have with us a former member of the subcommittee who is the author of H.R. 22, at this time we would be glad to hear from Mr. Metcalf in support of his House bill 22.

Mr. UDALL. Mr. Chairman, I am curious this morning as to the credentials of the witness. Is he appearing as an expert on educational matters or matters of high finance and revenue?

Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN. If we do have that responsibility, I wonder if we could get some indication to the members of the committee as to what kind of standards we should apply. Presumably, anybody who wants to petition us and state his views should have that opportunity, I should think.

I don't know whether we are under real pressure and we do not have the time to afford everybody the opportunity to come or how we would go about screening out anybody, if that is the intention.

Mr. BAILEY. The Chair is depending pretty much on the good judgment of the two gentlemen to use their best discretion in this

matter.

Mr. UDALL. Mr. Chairman, if I could give my two colleagues burdened with this heavy responsibility any thought of my own, it would be simply that we want to avoid cumulative testimony whenever possible. We want to hear anybody that has something new. Hearing the same old thing in the same old words is not going to help.

Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN. I do not know what is new and what is old. The fact that we may have gone through some of this question about what the role of the Federal Government should be and so on before might not mean that we shouldn't have to listen to some of it again.

It is also hard before you see the testimony-and, if you see the testimony, perhaps you do not need to have it presented orally at all by the witness.

Until you have seen the testimony it is hard to know whether it is going to be new, old, or a mixture of new and old.

Mr. BAILEY. The Chair is sure that the gentlemen who have been named to this screening committee can work out with the chairman the necessary standards if any have to be set in this matter. We will proceed with the formal hearings.

At this time H.R. 22 has been formally referred to the subcommittee. (H.R. 22 follows:)

[H.R. 22, 86th Cong., 1st sess.]

A BILL To provide financial assistance for the support of public schools by appropriating funds to the States to be used for constructing school facilities and for teachers' salaries

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SHORT TITLE

SECTION 1. This Act may be cited as the "School Support Act of 1959".

FINDINGS AND PURPOSE OF ACT

SEC. 2. The Congress finds that despite sustained and vigorous efforts by the States and local communities, which have increased current school construction to unprecedented levels and which have increased expenditures for teachers' salaries, there is still a serious shortage of classrooms and of qualified teachers which requires immediate action on the part of the Federal Government. The financial resources available to many communities are inadequate to support construction programs sufficient to eliminate classroom shortages, and practically all communities face the problem of providing compensation to teachers commensurate with the salaries received by persons with comparable education, experience, and responsibilities. These inadequacies are seriously restricting the quality of the Nation's educational program.

The Congress strongly affirms that the control of the personnel, program of instruction, formulation of policy, and the administration of the Nation's public elementary and secondary schools resides in the States and local communities. The Congress also affirms that a major portion of the responsibility for financing costs of these schools resides in the States and local communities.

However, the Congress recognizes that without sufficient financial resources at their disposal to provide necessary educational facilities and to employ competent teaching personnel, the control of our Nation's schools is not directed by State and local school boards but is dictated by the harsh demands of privation. Without the means to pay for alternatives, school boards have no freedom of choice.

In order to provide State and local school boards with actual, as well as nominal, control of schools, the Congress has the responsibility for appropriately sharing in their financial support. The purpose of this Act, therefore, is to provide Federal financial support to help meet both the immediate and continuing problems of financing adequate school facilities and teacher's salaries and thereby to strengthen our Nation's educational system.

AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS

SEC. 3. There are hereby authorized to be appropriated for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 1959, and for succeeding fiscal years, amounts equal to the product of the estimated number of the school-age population of all the States as of such year and the following amounts: For the fiscal year beginning July 1, 1959, $25; for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 1960, $50; for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 1961, $75; and for each fiscal year thereafter, $100.

ALLOTMENTS TO STATES

SEC. 4. (a) The Commissioner shall allot for each fiscal year to each State, from the total amount appropriated for such year pursuant to section 3, an amount which bears the same ratio to such total as such State's estimated schoolage population bears to the total estimated school-age population of all such States, subject to such adjustments, if any, as result from the application of

section 8.

(b) The State education agency of each State which desires to receive an allotment under the provisions of this Act shall specify annually to the Commissioner the proportion of its State's allotment that will be expended for each of the two purposes: (1) school construction and (2) teachers' salaries.

SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION PORTION

SEC. 5. The State education agency of each State which desires to use a portion of its allotment under this Act for the construction of school facilities shall certify to the Commissioner that such funds allocated within the State for this purpose will be

(1) expended solely for the construction of school facilities in school districts in accordance with this Act; and

(2) so distributed that priority is given to local educational agencies which have the greatest need for additional school facilities and which in terms of the economic resources available to them are least able to finance the cost of needed school facilities.

TEACHERS' SALARIES PORTION

SEC. 6. The State education agency of each State which desires to use a portion of its allotment under this Act for teachers' salaries shall certify to the Commissioner that such funds allocated wihin the State for this purpose will be(1) distributed among its school districts to be used solely for teachers' salaries; and

(2) so distributed that each school district in the State will receive at least three-fourths of the amount which bears the same ratio to the total portion of its allotment specified for teachers' salaries as the number of its teachers bears to the number of teachers of all the State's school districts.

VERIFICATION OF EXPENDITURES

SEC. 7. The State education agency shall verify annually to the Commissioner that funds received under this Act were distributed and expended in accordance with the provisions of this Act.

1

Mr. BAILEY. He is appearing solely in the interests of H.R. 22.

Mr. UDALL. Very well.

Mr. BAILEY. The gentleman has 5, 6, or as much as 7 minutes, if he cares to take it.

STATEMENT OF HON. LEE METCALF, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF MONTANA

Mr. METCALF. Mr. Chairman, for the benefit of the gentleman from Arizona, I will qualify myself as an expert in a moment.

Mr. THOMPSON. I would like the record to show that, because there was not any formal vote taken on Mr. Metcalf's election to the Ways and Means Committee, I voted against him for that position because I want him to stay here with us. And I am glad that he is in this position now, but I would much rather have had him right here.

Mr. BAILEY. I am sure a majority of the subcommittee feels the same way as the gentleman from New Jersey. But, under the circumstances, we appreciate having you here, Mr. Metcalf, and, if you will, you may proceed to discuss your legislation.

Mr. METCALF. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

As you can see, Mr. Chairman, from the colloquy that has gone on already between the gentleman from Arizona and the gentleman from New Jersey and yourself, I appear before this committee with some trepidation. I appear before it as a former member, and I know the kind of treatment a former member is liable to get from this committee. However, I am very proud and pleased that the_committee has permitted me to be the first witness in behalf of H.R. 22. This bill has been cosponsored by the senior Senator from Montana over in the Senate and by several of our colleagues, including the gentleman from New Jersey, Mr. Thompson.

Mr. Chairman, I was first a member of a subcommittee studying school construction in the 83d Congress. Before I go any further, I would like to pay tribute to the chairman, the gentleman from West Virginia, for his long and dedicated service to the cause of education. I believe that no man in the Congress has done more for the education of the boys and girls of America than the gentleman from West Virginia.

Second only to his dedication has been that of the gentleman from Pennsylvania, Mr. Kearns. It was under Mr. Kearns' chairmanship on a Subcommittee on School Construction that I first began to work on this problem. And the gentleman from New Jersey, Mr. Frelinghuysen, was also a member of that committee.

After a good deal of study and hearings back in the 83d Congress in 1953 and 1954, Mr. Kearns' subcommittee came in with the unanimous recommendation-that was a Republican Congress under a Republican chairman-that "legislation be enacted providing for Federal payments to enable the States and local communities to expand their school construction programs."

That subcommittee said that

While we were unable to reach agreement on any one bill, it was clear that Federal legislation is needed and that the legislation must be designed to encourage State and local efforts to meet the problem.

Five years and dozens of bills later, I am here again before this committee, and the gentleman from New Jersey is the only member of the Kearns subcommittee that is now on a subcommittee actually studying this problem. But we have not done anything about passing legislation to meet that problem that we all recognized back there in the 83d Congress.

The only thing that has been changed is the fact that the States and the local communities have made a tremendous effort, a magnificent effort to meet this classroom shortage. Yet they have been unable to make any appreciable inroads on the backlog of classrooms that have piled up.

So today, instead of saying that we have to have legislation to encourage the States, we have to have legislation to assist the States. And the time has come where we have to forget about this matching proposition, because the States have done the job. They have done a job to physical exhaustion. They have exhausted their statutory and their constitutional debt limits and their capacities to bond. They have exhausted their physical resources so that they have reached a debt ceiling beyond which the capacity to tax property cannot go.

So, Mr. Chairman, I have introduced H.R. 22, which is a modification and a refinement of the various bills that have come before this committee, the various plans and programs and proposals that have been set up.

It is a very simple proposal. It just recites what I have said, that we have recognized this crisis, the gravest domestic crisis we have here, of our classroom shortage. We recognize that there is also a teacher shortage, and we say to the States, "We are going to assist you. We are going to assist you just in the same way that we recommended assistance back in the days of the Kearns subcommittee, on a per capita basis."

The first year we will pay them $25 per capita, Federal assistance without matching. That will go to $50 the second year, $75 the third year, and $100 per capita every year thereafter.

That money can be spent for one of two purposes, or, either, it can be spent for school construction, or it can be spent to assist the teachers in improving the teachers' salaries and raising the standards of certification of teachers in the area.

All that the State has to do to get this money is to certify that it is going to be spent for the purpose for which the legislation provides, and every year it makes such a certification.

There are no State plans. We rely upon the States for the distribution of the money either for school construction or for teachers' salaries.

There is a minimum of Federal control, and there is no Federal control of education in this bill.

I say there is a minimum of Federal control because before we get into the educational phase, we have provided, as we provide in most of the construction, that the schools have to be built under the provisions of the Davis-Bacon Act. But, once they are built, Uncle Sam steps out, steps aside, and there is no longer any Federal control.

I am not going to be redundant and give you some cumulative testimony upon the amount of classrooms we need, upon the number of

37378-59--2