It is not uncommon for a secondary schoolteacher to instruct 175 to 250 students in the course of a week. Let's see exactly what this means in written words.

If a teacher were to require the equivalent of 3 typewritten pages a week from 190 students, the teacher would be reading and marking a total of 20,500 pages in 1 school year. This is more than 4 million words, or the equivalent of 40 books of a hundred thousand words each.

It doesn't leave much time to relax with a good mystery, does it? How well do you think this number of pages can be checked with accuracy?

Many high schools in this country, because of limited space, are forced to operate on shifts. Many thousands of elementary school pupils are shortchanged by half-day sessions. Teachers' record books are filled with evidence of children whose education has been crippled and stunted because they were victims of part-time instruction.

I have seen the effect that large classes have had on children. have also seen the effect of half-day sessions.

I

I remember Jane. She transferred to our system after having gone to school the previous year on a half-day basis. During that year this child had been deprived of almost a full year's growth. She came to us and didn't fit into our fourth grade, and had to be put back into the third. Emotionally, this started Jane out on the wrong foot, and it took a long time and several crutches for the real Jane to get back on both feet again.

If part-time instruction can do this damage to an average child such as Jane, think what it must do to the child with a serious reading block-and these are the ones so desperately in need of special attention. These children need to be placed in special learning situations. Such programs require special material and additional equipment. Small classes of no more than 15 pupils are preferred in cases like this. Also, these programs require specially trained teachers. This takes

money.

I firmly believe it is worth every cent it costs because it is miraculous to see a child advance his reading ability by 1 full year in just 32 months. This is merely the average gain we have seen proved in the too few special reading classes we have in Cheyenne. Some children have advanced as much as 2 years in the same length of time. I have seen the value of other special classes. As a matter of fact, right now some parents in Cheyenne are paying an extra fee to send their elementary youngsters to school at 8 a.m. to take a special Spanish course. I wish we had the money to make this a regular part of our school program for all of the children.

It doesn't necessarily have to be Spanish, but any classes to challenge these children, to enrich their experiences, to lay a sound foundation in education.

I have to pause here just a moment to tell you how this one particular language course helped a 12-year-old boy. Tom, as we all knew, was an above-average boy in his ability to learn. But he certainly had chalked up a record of underachievement.

Early in his schooling he was always the first one through with any assignment, and in overcrowded classes, where the teacher did not have the time to take personal interest in him, he soon became quite

bored. Pretty soon he didn't even bother to try to learn. Then he enrolled in the special language course, and suddenly for him school took on a new meaning. Spanish, it would seem, served as the extra something or stimulus which was needed to direct his energies along the right lines. Now he is interested in all his regular classroom subjects.

At this point let me underscore the value of advanced classes in English, mathematics, and sciences for gifted children. These children must be challenged if they are to make full use of their abilities, or, otherwise, they can become bored and lose interest in school. Wẻ have done too little in this respect. We should have these special classes and selected groups moving along all the time. We should have special summer programs for these children of exceptional ability. We should be providing them with all sorts of experiences to enrich their lives. But these things cost money, and it costs money to pay for the kind of teachers that these children deserve, too.

We have one special school in Cheyenne, and its purpose is to give the really retarded child, the one who finds school a frustrating experience, a chance to do his best in an emotionally healthy atmosphere. Actually, he can preserve his ego. But one school is not enough. We could fill another building tomorrow if we had the building and the money to pay the teachers.

I wish you could meet Joe who attends this school. He is a former truant and troublemaker. Today he gets to class, and on time. His behavior is more socially acceptable and his teacher says he displays real initiative in mechanical tasks.

For many thousands of children just like Joe, the school offers the only stable environment throughout their childhood and their youth. Joe, I am sure, will become a useful part of our community, a good citizen.

Just think. If we could provide for the special needs of the many Joes in this Nation and also for the unchallenged academically talented Jims and Franks and Marys, we could direct some of our $20 billion annual crime bill toward providing even better educational facilities for all children.

But let me return a minute to the many cities in America, cities where my friends teach, that do not have enough regular classrooms, let alone special classrooms.

Some are teaching in gymnasiums with dividers down the middle which do little to shut out the bustle and sounds of the neighboring class. Others are housed in makeshift arrangements in auditoriums and cafeterias. Not only are their pupils being denied a regular classroom situation but other children are being denied the use of these special purpose rooms.

These overcrowded schools and the continued use of schools which are known to be fire hazards could duplicate many times the recent Chicago disaster. The U.S. Office of Education has found in a national survey that nearly one school building in five is a potential firetrap. Another one in five is a borderline case. Old buildings run the risk of overloaded wiring or short circuits, which is the cause of nearly 30 percent of school fires. Defective heating systems cause another 10 percent of school fires. Yet, to teach effectively today we are pulling more and more on those electrical circuits. As we hook up

our projectors, our filmstrip machines, as we hitch up our stoves and our vocational machines, we are overloading such facilities to an extreme degree.

Kentucky's State fire marshal says that the Chicago school fire could be duplicated in almost 75 percent of Kentucky schools. In Michigan, Dr. Lynn Bartlett, State superintendent of public instruction, estimates that there are at least 1,800 schools in his State which must be considered fire hazards.

This is a tragic situation which, unless corrected, can only spawn tragedies with American children playing the leading roles.

Now I'm going to turn to the subject of teachers' salaries, and I'm going to do it by an illustration.

A friend of mine, an educator, hired two painters to do some work for him on a weekend. He was impressed not only by the fine job the painters did but by the obvious fact that they were well educated. They could match him word for word on most of the problems of today.

Much to his surprise, he learned that the weekend painters were public school teachers from Monday through Friday, and they had their master's degrees. But they had to take a second job in order to make enough money to send their own children to college.

This is true of many teachers. Realizing the value of a college education, they are almost desperate in seeing that their children get one, too.

On a national level about 28 percent of the men teachers hold second jobs not only during the school year, but during the summer too. These figures match the ones we recently collected in a local salary survey in Cheyenne. At the time I left home, we had only 41 percent of the returns in, but, of those, we discovered that 30 percent of the teachers are supplementing their incomes through additional or outside employment, and 37 percent reported that their husbands or wives are working for this reason.

Our present salary schedule makes it increasingly hard to staff our schools properly. Now Cheyenne is a little town, but next year we are going to have to have between 65 and 75 teachers, and we would like to get the best qualified teachers. It is going to be difficult for us to do under existing conditions.

Mr. THOMPSON. What is your starting salary in Cheyenne?

Mrs. PAGEL. At the present time it is $3,850 for a teacher with a bachelor's degree and no experience.

Mr. THOMPSON. How about for a master's?

Mrs. PAGEL. Just $100 more.

Mr. THOMPSON. $3,950?

Mrs. PAGEL. Yes.

Mr. THOMPSON. Do they have regular increments?

Mrs. PAGEL. The regular increments are $200 for the first 5 years, and then they become $100 up to a top of $5,500 for the bachelor's degree, and you can go to $6,000 then with a master's degree.

Mr. THOMPSON. Do you have available the national average starting figure?

Mrs. PAGEL. Mr. Lambert?

Mr. LAMBERT. The national average starting figure for a teacher with a bachelor's degree is approximately $3,800 at the present time. Mr. THOMPSON. In other words, Cheyenne is about average?

Mr. LAMBERT. I would think so; possibly a little above average. Mrs. PAGEL. I think it might interest you to know that 13 percent of the teachers in Wyoming earn less than $3,500.

Mr. LAFORE. How does that compare to 10 years ago or 5 years ago? What is the trend, in other words? Has it substantially increased even though it is low?

Mr. LAMBERT. Salaries have gone up at a rate of about 4 or 5 percent a year for the last 5 or 6 years.

Mr. LAFORE. Is this nationally?

Mr. LAMBERT. Yes.

Mr. LAFORE. How does Wyoming compare to that?

Mrs. PAGEL. Wymong would come rather close to those same figures. Mr. LAFORE. Thank you very much.

Mr. LAMBERT. The present average for classroom teachers in the country as a whole, by the way, is $4,775. This is equal to about $4,000 in 1947-49 dollars.

Mrs. PAGEL. You see, the same problem is facing all the school systems all across the country. This is true because, as the general property tax has become less and less effective as a producer of sufficient income for the operation of local governments and education, the financial responsibility has become increasingly shared by the State. Costs of a quality education have now outrun State resources. As Congressman Metcalf told you sitting right here, we have utterly exhausted our State resources. The public must make use of every possible resource to give our children the kind of teachers and schools they deserve.

Gentlemen, effective teaching and effective learning depend both on adequate facilities and a plentiful supply of qualified teachers. Both cost money, more money than we can supply from State and local revenues. But there is no doubt that our country can afford both. Thank you.

Mr. BAILEY. Just a minute, please.

The members of the subcommittee appreciate getting a little different angle from you than that that has come from witnesses that have previously testified before our subcommittee, but, if you will note, this Metcalf-Murray bill is confined to two general purposes: one of them for school construction, and the other for implementation of teachers' salaries.

I would like to ask your opinion. This bill is predicated upon schoolroom enrollment, or the number of school children available of school age in the several States. We have a problem here and I was impressed by the testimony of the president of Moorehead Teachers College in Kentucky who testified before the committee at hearings last year, in which he testified that 64 percent of the graduates of Moorehead Teachers College in Kentucky accepted positions outside the State of Kentucky. We have the same problem in our State of West Virginia. I believe, according to the group that was here to visit me some days ago, it is about 39 percent.

Do you have those figures exactly?

Mr. LAMBERT. I think that is approximately right.

Mr. BAILEY. About 39 percent of the graduates of the teachers' training schools in West Virginia can secure better pay, and they go to other States.

That brings up the question that this committee is going to have to decide in writing this legislation: Shall we distribute those moneys on the basis of school-age population or shall we consider the matter of the need on the part of about 19 or 20 States that are suffering from the fact that their salaries are so low that all they are doing in their States is training teachers for the benefit of some other wealthier State that pays better salaries.

The question is, Shall we leave the bill applied on the basis of the number of schoolchildren throughout the Nation, or shall we give consideration to the basis of need?

Mrs. PAGEL. I think this is a well written bill. I think when you go into it on the basis of need you are going to get into trouble such as what is the cost-of-living index in certain communities and certain States, because we know that that varies, too. We get into many problems of that nature.

In Wyoming we say the worst thing we can do is to stampede the critters. If we put too much money into a community that has not had it, we are liable to scatter some of this.

I think this begins to equalize itself through the period of years, and will be, by this very process, stabilized as it goes along, with wise use of the money being made at every level.

Mr. BAILEY. Do you think the committee, in preparing this legislation, should go so far as to, we will say, skirt the edge of Federal controls to the extent that we should require them to use this money for teachers' salaries, or are we just going to give it to them and let them use their judgment?

Are we going to continue the present situation of inequality, or are we going to try to bring up the backward States in the way of salaries and in the way of being able to retain their own teachers that they train within their own States?

Mr. LAMBERT. We have prepared certain tables which we would be glad to submit for the record, which I think indicate that when money is distributed on the basis of child population that is population aged 5 to 17-you do get a surprising amount of equalization. For instance, the first year's allocation of Murray-Metcalf funds would increase Alabama's school funds-total expenditures-17 percent but New York's only 5 percent.

Another thing is that some of the central cities in this country are having as difficult a time operating their school systems as the rural districts are. California has the highest average salary in the country, and, yet, they have one of the most critical teacher shortages. They have approximately 17,500 teachers employed on temporary or emergency certificates one of the highest percentages in the country. In large urban school districts there is much competition for the tax dollar to pave streets, build sewage disposal plants, and provide other services.

Mr. BAILEY. May I inquire do you have that information tabulated that you could submit for inclusion in the record of the hearing? Mr. LAMBERT. Yes. We will be glad to submit the information. Mr. BAILEY. If there are no objections, we would be glad to accept this information for inclusion at this point in the record.