Mrs. Joseph Willen, chairman, National Committee on Education and Social Action, National Council of Jewish Women, Inc., New Amos A. Fries, major general, United States Army, retired, director, Friends of the Public Schools of America, Washington, D. C.... William E. V. Saunders, High School Teachers Association of New Dr. J. M. Dawson, executive secretary, the Joint Conference Com- mittee on Public Relations, Baptists of the United States, Washing- Stanley Feingold, New York legislative director, Young Progressive Charles E. Babcock, chairman, National Legislative Committee, Junior Order United American Mechanics of the United States of Mrs. Ethel Grubb, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Washington, D. C.. Clark Foreman, president, Southern Conference for Human Welfare, Thomas C. Boushall, chairman, national committee_on_education, III. LIST OF STATEMENTS AND COMMUNICATIONS Aiken, Hon. George D., United States Senator from the State of Vermont, Cowles, John H., sovereign grand commander of the Supreme Council, Thirty-third Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, Southern Jurisdiction, United States of America, statement of, in re Fowler, Dr. Frederick C., chairman, Committee on Christian Liberty, National Association of Evangelicals, Pittsburgh, Pa., letter of, in re Houdlette, Mrs. Harriet, American Association of University Women, Kilgore, Hon. Harley M., United States Senator from the State of West Virginia, statement of, in re Federal aid to education____ McCarran, Hon. Pat, United States Senator from the State of Nevada, 450 37 National Education Association chart showing amount which each State 195 315 et seq. Pepper, Hon. Claude, United States Senator from the State of Florida, Trial, George T., national director of education, Veterans of Foreign Wars, 38 452 Wise, Stephen S., president, American Jewish Congress, New York, N. Y., 264 Woll, Matthew, chairman, American Federation of Labor Committee on 188 APPENDIX Congress of American Women, Washington, D. C., statement of Farrington; the Honorable J. R., Delegate from Hawaii, letter of Stone, Margaret F., chairman of legislation, National Women's Trade Wedel, Mrs. Theodore O., chairman, committee on Christian social rela- tions, United Council of Church Women, New York, letter of___ Wiley, Mrs. Harvey W., chairman legislation department, General Fed- FEDERAL AID TO EDUCATION WEDNESDAY, APRIL 9, 1947 UNITED STATES SENATE, COMMITTEE ON LABOR AND PUBLIC WELFARE, SUBCOMMITTEE ON EDUCATION, The subcommittee met at 10 a. m. in room 357, Senate Office Building, Senator George D. Aiken presiding. Present: Senators Aiken, Smith, Ives, Thomas (of Utah) and Hill. Senator AIKEN. The meeting will come to order. The immediate responsibility of this subcommittee is to consider legislation in the field of Federal aid to education. This is a preliminary hearing on four bills that have been introduced to date, dealing with the question of Federal aid to education at the elementary and secondary school levels. Subject to the approval of the subcommittee regular hearings are tentatively scheduled to get under way on April 21. The witnesses scheduled to be heard at this preliminary_hearing include the sponsors of the four bills on Federal aid, and Dr. James B. Conant, president of Harvard University. The bills under consideration, the over-all objectives of these bills, and their sponsors are: S. 81, to assist the States in improving and maintaining their systems of free public education by providing funds to be used for supplementing teachers' salaries; sponsored by Senators Green and McGrath. S. 170, to authorize the appropriation of funds to assist the States and Territories in increasing the rate of salary payments to teachers in the public elementary and secondary schools; sponsored by Senator McCarran. S. 472, to authorize 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 through public elementary and secondary schools, for the general welfare, and for other purposes. Sponsored by Senators Taft, Thomas of Utah, Ellender, Hill, Smith, Cooper, Chavez, and Tobey. S. 199, to authorize the appropriation of funds to assist the States in more nearly equalizing educational opportunities among and within the States by establishing a national floor under current educational expenditures per pupil in average daily attendance at public elementary and secondary schools and by assistance to nonpublic taxexempt schools of secondary grade or less for necessary transportation of pupils, school health examinations and related school health services, and purchase of nonreligious instructional supplies and equipment, including books. S. 199 is sponsored by me. 1 In beginning the consideration of these bills, this subcommittee is fully aware of the grave crisis confronting the elementary and secondary schools of the Nation. I cannot presume to speculate as to any final action which may be taken by this subcommittee. I am sure that we are keenly conscious of the fact that any solution or partial solution of the teachers' problem and in turn of the whole school problem will require that we face the following stark facts: Teachers are grossly underpaid; their tenure is insecure; their morale is undermined; they are leaving the schoolroom for better jobs; classrooms are overcrowded; school buildings and equipment are run down and inadequate; and college students are boycotting the teaching profession. The most obvious symptom of the educational problem is the shortage of good teachers. The shortage of teachers is traceable primarily to the terribly inadequate pay they receive. The low salaries are explained largely by insufficient funds for educational purposes. It is a matter of history that we have never provided adequately for our school program. There are those who protest that we cannot spend money to modernize our school system. We must face squarely the issue of finding some way to provide more money for the elementary and secondary schools of the United States or suffer the consequences of permitting our school system to degenerate still further. The most precious asset this Nation, or any nation, has is its children. To conserve and develop this human resource is the best insurance we can have for the future greatness and security of our Nation. Our teachers are the developers of our human resource. They are the molders of our future citizens-our destiny. It is time for us as a Nation to do something about the crisis in education. Senator Hill, I understand you have a statement. Senator HILL. Mr. Chairman, you have stated that education in the United States is in a crisis. I shall not undertake to organize or report the evidence in support of that conclusion. Undoubtedly that will be ably done by persons who will appear during the course of our hearings. I do want to say, however, that a 6 months' survey of the Nation's schools by a distinguished authority for the New York Times brought the conclusion that although American schools did not suffer a single air raid, "they are being wrecked just as surely as though they had been blasted by heavy bombers." The war alone did not bring education to the low level at which we find it today. Basic causes, such as disparities in child population and in tax ability among the States, are of longer standing. Some States now spend 60 times as much per classroom as do other, poorer States. I have here before me a chart prepared by the National Education Association, or rather submitted by the National Education Association, which shows that in California there were income payments of $9,005 per child of 5 to 17 years of age in 1945, whereas in Mississippi, there was only $1,974 per child of 5 to 17 years of age. This gives us |