provided by the Commissioner, which reports said Commissioner shall convey to the Congress with recommendations for such revisions of this Act as in his judgment the Congress should consider, with particular reference to recom mendations arising from changing conditions in our national economy; (f) in States where separate public schools are maintained for separate races, provide for a just and equitable apportionment of such funds for the benefit of public schools maintained for minority races, without reduction of the proportion of State and local moneys expended for educational purposes during the fiscal year ended in 1947 for public schools for minority races: Provided, That in any State in which the legislature has not taken the action specified in this section, the chief executive of such State may, until such action has been taken or until six months after the adjournment of the first regular session of the legislature in such State following the date of the enactment of this Act, whichever first occurs, take such action for such period as is required by this Act to be taken by legislative enactment;

(2) either through its legislature, or through its State educational authority, if the legislature so directs, provide in such manner as to comply with the provisions of section 6 of this Act a plan of apportioning the funds authorized in section 3 of this Act that will make available, not later than the fourth year of the operation of this Act and each year thereafter, from all sources, to all local school jurisdictions not less than $40 per annum per pupil in average daily attendance for current expenditures (excluding interest, debt service, and capital outlay) for the maintenance of a program of elementaryand secondary-school education. The plan shall provide that in local school jurisdictions where separate schools are maintained for separate races current expenditures (excluding interest, debt service, and capital outlay) for the schools maintained for each separate racial group shall be not less than $40 per annum per pupil in average daily attendance; and

(3) shall transmit through its State educational authority to the United States Commissioner of Education official notice of acceptance and certified copies of the legislative enactments and the official regulations that may be issued by the State educational autohrity in connection with such funds. Any amendment of such enactments and revisions of official regulations shall in like manner be transmitted to said Commissioner..

(B) The funds appropriated under the authorization of this Act shall be allotted only to those States which, during the fiscal year preceding the fiscal year for which the apportionment is made, have provided from State revenues for all public elementary-school and public secondary-school purposes not less than either the total amount, or the amount per pupil in average daily attendance, actually spent for such purposes in the fiscal year ended in 1947. The funds allotted to any State from the funds appropriated under section 3 of this Act shall be paid by the State authority only to those local school jurisdictions that from State and local funds (which shall not be interpreted to include funds made available under this Act) pay average monthly salaries to their teachers not less than the average monthly salaries paid as of February 1, 1947, or the nearest prior date when school was in session.

RIGHT OF APPEAL

SEC. 8. In the event a question arises at any time with any State educational agency, in any State eligible to share the benefits of this Act, involving the administration of this Act in relation to the purposes for which it is intended, such State educational agency shall have the right to appeal such question, with such statements and evidence as in its judgment are appropriate, to the United States Commissioner of Education: Provided, That within ninety days after such appeal, if not satisfactorily terminated, the State educational agency shall have the right to appeal to a United States district court and such court shall have jurisdiction as to both fact and law.

SEC. 9. As used in this Act

DEFINITIONS

(A) The term "State" shall include the several States, the District of Columbia, Alaska, and Hawaii, Puerto Rico, the Canal Zone, American Samoa, the Virgin Islands, and Guam.

(B) The term "legislature" means the State or Territorial legislature or other comparable body, except that in the District of Columbia it shall mean the

Board of Education, and in American Samoa and the Virgin Islands it shall mean the Governor.

(C) The term "minority race" or "minority racial group" shall mean any race or racial group that constitutes a minority of the population of the continental United States.

(D) A just and equitable apportionment, allotment, or distribution of the funds provided under this Act for the benefit of a minority racial group in a State which maintains by law separate educational facilities for such minority racial group, means any plan of apportionment, allotment, or distribution which results in the expenditure, for the benefit of such minority racial group of a proportion of said funds not less than the proportion that each such minority racial group in such State bears to the total population of that State.

(E) The term "State educational authority" means, as the State legislature may determine, (1) the chief State school officer (such as the State superintendent of public instruction, commissioner of education, or similar officer), or (2) a board of education controlling the State department of education; except that in the District of Columbia it shall mean the Board of Education, and in American Samoa, Guam, and the Virgin Islands, it shall mean the Governor.

(F) Annual income payments for each State, as determined by the Department of Commerce, shall be defined as the total amount of income in cash and in kind received by residents of each State, from business establishments and governmental agencies, consisting of (1) wages and salaries after deduction of employees' contributions to social security, railroad retirement, railroad unemployment insurance, and Government retirement programs; (2) proprietors' incomes, representing net income of unincorporated establishments, including farms, before owners' withdrawals; (3) property income, including dividends, interests, and net rents and royalties; and (4) other income payments including direct relief, work relief, labor income items such as pensions, compensation for injuries, and social insurance benefits, mustering-out payments to veterans, and family allowance payments and voluntary allotments to dependents of military personnel (allocated to State of dependents' residence).

SEPARABILITY

SEC. 10. If any provision of this Act or application thereof to any State, person, or circumsatnce is held invalid, the remainder of the Act, and the application of such provision to other States, persons, or circumstances shall not be affected thereby.

Senator AIKEN. We have here this morning one of the sponsors of S. 81, Senator Green of Rhode Island, and we should like to hear from Senator Green at this time. After Senator Green testifies, we then will call on President Conant, of Harvard University, and I think he will have ample time to present his testimony and discuss this situation with members of the committee.

Senator Green.

STATEMENT OF HON. THEODORE FRANCIS GREEN, A UNITED STATES SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND

Senator GREEN. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, I am mindful of the fact that I have been requested to present simply a brief statement. I assume that opportunity will be given later to amplify it and present additional facts.

Senator AIKEN. Yes, there certainly will be, Senator.

Senator GREEN. This measure, S. 81, which I introduced in the Senate for my colleague, Senator J. Howard McGrath and myself, aims to provide Federal funds to be used to supplement the present inadequate salaries of public-school teachers.

I am advised by John W. Studebaker, Commissioner of the United States Office of Education, that the only Federal funds furnished to the States for teachers' salaries are those supplied to land-grant

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 880,000 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.