Senator CHAVEZ. Mr. Chairman, I do not know whether the witness knows but we are school children, too, and notwithstanding that we are meeting here they ring the bell over in the Senate and if we are not over there we will be counted as absent and it is a pretty bad thing for a Senator to be absent.

Senator WALSII. Are you a resident of Washington, Mr. Heffron? Mr. HEFFRON. I am, and I am subject to the pleasure of the committee.

Senator WALSH. Are there any persons here who cannot be here other than today and who want to be heard?

Mr. EBY. My name is Kermit Eby and I am director of education and research of the CIO. I have a statement I wish to file.

Senator WALSH. That is satisfactory.

Whom do you represent, Mr. Eby?

Mr. EBY. I am director of education and research for the CIO. I have testified here before and this is an additional bit of testimony reiterating our testimony on Federal aid and the general principles of Federal aid.

Senator WALSH. Thank you, sir. That may be copied into the record.

(The statement referred to is as follows:)

About a month ago I appeared before the Senate Labor and Education Committee to express the interest of the Congress of Industrial Organizations in Federal aid for education. In the course of my argument I said: (1) Labor, be it CIO or AFL, has consistently been the best friend of public education; (2) during the war and at its conclusion, a trend which is constant in America-the migration of workers seeking better jobs-is accelerated (because of this movement of workers, it is important that educational opportunity be equal all over the country); (3) even though some States make even greater efforts than they are now making, it will be impossible for them to provide this educational opportunity from their own funds; (4) the complexities of our modern society make it even more mandatory for us to lift our educational standards.

Today, I wish to reaffirm CIO's interest in these principles, to reemphasize our belief in absolute equalization of educational opportunity for children of all races, classes, and creeds, and to indicate our continued support for the achievement of such an aim.

In the words of the legislative committee of the CIO we wish "to reiterate our support of the general principles of Federal aid to education and aid to the children (supporting the provision of hot lunches, transportation, and recreational facilities to all children regardless of school attended) and to leave to the Senate committee the working out of a satisfactory mechanism which would result in possible passage of a Federal-aid bill."

Senator WALSH. Are there additional witnesses who wish to appear in favor of the bill?

Miss BORCHARDT. Yes, Senator. I should therefore like to ask if the Senate committee will be meeting tomorrow.

Senator WALSH. What are the wishes of the Senators?

Miss BORCHARDT. There are out-of-town officers of the American Federation of Teachers who are most familiar with the bill, who are eager to appear.

Senator CHAVEZ. I can be here.

Senator WALSH. At least some of the members of the committee will be here although the Senators dislike to meet in committee tomorrow. Mr. HEFFRON. Do you wish to wait until tomorrow and read your statement or file it?

Mr. HEFFRON. I prefer to wait until tomorrow.

Senator WALSH. Very well.

The committee will stand adjourned until 10 o'clock tomorrow morning.

(The following statements were presented for the record:)

BIRMINGHAM FEDERATION OF TEACHERS,
Birmingham, Ala.

I am Irving E. Fullington of Birmingham, Ala. I am president of the Birmingham Federation of Teachers, a position I have held since 1938 without pay. I was president of the Social Studies Department of the Alabama Education Association. I am a high school teacher of American Government and history and coach of tennis at Phillips High School. I am a member of the Methodist Church, trustee of the Birmingham Trades Council and chairman of Labor's Political and Government Committee for Birmingham (AFL). I am a Democrat. I wish to have my affiliations fully known before I submit my testimony in behalf of S. 717. The school teachers of the South are vitally interested in Federal aid. At the present time we are interested in something more than the possibility of a "Federal system" and that is the fear of the continuation of an inadequate system, because a full program of education is within the reach of less than 50 percent of our boys and girls less than 18 years of age because over 50 percent of them drop out of school before graduation.

The National Resources Planning Board and the New York Times reveal that out of every 20 adults 25 years of age and over, 1 has completed college, 3 have completed high school usually at the age of 18 to 20 years of age, and 7 have completed grade school. We can safely say then since high school and college graduation are bases upon grade school completion, that only 7 out of 20 adults have had the opportunity or even chance to complete their educational training. Where are these others? Why did they drop out? Home conditions, certainly; poor unattractive schools, yes; necessity for self-support or part support of home group over 50 percent, the survey show. According to the New York Times, the inmates in the Boys Reformatory of California, over 75 percent of them claimed poverty and lack of basic controls led them away from home and even into a life of crime. Few had completed grade schools or high schools.

Education does not contain the full panacea of all our juvenile ills, but it is the best remedy for the root of the evil-ignorance.

Alabama offers a situation which shows the inequalities in the teaching profession and other educational facilities. From September 1, 1941 to December 31, 1944, 30,900 persons have been employed to fill 19,888 positions in the public elementary and secondary schools of the State. The State Department of Education concludes that 11,012 teachers have been lost to the profession. During 1943, 3,775 temporary or emergency certificates were issued. Already in 1944-45 term, 4,958 emergency certificates have been issued. Most of these holders do not qualify for standard certificates. Even with increased appropriations under our larger revenues, salaries can be raised from $82 to $100 a month. Whereas the common laborer in Birmingham's steel and iron mills is paid 60%1⁄2 cents an hour. He does not have to be able to read or write to qualify for his job.

Our school system by comparison has a low school debt but our buildings and equipment need repairing and replacements. Of 5,110 separate school buildings, 559 are churches, 842 are privately owned home buildings. More than half are heated with open-type stoves; 780, only, are equipped with central heating plants; 9,000 pupils must attend schools which do not have toilet facilities; 700 schools have surface toilets; 50,000 pupils have pumps and open wells as source of school water; 23,000 attend schools where there are no water systems of any kind; 2,647 of our 5,110 buildings do not have electric lights. Most of the others are poorly lighter. To meet these housing and equipment needs we need in Alabama, 8,174 new classrooms; 323 additional sanitary systems for rural schools; 326 additional heating systems for rural schools, improved equipment for vocational and agricultural training; 412 auditoriums; 146 gymnasiums, and busses and shop services.

A committee of the Alabama Education Association with Dr. A. R. Meadows, director of the State Division of Administration and Finance, reported that the school census figures show that 28.9 percent of all those 25 years of age have completed less than 5 years of schooling; 16.3 percent of the white people were in this group; whereas the Southern States average, for all people, was 23.15 percent; and the average for the Nation was 13.5 percent. In 1940: 15.6 per

cent of children, in Alabama, 14 and 15 years old were out of school; and 42.6 percent of those 16 and 17 years old were not attending school; 60 percent of ninth grade pupils canvassed were enrolled in the ninth grade; and 33% percent of those of twelfth grade level were enrolled in the twelfth grade. One-fourth of high-school graduates enter college.

Retardation of rural school pupils in Alabama is great; 44.5 percent of white elementary and 74 percent of Negro elementary pupils are behind schedules by grade progress tests and achievements; 43.1 percent white high-school pupils and 61.8 percent of the Negro high-school pupils show a retarded status. We nearly drag bottom in illiteracy. We have a short school term. It is now only 8 months of 20 school days each for the State minimum program. We need a minimum school term of 9 full months of a total of 180 days. Alabama was next lowest to Arkansas in her pupil maintenance cost. And next to bottom place, Mississippi, in her pupil expenditure for plant operation.

Has Alabama made her best efforts? Proportionately she has. Alabama is exerting 11⁄2 times the average effort of States or we are doing one-third more than the average for the States. We have 2.57 percent of the Nation's children in average daily attendance and only 1.07 percent of the Nation's taxable wealth. Our children-2.7 percent of those between 5 and 17; and 1.9 percent of those between 20 and 64. In round numbers as early as 1930, the President's "Report on Economic Conditions in the South" showed that the average for the Nation was 4 children to every 10 adults and in the Southeast and Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas, the average was 6 to every 10 adults; in the region outside these States the average was 3 children to every 10 adults. We, therefore, apparently had twice as many children in proportion to the other sections of the country with about one-half the amount of taxable wealth as the average for the other sections-a per capita income of $268 yearly.

State Superintendent of Education of Alabama, Dr. E. B. Norton, states that: "The average annual salary of Alabama teachers, supervisors and principals, exclusive of vocational teachers is only $905, in this year of high living costs and increased taxes.

"An increase of 97 percent would be required to bring the Alabama average teacher salary to the average teacher salary of the Nation. The National average teacher salary is below the average wage of factory workers in war industries."

Senator Hill, of Alabama, reported, on March 29, 1943:

"Last October there were in America over 10,000 classrooms without teachers. The chief cause of the growing emergency in the schools is the inability of the schools to pay salaries sufficient to attract and hold competent teachers. Some States today have twice as many puipls per teacher as others, and half the income per teacher. Nineteen States cannot pay their staffs an average of $20 a week. The average annual salary of thousands of rural teachers in the South is less than $600 per year. In contrast, the minimum pay of the lowest classification of Federal employees is $1,200 per year, and the lowest pay for Federal professional employees is $2,000 per year. Recently, these Federal salaries have been increased by 20 percent through lengthening of the workweek.

"Since 1939 the salaries of teachers in the Nation as a whole have risen a mere 7 percent while living costs have risen 22 percent.

"The need of the South for Federal aid to education is great, indeed. The South has a third of the school children of the Nation but only 15 percent of the Nation's income. The farm population of the South, alone, includes 17 percent of the Nation's children of school age, but receives only 3 percent of the Nation's income.

"Alabama, Arkansas, South Carolina, and Mississippi are able to spend only about one-fifth as much per pupil for education as do New Jersey, New York, and California. Every Southern State falls below the national average in funds devoted to education per child. And this in spite of the fact that each one of the Southern States devotes a larger part of its tax income to schools than do the wealthier States.

"The appalling differences in educational opportunity, both among the States and within the States, are due to the differences in economic conditions that lie largely beyond the control of the different States. These differences are differences in wealth, in income, in taxpaying ability, in the extent of absentee ownership of natural resources and industries, and differences in the number of educable children in proportion to adults. The poor States and communities have the largest proportionate number of children.

"With these differences there cannot be equality of educational opportunity throguhout the Nation except through Federal aid. For even if we had a suitable, uniform tax plan in all the States there would be nine States which, if they used every penny from the plan for education, without any expenditures whatever for other governmental functions, still would not have sufficient revenue for an adequate program of public education.

"For instance, if Alabama, one of these nine States, had such a tax plan and did not expend one single dollar derived from this tax plan for any governmental purpose except for education, Alabama would require for an adequate program of public education far more than the revenues derived from such a tax plan. It would require 165 percent of such revenues.

"Much of the wealth of the richer States has been drawn from the poorer States, but these poorer States cannot tax this wealth. Alabama, primarily an agricultural State, sends millions of dollars each normal, peacetime year into other States for the purchase of automobiles, farm machinery, clothing and manufactured goods and commodities of all kinds. Alabama cannot tax the huge profits derived from the millions of Alabama dollars sent out of her borders. The Federal Government can tax these profits, and should tax them and send at least some of the money back to Alabama for the education of her children.

"The Federal Government takes the sons of the poorer States in these times of war and sends them into battle, where many of them will die to save our Nation. Why should not the Federal Government help educate the sons of these poorer States to serve and save our Nation in time of peace?"

The South stands no chance to improve itself unless trained leadership has an opportunity to pursue its calling. Even when the missionary urge is there, unless salaries can be paid which are comparable with those elsewhere, we shall continue to be an economic and social responsibility of the Nation unless help

can come.

On the other hand, our region has much to offer the country. Its native Americans-less than 1 percent foreign-born-offer their basic traditions, natural resources, minerals, timber, and water. The new fields are open to the harvest of a free enterprise of industry and agriculture. We desire to make our contribution if we have a fairer opportunity.

Another example of our condition as a State and region which shows the necessity of revenues from sources other than State and local ones is the fact that we are among the lowest in sales purchase capacity or ability. According to the survey of the committee on education of the United States Chamber of Commerce, there is a fair correlation in 31 of the 48 States in regard to educational level and per capita sales, telephone subscriptions, and standard magazine subscriptions. Most of the lowest per capita expenditures for edu cation are in the Southern States, and the highest percentage of Army rejections for educational reasons are also in the southern regions. Alabama's rate is 12.9 percent, the highest of all the States in the Union.

Our rejections for educational deficiency is further evidenced by the effect upon our pupils when they transfer to other States-most of those from rural areas are put back from one to two grades. The other States, some more fortunate, are receiving a part of our problem and their schools are being additionally burdened by having to accelerate instructions or bear the burden of more retarded pupils which even in Alabama are a severe handicap, especially when rural children transfer to city schools which try to maintain a full 9 months standard instruction term.

This handicap can be corrected by additional aid to areas that have exhausted their resources to help themselves. There is a correlation between higher salaries of teachers, rents, retail sales, and educational standards. We wish to thank the Chamber of Commerce for awaking long enough to see that if there are new frontiers to be opened and explored, the national capacity for consumption of goods can only follow a thorough educational program which will elevate the standards of all the children of all the people wherever they are in this country and its possessions. Then can we have a larger and finer skilled labor market. Then can the South train her sons and daughters to match their native and trained skills against all other regions in competition in a free enterprise.

Gentlemen of the committee, there is this further danger to our country. Any chain is as strong as its weakest link. A disheartened, untrained, ignorant people is the first field of attack by foreign forces. Except for the native loyalty of our people before this war, our country was in danger from within as well as from without. When people are incapable of meeting opportunity because

of educational handicaps, they become disillusioned and rebellious against the economic and political systems. There is no fear from reasonable change which is the product of intelligent training and leadership. There is a menace to every land that loses sight of the basic thing that gave us our birthright of freedom. "Thou shalt know the truth and the truth shall make you free." And let us remember that "Where there is no vision, the people perish." As Senator Hill so eloquently expressed it to the annual convention of the Alabama Education Association at Birmingham, March 29, 1943:

"We have all been spurred on in our fight against the Axis threat by the promise of the four freedoms-freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. You, ladies and gentlemen, are the guardians of a fifth freedom, without which there can be no winning of the four freedoms. The fifth freedom is freedom from ignorance.

"Teachers of Alabama, you are entrusted with a noble duty—to make the fifth freedom a reality for our State and our country. And the Federal Government cannot deny its obligation in making this freedom possible. To do so would be a denial of the Nation itself and of the very things for which we now fight.

"The duty of the Federal Government to protect our lives and safeguard our liberties is universally recognized. Yet there are many who refuse to admit any duty rests upon our Federal Government to protect the citizen and the Nation against the dangers of ignorance. Such a limited outlook passes all understanding."

As to the relative merits of the various bills now before the Congress of the United States-they speak for themselves. There are certain differences and advantages of S. 717 which should be emphasized because they represent the rank and file of the educational forces and not just the views of the Federal and State leaders and the educational administrators.

First, S. 717 looks to the program of Federal aid as a permanent policy and not merely an emergency one. I believe the emergency features should be separated from the permanent aid bill. S. 717 allocates funds on the basis of need, which is the only reasonable one for aid to schools. This latter feature further provides that Federal funds cannot supplant State appropriations. Federal funds should supplement State funds and thereby assure protection to Federal taxpayers that the States will not "unload" on them. This assures a continuation of local initiative and responsibility.

S. 717 guarantees that no Federal funds can be used for instructional purposes in private or religious schools which share State aids in several of our commonwealths. S. 717 continues the present and past policies of the Federal Government in that aid to schools for construction, transportation. vocational equipment, textbooks, and other educational facilities are made available to all pupils and schools, public and nonpublic on the basis of need.

S. 717 is specific in providing aid for needy students in relation to scholarships without discrimination for race, creed, or persuasion.

S. 717 assures 75 percent of all funds shall go directly to teachers. It limits amounts for administration.

A

There is no real threat of Federal control of our State and local schools. guaranty, on the other hand, is made to the States to retain control. Like all other Federal-aid bills which have provided aid for education, agriculture, roads, relief, social security, military training, there are minimum standards of qualification.

Therefore, we teachers of the South and other sections of the country which are in need of Federal aid for education, urge the essential features of a definite Federal-aid plan which will assure aid where there is need; services which are essential to facilitate the learning pupils receive. Fifty percent of the pupils drop out of school, the majority of whom have named financial loss as the cause of their withdrawals.

We do not fear the possibility of Federal control resulting under the safeguards which are set up in S. 717. Control is guaranteed to the States and their subdivisions for choice of philosophy, curricula, textbooks, choice of teachers, and noninterference in the policy of segregation where the State constitutions and laws require it.

We do not fear a Federal subsidy for private and religious schools. The Federal Government offered aid to schools and pupils under WPA, NYA, Lanham Act, the training program of the armed forces, in church and other private institutions, as well as public ones. Now the GI bill of rights provides for financial aid to veterans which can be spent in either public or nonpublic institutions—