Senator CAIN. I do not see the connection between what the Government worker gets and the school teacher gets. You are referring to the Government workers as they work here in Washington, D. C., and the wage scales which they receive on the average are far in excess of the salaries paid throughout this country, to the end that you funnel up in Washington on a lot of people who would be better off if they worked longer hours at lower wages, executives and otherwise.

I feel very seriously about that. We have a school problem but we must tackle that governmental problem, which is a much broader one. If we take it up by way of universal adoption, your dollar will be worth about half what it is worth now.

Mr. MURRAY. Senator Cain, I had addressed myself to that before you came in. The problem we see here is, you want to staff the District schools and you want to staff them with capable professional people.

Any person with a college degree is eligible for employment in any job that requires that job in the Government at $2,600 a year. The bill is proposing to pay the teachers $2,500 on the basis of equity with Government. It is a hundred dollars short of equity. We do not see why there should be that shortage. I asked Miss Hurley to prepare these figures. The two hours preparation does not take care of the whole thing. I wish she would come up with the total she arrived at. If you start cutting down below and lower than the standard for teachers salaries, there is an early tendency to say, “Well, after all, they do not work a full year."

We have met that so much, though not in this committee. We thought it was an important sort of thing to have people understand because there are people who just do not understand it.

Senator CAIN. I take it a teacher is paid for an annual period of time, and you will not find Mr. Bates and me quibbling at any time over the fact that so many weeks of that year are not used in actually participating in a school room curriculum, for the simple reason that the summer period is spent in making themselves better teachers.

Miss HURLEY. The lunch hour of the teacher is not fully free, the duties at lunch hour with the supervision of children require, on an average basis, at least one quarter of an hour every day. That is taking a half hour of your lunch time for duty every two weeks, which is really an ideal situation, because most schools have it every day.

The attendance at parent-teacher association meetings, which is required, taken on an average, would also take another quarter of an hour per day, if averaged up by the 2-hour Parent-Teacher Association meetings which we attend, which occur every two months, let us say. It would average up to one quarter of an hour.

Mr. BATES. May I ask if it is mandatory that you attend those meetings?

Miss HURLEY. Yes, it is. There may not be a written law, as far as the Board of Education is concerned that we attend those meetings, but your absence would be particularly noticed.

Senator CAIN. You think, in other words, that you ought to go, on an average, 15 minutes a day?

Miss HURLEY. That is a week.

Plus the activities which we call extra-curricular activities, which take up clubs for the children after school in various things like science and dramatics, glee clubs and so forth, which also consume a quarter hour per week, not to mention small items like attending meetings of the supervisor, where you must sign a slip of attendance, which is a requirement, and time that you spend in procuring teaching materials, writing up units for social study and weekly plans, doing promotion records, writing credentials for children, making reports every second week, making attendance reports for the building, turning in records for promotion to junior high school in the case of uppergrade teachers, and taking charge of movies after school where teachers are placed on duty for an hour after school is out to supervise those children during movie time, not to mention rehearsing for school plays and other things which are not always accomplished during your regular school day.

Mr. BATES. What is your regular school day?

Mr. MURRAY. It is 9 to 3.

Mr. BATES. Is there a noon hour?

Mr. MURRAY. There is a lunch hour from 12 to 1, during which time most teachers are required to make some sort of supervision of the children on the play ground at that time in varying degrees of length. Mr. BATES. That is the 5-hour classroom day?

Mr. MURRAY. That is right.

Mr. BATES. That is elementary school?

Mr. MURRAY. Elementary and junior high. They work from 9:30 to 3:30 in some schools, and they have double shifts in on theirs. Mr. BATES. Let us get that right.

Miss Ross. You have a lunch period, usually, but it is not an hour in junior and senior high and it varies with the school. It is around 45 minutes in some schools and a half hour in some schools.

Mr. BATES. Let us take the senior high school.

Miss Ross. There is no rule. The school I teach in gives 30 minutes for lunch. Others have 40 to 45, depending on how our classes are scheduled.

Mr. BATES. What are your hours?

Miss Ross. Nine to three.

Mr. BATES. Does that include high school?

Mr. MURRAY. Miss Hurley is an elementary-school teacher and Miss Ross is a high-school teacher.

Senator CAIN. I keep going back to the principle, in working in concert with you of the schools, we are attempting to secure adequate salary. Everything else leaves me cold, and very cold, because I am hopeful if this country is going to continue to go anywhere, those who in your profession get adequate salary, you might work completely around the clock 5 days a week without asking favors of anybody. You are doing that because that is your profession.

If you get a good salary, we do not have to worry about what you are doing, you do it.

Mr. MURRAY. That is a most refreshing attitude, Mr. Cain, and not perhaps the one we meet most often.

Senator CAIN. The only trouble with America, and I am an American and a very just critic of my own country and myself, is that people

constantly, it seems to me, when we want to help the world, want more and more for doing less and less, and we have to quit it. That is all there is to it.

I like for you to be enthusiastic about your business and you are. Miss Ross. I would like to reinforce our point about giving an average salary so people will go ahead and work on their jobs. If they get adequate salaries they do not have to teach summer school to pay for the house or work a few hours during the winter to supplement their salaries.

Senator CAIN. It is a tough job. Coming out of the funnel somewhere may be something. If we come out of all these hearings not having lost any money for you, you ought to agree that we are all right.

Mr. MURRAY. I would like to know if you would like to hear from Miss Ross, if Miss Ross has anything to add.

Miss Ross. This is just reinforcing something that has already been said. If the elementary junior high school teachers can stay at their level, and do not have to go on to high school when they get the advanced training, they in turn will give better teaching to those children as they go from one to the other.

Senator CAIN. Are we right in our assumption that that is a problem in administration over which this committee has no concern at all?

Miss Ross. That is what the single salary scale will do for us, as shown in the bill, except we would like that additional incentive for the high school teachers to go on beyond the master's degree and there is no reason why elementary and junior high school teachers should not have it also. It would not be single salary if they do not. Mr. MURRAY. Would the committee be willing to consider theamendments along the lines that we have suggested, if we submitted them to you in writing?

Mr. BATES. You submit them and they will be included in the record.

Mr. MURRAY. We will furnish those for the record.

(The information is as follows:)

SUGGESTED AMENDMENTS TO S. 1088

(Submitted by Donald Murray, United Public Workers of America CIO)

(Each of the following provisions were approved by the joint legislative con-ference representing all teachers organizations, but were omitted by the superintendent in his report.)

TWENTY-SIX HUNDRED DOLLARS MINIMUM SALARY

In group A under title 1, article 1, classes, 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6, and under title 1,. article 2 classes 32 33, and 34, strike out the figure "$2,500," and in lieu thereof insert the figure “$2,600"; also strike out the figure "$3,700,” and insert in lieu: thereof the figure "$3,800."

NOTE. The effect of this amendment would simply be to establish a minimum entrance salary for teachers of $2,600 and thus bring the entrance pay for teachers in line with the entrance pay in Government departments for persons required to have college degrees. The maximum for group A would' be raised by $3,700 to $3,800 per annum.

Additional salary class for masters degree plus 30 semester hours training
Amend title 1, article 1, class 3, by adding the following language:

Group C: A basic salary of $3,500 per pear, with an annual increase in salary of $200 for 6 years or until a maximum salary of $4,700 per year is reached.

Group D: A basic salary of $4,800 per year, with an annual increase in salary of $100 for 4 years or until a maximum salary of $5,200 per year is reached. Amend title 1, article 1, classes 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6 by adding at the end of each the following:

Group E: A basic salary of $3,500 per year, with an annual increase in salary of $200 for 6 years or until a maximum salary of $4,700 per year is reached.

Group F: A basic salary of $4,800 per year, with an annual increase in salary of $100 for 4 years or until a maximum salary of $5,200 per year is reached. Amend section 8, page 17, line 18. by striking out the comma after the letter C and inserting the words "or group E".

Amend section 8, page 17, line 20, by inserting after the letter "D" the words "or group F."

NOTE. The effect of this amendment would be to provide for high-school teachers an additional salary class as a reward for further study. Highschool teachers must now have a masters degree to secure appointment, and no promotion for further study is allowed. If the amendment were approved they would be eligible for promotion to classes C and D for which the requirements would be administratively established as a master's degree plus 30 semester hours of additional training. Under the single salary scale principle the same promotional opportunity is afforded (under this proposed amendment) to elementary and junior high school teachers but in practice it would benefit the high-school teachers primarily. Increments are made to conform to the pattern proposed below. It should be noted that the new maximum which would be established would be only $500 per year higher than the present one, due to the overlapping of schedules.

$200 ANNUAL INCREMENTS IN GROUPS A AND C

In title 1, articles 1 and 2, classes 1 through 6 and 32 through 34, in groups A and C under each of the afore-mentioned classes, strike out the words "with an annual increase in salary of $100 for 12 years" and insert in lieu thereof the words "with an annual increase in salary of $200 for 6 years."

NOTE. The effect of this amendment would be to provide $200 annual increments instead of $100 annual increments for teachers in groups A and C. The annual increments in groups B and D, which are merely extensions of A and C, respectively, are left at $100 per annum. Salary advancements in both private industry and in government are much more rapid than the $100 per year now provided for teachers in all groups under S. 1088. If the amendment were adopted it would permit an elementary teacher, for example, to go from the beginning salary of group A to the top salary of group B in 10 years, whereas 16 years would be required under S. 1088 as it is now written. In the long run, of course, the cost would be negligible, since minimum and maximum salaries would be unchanged.

Senator CAIN. Mrs. Merle Whitford, chairman of the legislative committe of Washington Chapter of the ADA.

STATEMENT OF MRS. MERLE WHITFORD, CHAIRMAN OF THE LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE, WASHINGTON CHAPTER OF ADA (READ BY MRS. FRANCES ADAMS, MEMBER OF THE ADA)

Mrs. ADAMS. My name is Mrs. Frances Adams, and I am testifying instead of Mrs. Whitford, who could not be here today.

Senator CAIN. I think it should be in the record that she is replacing and speaking for Mrs. Whitford.

If you have a title, would you be so kind as to give it?

Mrs. ADAMS. I am a member of the ADA.

Mr. BATES. What is the ADA?

Mrs. ADAMS. It is the Washington chapter of the Americans for Democratic Action, which is an organization of some 400 persons and has recently been represented before this committee with testimony

on the various revenue bills under consideration with special reference to the sales tax.

We would like to preface our remarks with an expression of our appreciation for the generous attitude and the sincere interest in the problems of voteless District of Columbia evidenced by Senator Cain and Representative Bates in their careful consideration of citizen expression on the sales tax and other considerations important to an adequate fiscal program.

We are happy to have the opportunity to appear before you again, this time in connection with the bills H. R. 2976 and S. 1088 to amend the District of Columbia Teachers' Salary Act of 1945.

We heartily endorse the single salary principle as representative of the best in modern educational trends in the United States.

We are in favor of the revised salary schedule stipulated by these bills as a start toward the kind of remuneration needed, although we would like to see a higher minimum.

Nation-wide publicity has revealed the appalling lack of qualified teachers. We are coming to realize that low pay is at least in part responsible for this situation. Members of the ADA wish to stand for the best kind of teachers with pay comensurate to qualifications. We support a strong program for the prevention of juvenile delinquency and to that end we recommend full participation of the staff of the attendance department in leave and other provisions for salary benefits.

We have previously stated our belief that the District of Columbia needs a larger budget than $77,200,000 for 1948 to avoid skimping on such essential public services as education, and we have outlined our suggestions for augmenting this amount by the increased yield from an adequate well-defined income tax plus additional Federal payment according to formula similar to that embodied in S. 215 without resort to a sales tax.

Senator CAIN. Is this a fair question: Both Mr. Bates and I remember with pleasure the testimony of a gentleman representing the ADA. He was in positive opposition to the sales tax. He did make the recommendations you have outlined.

He placed particular emphasis on a larger Federal contribution. You and I know we do not know what contribution we will get. We do know we need increased salaries for the teachers. If we cannot get a larger Federal contribution, what is your thinking about a sales tax, if only through a sales tax can we provide the assistance that we are hopeful of getting?

Mrs. ADAMS. We are unalterably opposed to a sales tax. We feel that by making an equitable income tax in the District, where residents in the District pay a tax, we will be able to raise revenue needed. However, we do recommend, in addition to this, Federal payment for services rendered in accordance with that formula.

Senator CAIN. If we do not get more money from the Federal Government, it is apparently obvious but not conclusive that this District is not going to get the essential services expanded as is hoped without recourse to the sales tax.

Mrs. ADAMS. We believe it will not be necessary to resort to the sales tax if there is an equitable income tax, plus our other recommendations. That is our stand.

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