Page images
PDF
EPUB

If the teachers take afternoon and evening work and then come to school the next day worn in body and mind and try to put over to the pupils what we expect them to do, I think there ought to be some line drawn there somewhere.

Dr. CORNING. We have not had much of that sort of problem now, Mr. Bates, where teachers come to school tired out and not able to do their work, because their outside work is carefully checked.

Mr. LEE. That would show in their efficiency rating and their general work in the schools.

Dr. CORNING. I suspect that there will be need for quite a bit of that even if this becomes law.

Suppose we bring a young man in to the school system at $2,500. He is married and perhaps has a child or two. The $2,500 does not look so big under those circumstances.

Then I want to say, too, that it is not just the married men who have obligations of that sort. I suspect if we canvassed the people in this room this morning, where there is a preponderance of women, we would find a large percentage with definite responsibilities for more than support of themselves.

I think we have too long thought of a school teacher as a single person, male or female, who has only himself to support. The facts just do not bear that out. There are very few of us who do not have pretty extensive obligations in the way of support of other people. Mr. BATES. I think this committee understands that.

Dr. CORNING. I think you will find particularly in the lower reaches of even this salary schedule, there will be some cases where additional compensation may be required just to support the family.

Certainly if we are thinking in terms of $2,500, and two or three or four people to support with costs of living as they are now that would be the case.

Senator CAIN. I should like to say, Mr. Corning, in bidding you good morning, that if everything does not work out as you would like it to work out, the people surrounding you ought to be satisfied that you have presented and are presenting a case involving all of your staff, administrative and teaching, in a most able way.

I merely said that, sir, in order that if they must blame somebody in the future, they may point their finger at Mr. Bates and myself. You have more important work to do.

I wonder if Mrs. O. G. Hankins would come to the table, please? She is president of the District of Columbia's Congress of Parents and Teachers.

STATEMENT OF MRS. 0. G. HANKINS, PRESIDENT, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA CONGRESS OF PARENTS AND TEACHERS, ADAMS SCHOOL, WASHINGTON, D. C.

Mrs. HANKINS. I was just going to present a statement here. Senator CAIN. Thank you. Will you be seated for just a minute? We are likely to be confronted with a good many documents of this character. It speaks for itself.

I think, Mrs. Hankins, that you just ought to read this to us and then we will excuse you, and that will make it officially a part of the record.

Mrs. HANKINS. This is a letter written to this committee and dated April 19, 1947. It is as follows:

The District of Columbia Congress of Parents and Teachers wish to go on record as approving of the bill S. 1088, an amendment of the Teacher's Salary Act of 1945.

We deplore the present shortage of qualified teachers in the schools of the District and the effect of such shortage on the education of our children. Our belief is that this bill will aid in remedying the situation. We also feel that the salary schedule of this bill is an improvement on the present schedule of additional grading and teaching attainments.

The District of Columbia congress also realizes that the cost of this amendment to the Salary Act of 1945 is an increase in the amount of our budget, and that means to meet such increase must be found, but we are convinced that the educational welfare of our children is so important that the additional cost should be borne.

Senator CAIN. Mrs. Hankins, may I ask approximately how many parents do you represent as president of the congress?

Mrs. HANKINS. Our membership this year is about 26,000.

Of course, we have teachers. I do not have that broken down. I could give it to you later.

Senator CAIN. That will not be necessary.

Those parents are pretty well satisfied that as desirable as this teacher's bill is, it will cost a considerable amount of money, which can only be paid through their bearing the cost. They appreciate that; do they not?

Mrs. HANKINS. That is right.

Senator CAIN. That is important from our point of view, and I can only suggest for Mr. Bates and myself, that you tell your Congress, when next it meets, that when you were here, that was the one question we asked you.

Mrs. HANKINS. We have a great many people in the room. We have about 75 local associations and we have a legislative committee and they have been working for this bill.

Senator CAIN. We congratulate you.

Mr. BATES. Mrs. Hankins, along with your study for the necessity of such legislation, have you had any subcommittees at work that might assist the committee in their report as to where we are going to find the money?

Mrs. HANKINS. We have been studying it, of course.

Mr. BATES. What conclusions have you come to?

Mrs. HANKINS. We have come to no conclusion but we are willing to pay more taxes.

Mr. BATES. You are willing to pay more taxes; how?

Mrs. HANKINS. Well, I cannot say just in what method. We have not taken any action on that.

Mr. BATES. Somebody will have to pay, I think we all agree to that.

Senator CAIN. For example, we do not know that tax measures will be recommended to the Congress. Secondly, we do not know what measures the Congress may approve. It might, for example, approve the controversial sales tax. I do not know whether it will, but if it does, a reason, and a very definite reason for a sales tax in part would be the raising of revenues to accomplish an objective so admirable in character as this one and therefore people must begin psychologically

to figure this thing out for themselves, that if something is done, it is done primarily in order to help what they do on it. We need a full cooperative effort here and I am satisfied we have it, Mrs. Hankins.

If Mrs. M. E. Carpenter is in the room, representing the Federation of Parent-Teachers Associations as its president, we would very much like to hear from her.

STATEMENT OF MRS. M. E. CARPENTER, PRESIDENT, FEDERATION OF PARENT-TEACHERS ASSOCIATIONS OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

Senator CAIN. If you will properly identify yourself to the official stenographer, you may proceed.

Mrs. CARPENTER. I am Mrs. M. Elizabeth Carpenter, president of the Federation of Parent-Teachers Associations of the District of Columbia.

Mr. BATES. What is the difference between the Federation and the Congress?

Mrs. CARPENTER. The Federation is the colored branch. The District Congress is the white branch.

Senator CAIN. Just proceed, please.

Mrs. CARPENTER. I have prepared no statement, but I am willing to say that our organization is in favor of the bill as presented to you by the Board of Education, and we beg your keen, conscientious consideration of that bill.

Senator CAIN. That is to say that you are not very familiar with the details of the bill or the ways in which money is to be raised to pay for the bill, but you are aware of the fact that it costs money and you are willing to leave the responsibility in the hands of our group?

Mrs. CARPENTER. Our legislative committee has talked about it, and they are in favor, since this is an investment in the future of America, they believe, that the Federal Government could not do a better thing than to invest in this project and ask for a Federal loan.

Senator CAIN. What we are thinking about is a local contribution coming out of the very people who want it.

We are not Uncle Sam's children in that sense; our children are our own responsibility and we must carry the load.

Mrs. CARPENTER. I believe we need assistance in more ways than one, but we are willing to do what you suggest.

Senator CAIN. We often make mistakes on this side of the table. We should have had some papers on every side of the table and ask them to sign it saying, "I hereby certify that never again will I quarrel about a tax of any character that provides me with what I want today."

We are glad you are here, Mrs. Carpenter, and your testimony is sincerely appreciated and will be considered by the joint committee. Thank you very much.

May we ask that Miss Sue M. Brett, of the High School Teachers Association, divisions 1 to 9, come and be with us for a little while.

STATEMENT OF MISS SUE M. BRETT, PRESIDENT, HIGH SCHOOL TEACHERS ASSOCIATION OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

Miss BRETT. I have a statement, Mr. Senator, that the High School Teachers Association would like to make, in approval of the bill which you have been examining now for 2 days.

Senator CAIN. We would like to have it.

Miss Brett. We wish to point out that whereas the over-all cost of this bill may seem high in terms of purchasing power of the personnel affected, it is not high. Few of the increases proposed are great enough to constitute an actual raise in salary, for only a few bring the purchasing power of either teachers or officers above that of their 1940 salaries.

In many cases the new proposal even falls short of the purchasing power of the old salary. All high-school teachers' salaries unfortunately lie in this group.

The proposed $4,700 maximum would have to be raised by almost $200 in order that the high-school teacher in the superior-service class might get as much pay as the one she received 7 years ago.

In most cases the proposed increases are not pay raises at all; they are only maintenance-of-status increases. The top salary available to teachers, even to those who have Ph. D. degrees, is only $4,700; that is $700 less than the top salary which the civic groups of Montgomery County, Md., are supporting for their teachers; it is $500 more than Senator Overton recently offered for a stenographer with 2 years of college preparation.

The schedule itself corrects many of the inequities of the 1945 Salary Act. High-school teachers had hoped that in the establishment of the new single salary act the principle could be applied so as to offer benefits to all teachers, including themselves; and to that end worked long and strenuously with other teachers in the joint legislative council.

In the first screening of the joint legislative council's recommendations, however, the benefits for high-school teachers were dropped as too expensive. Since all other teachers will now have access to a higher-paying classification, or incentive classification, we are disappointed that such consideration cannot be accorded on the high-school level also.

With the reservation of regret that high-school teachers may not benefit by the principle of extra pay for extra qualifications as all other teachers may, and that the period of climbing the scale may not be reduced by raising the annual increments to $200, the High School Teachers Association supports the bill under examination. Senator CAIN. Thank you very much.

May I ask you, if you care to, to reflect a little more on what other teachers are able to benefit from that your high-school teachers, from your point of view, do not benefit from?

Miss BRETT. It is only that point of additional classification for additional college preparation.

Senator CAIN. That is over the M. A. degree, the 30 hours, are we talking about that now?

Miss BRETT. Yes.

Senator CAIN. Instead of a top remuneration of $4,700 it had been recommended that a figure of $5,200 be secured, am I correct in that?

Miss BRETT. That is correct.

That was the proposal of the joint legislative council. I think you are acquainted with the joint legislative council.

Senator CAIN. In a cautious way. It is my understanding that serious consideration was given to such a proposal but for reasons sufficient to those who made the recommendation, it was cut out and they will probably have something to say on that before the hearings are concluded.

Miss BRETT. The joint legislative council, Mr. Senator, recommended that and it was left out after it left the joint legislative council. I think you have gathered the wrong impression about cutting it out. The joint legislative council wanted that.

That was an agreement among the division of classroom teachers who heretofore had been in some conflict about salaries.

The single salary scale being introduced on two levels previously, as it is now, whereas we had it before only on the junior-high-school level.

That will make the single salary level available to all elementary teachers and junior-high-school teachers but not senior-high-school teachers.

Of course there will only be one way in which single-salary benefits could be available to senior-high-school teachers and that would be the addition of another classification in which senior-high-school teachers could gain additional benefits for additional college preparation similar to those which are being added in the bill now for elementary teachers and which have been in the law for junior-highschool teachers over a period of years.

Senator CAIN. I personally respected your statement, part of which, however, I think is based on some rather dangerous thinking.

You emphasized the fact that some of these increases are merely to maintain the status quo.

Miss BRETT. I do not think this is the intention of those people. I point out that is what they actually do.

Senator CAIN. What I was trying to find out and I think you have already satisfied me, that your school system is not teaching the economic theory that the best way to keep pace with the increase in prices is to increase wages, the reverse likewise being true that as this country drives prices down, if it is going to economically live, we do not want to approach your salary problem from the point of view that when prices go down, that your salaries are automatically going to follow.

We are trying to provide on a normal market, a suitable standard of living for the encouragement of the right sort of high-character teachers for this District.

I shudder every time somebody talks to me about getting more wages to keep pace with prices because I do not see what stops them, if we first start in that direction.

Miss BRETT. We would much prefer to stop the prices.

Senator CAIN. If you have any essay contests in your schools, in which they can come out with some better ideas than appear in America so far, I wish you would let us reflect in the House and the Senate on that wisdom.

Miss BRETT. I wish we had some device.

Senator CAIN. From my point of view, thank you very much.

« PreviousContinue »