thing else for any kind of planning; security for teachers and decent homes and conditions, and decent living scales, which are just as basic. We have 4,000 employees, 4,000 people in the District who must have a basic living wage, and a wage that will grant them some security in life as they deal with these young people. Now, we are getting off into a philosophical discussion. Mr. BATES. I think you are right, because if you have 4,680 employees with about 600 more than you had 10 years ago with 2,000 less pupils enrolled on the average, now, that is something that I would like to have explained to the committee also. I want to say this, Mrs. Doyle, that I appreciate the responsibility that you have as Chairman of the Board. I happened to be chairman of the board myself 14 years, of a school board, and I know what it is. Mrs. DOYLE. Where was that? Mr. BATES. In my home city. It just so happens that about 25 years ago this is not a new problem to me--I was chairman of the committee that considered the salary increase bill for the Boston school teachers, and handled that matter. Mrs. DOYLE. Well, I am from Cambridge, Mr. Bates. Mr. BATES. That was in 1922. Do you recall that? Mrs. DOYLE. Very, very well. Mr. BATES. So I am like yourself. I am not a newcomer to this field, and that is why I would like to go into every phase of it to see what ought to be done, and what should be done in the light of every question. Mrs. DOYLE. Yes; I remember that all my people were teachers and officers of the Boston school system, and I am from Cambridge, and taught in Ridge Technical High School. Mr. BATES. Then you are acquainted with the previous school superintendent here who was the spokesman for the school teachers in Boston? Mrs. DOYLE. Yes: I remember. Mr. BATES. Pardon the interruption, Mr. Chairman, but I think we ought to have the background, and we have the responsibility, right or wrong, Mrs. Doyle, to determine the Mrs. DOYLE. As one person from Massachusetts to another person from Massachusetts. Mr. BATES. We need help from all those in authority in the District. I am sure that the Commissioners will give us that as soon as they have a chance. I hope they will get at it and give us their viewpoint. We want to know where the officials of this community stand in respect to the matter of such importance as this. on. Senator CAIN. I think, Mrs. Doyle, you suggested that Mr. Lee carry Mrs. DOYLE. Yes, Mr. Lee is chairman of the legislative committee, and under the rules of the Board, has the responsibility to see legisla tion along the way, and Mr. Lee conducted the hearings. This is Mr. Lee. Mr. BATES. Is Mr. Lee a member of the Board? Mrs. DOYLE. Yes; and chairman of the legislative committee of the Board. STATEMENT OF ADELBERT W. LEE, MEMBER, BOARD OF EDUCATION, CHAIRMAN, LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE, WASHINGTON, D. C. Mr. LEE. Mr. Chairman, I will make my remarks very brief. They are merely to show for the record that the salary schedule, as represented in this bill before you, represents a very careful study by the Board, the committee on legislation, and also the committee on personnel; a very diligent recognition of their responsibilities by them, and they have sought the opinions of everyone in the school system; and the bill, as presented to you, is a composite of those thoughts. I would like to make for the record and for the benefit of the committee, a reference to the Superintendent's salary set up in the bill. When the report came from the officers to the Board, and to the committee on legislation, there was no provision for an increase in the Superintendent's salary. Tables that have been submitted to this committee, or will be submitted to this committee by other officers in the school system, will show comparatively that the present salary for the Superintendent is very much out of line. The committee, therefore, on its own initiative, and in Board session, advocated an increase in the Superintendent's salary from $12,000 to $15,000. I want particularly to make reference to the fact that the record will show that the officers themselves made no such recommendation. Other than that, I think the other officers can pursue the questions of interest to this committee more carefully in detail than I, but I do want to have the record show that it has been carefully considered all the way through by this committee. Senator CAIN. Mr. Lee, let me ask you one or two questions. In your official capacity, you were a spokesman and one of the committee, and presumably had more to do with arriving at what was to be recommended to us than any other unit within your school Board and school system, is not that correct? Mr. LEE. That is correct, sir. We screened the various interests that came before us. This does not represent the maximum request by any means. We found, as Mr. Bates mentioned a moment ago, the question of relativity was very necessary for us to keep in our minds at all times. One salary had to have a certain relationship to the others, recognizing the officer's position, the teachers, and principals, and so on down the scale. Senator CAIN. Well, without any inference of prejudice at all, I am interested in that chart which only indicates to me that your suggested minima and maxima are considerably higher for the most part, than most of the other cities used as a comparison. Now, there may be a thousand-and-one reasons for that. Outside of New York, your school system, if this bill. were to be passed, would be considerably better off than most other school systems, and so would the teachers, and I wonder what your thinking was as you developed that program. Mr. LEE. Well, Mr. Chairman, in preparing data tables, charts, or what-not, the sources from which the data were procured and the break-down of the data are always of great value. I think our school officers have some charts, and if they are placed before the committee, I am confident that you will find that perhaps the breakdown of these various items will show variations, and I think our Superintendent will give you more light on that, as the testimony progresses. In other words, we do not concede the comparisons in those tables. Senator CAIN. I see what you are getting at. This chart was prepared by somebody else. Dr. CORNING. We have not seen it at all. Commissioner MASON. It was prepared by the Commissioners in the Office of the Budget. Senator CAIN. I would say, Doctor, that as you go along a little bit later you will have occasion to and may want to refer to this. Mrs. DOYLE. Mr. Chairman, I would like to remind you of this. Mr. LEE. I am through with my statement. Mrs. DOYLE. I would remind you that all over the country there is this Nation-wide drive for more salaries for teachers so that whatever chart is prepared Senator CAIN. We understand that fully. Mrs. DOYLE. Whatever chart is prepared, Mr. Fowler and Mr. Mason, might be changed as of yesterday or today, because really teachers' salaries are rising all over the country. Senator CAIN. I think the entire committee recognizes that this problem nationally is not the easiest of a number of problems. That, for the moment then, has concluded the testimony of Mrs. Doyle and Mr. Lee. Mrs. DOYLE. Yes, sir. Mr. LEE. Yes, sir. Senator CAIN. Dr. Corning, will you proceed in your own way, if you will, please? STATEMENT OF DR. HOBART M. CORNING, SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, WASHINGTON, D. C. Dr. CORNING. If I may be facetious for half a moment, this is the first time that I have known teachers to be in competition with undertakers. I have known of certain other professions which were competitive, but not teachers with undertakers. Senator CAIN. No, sir; that thought occurred to a number of us. Go ahead, sir. Dr. CORNING. I would like to review, if I may, in order to bring in a few new aspects of some of the things that have already been said, and remind you that 1 year ago, the Board of Education came before the committees of the Congress, with the approval of the Commissioners, and the unanimous approval of the Board of Education, requesting a $600 increase for teachers. That was based upon the fact that at that time the Government employees were receiving a 14 percent increase in wages. The Board of Education and the officers of the school districtSenator CAIN. Let me interrupt you, sir, for one moment, and make a comment to Commissioner Mason. Despite that fact, Mr. Comissioner, that your board has not yet given exhaustive study to this proposed bill, let me ask whether or not it would be your intention, however the moneys were to be raised, to support at least a continuation of the $450 that were made available by emergency legislation. Commissioner MASON. Yes. Senator CAIN. We, therefore, are talking about the difference. Senator CAIN. And any differences that might arise, between the $450 and the sum total requested. Commissioner MASON. Yes. Senator CAIN. I see. Dr. CORNING. Well, at that time the Government employees were receiving 14 percent as an increase. We applied that 14 percent to our total pay roll, the people affected by this bill, and instead of putting it on a percentage basis, disbursed it on a flat basis of $600 in our request on the theory that we believed it was sound, and still believe it is sound, that the percentage increase would have caused a disproportionate amount of increase in amounts of money to the higher salaries, so the $600 was requested. Senator CAIN. How did the $600 compare with the 14 percent in dollars? Dr. CORNING. It would have cost more in money. Then, through the deliberations of Congress the proposed increase was reduced to $450, the flat increase for this year only, as has been explained to you, and with the mandate that went along with it, that we report directly to Congress. I do hope that there is no misunderstanding of that whatever, because we were mandated by Congress to report directly to you. At the same time, for the information of the Commissioners we sent everything to them at exactly the same time it was sent down to the hill. As Mrs. Doyle indicated, we did have a hearing at the Commissioners' office in which the whole thing was discussed also. So, we are here today in response to that mandate. I would like to review very briefly with you some of the steps that we took to follow a democratic method in arriving at this salary proposal. The general study was referred to the joint legislative council, which is an organization representative of something over 40 organizations within the school district. The chairman of that joint legislative council is here today. Senator CAIN. That is a lay committee? Doctor CORNING. No; that is a professional committee within our own group. They spent months of study on the salary schedule and had many, many meetings, most of them were night meetings; and I think they deserve a very great deal of credit for the diligence in the way they went at the study. No school time was used whatever; what they did they did on their own time. They then submitted a report to the superintendent of schools, giving their findings. That report was very carefully screened by the officers. The superintendent then called meetings of all of the teachers, and before he made any recommendation to the Board of Education, discussed with the teachers what the inclusions in that recommendation would be. Now, I might say parenthetically, that as a result of that initial responsibility, which we did not ask for, we had dozens of organiza tions and groups and the faculties of schools writing in giving their endorsement to the plan. But in addition to that, the officers themselves held hearings in the office of the superintendent of schools for any groups or any individuals interested in the proposals who could come to the officers and explain their points of view. Then the superintendent made a recommendation to the Board of Education. The Board of Education considered through its committees, as has been explained to you, the recommendations that went to the Board, and included the majority of the requests that had been made, though some were not included. The Board of Education held hearings on the proposal before they accepted it. Finally, the Board adopted the schedule which is incorporated in the bill that is before you. The report to the committees of Congress was delivered on January 31, 1947, and then later, as has been explained, the legislation itself was drawn. Now, I will have to go back for just a few moments, if I may, to the r need we think brings this about. There is no need of commenting to you gentlemen about the crisis in education; it is very serious. It is one of the most serious problems facing the American public today the country over. It has been termed as the case of the vanishing teacher, and that is very aptly put because that is what it amounts to. Mr. BATES. It is just typical of what we experienced in 20, 21, and '22. Doctor CORNING. Except, sir, that I went through that, too, and I have never seen anything to compare with this. Mr. BATES. I was all over that myself. Senator CAIN. I was not through the first one, but knowing certain other States, I have got a great sympathy and some reasonable understanding of what your are talking about. But you are saying it with the same vehemence and fervor that any school superintendent in America could say it. Go right ahead-and with good cause. Mr. BATES. I think there is some jurisdiction. Doctor CORNING. That puts me in pretty good company. Senator CAIN. It does, indeed. Mr. BATES. That is right. Doctor CORNING. Just to give you a few figures on that Nationwide situation, it is estimated this year that there are 865,000 teachers employed, whereas, in the thirties there were 900,000. Of the 865.000, 109,000 of them are on substandard bases at the present time. There are 75,000 vacancies in the schools of America at the present. Senator CAIN. What do you refer to when you say substandard? Doctor CORNING. Emergency certificates that have been granted allowing people to teach without adequate training and qualifications. There are 350,000 school teachers who have left the profession since 1939. That is a thing to give us pause the country over. The most serious phase is from the teacher-training angle. The population of teacher's training institutions has been greatly reduced. and there has been very little done during the war in teacher-training, although in general college training, a great deal is being done now. In teacher training, it is rather interesting to note that in the North Central States, based on the report of the North Central Association, which is the Midwest accrediting agency for high schools and colleges, |