NPA to make proper allocation for educational purposes of critical construction materials. This failure on the part of the NPA is probably due to the fact that there is not a recognition of the urgent need and requirement for going forward with our school-construction programs. It is my hope and belief that the attention and study which this committee will focus upon this problem will assist materially in bringing about a recognition by appropriate authorities so that additional allocations of construction materials can be made available for proper, urgently needed educational purposes. I think we all recognize that our Nation is bending every effort toward recovering adequate national defense on a long-term basis. It is my firm belief that in such a program adequate provision must be made for the education of our youth. This seems, in my humble opinion, to be one of the essential factors of a well-balanced, long-term defense program. The present defense effort, however, is under great pressures; and, unfortunately, those who represent our educational requirement are not in the picture enough so that proper valuation can be given to their representations of educational requirements. Therefore the work of this committee seems most essential in helping bring about the recognition which is so vitally needed at the present time if a reasonable and proper amount of construction materials are to be made available for school-construction purposes. I want to join other Members of Congress and the various educational associations which have been represented before this committee in urging that this committee make every possible effort with the least possible delay in order to bring about a full recognition of the urgent needs for school construction so that NPA will make the necessary allocations of construction materials available for this purpose. Whatever I may be able to do to be of assistance to the committee, I shall be glad to do, and I hope that the committee will go into the problem in every detail so that an early and satisfactory solution may be soon found. STATEMENT OF WILLIAM A. EARLY, SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS, ARLINGTON COUNTY, VA. Mr. MORTON. We will next hear Mr. William A. Early, superintendent of schools, Arlington, Va. Mr. EARLY. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, my name is William A. Early, and I am superintendent of schools of Arlington County, Va. I have a prepared statement which I would like to read for inclusion in the record at this point, if it is so desired. Mr. MORTON. You may proceed. Mr. EARLY. Thank you. Arlington County, Va., is in such critical need of steel for school construction that the school administration deeply appreciates the opportunity to present before this group the details of the serious problem confronting us. Arlington has seen its population mushroom from 57,000 in 1940 to 135,000 in 1950 and to an estimated 144,000 today. In 1940 the total enrollment in our schools was 8,118. By 1946-47 there were 10,264 pupils in average daily attendance. These pupils were housed in schools built over a period of 50 years. Since 1947 our enrollment has grown to 17,480 pupils, and Arlington. has spent approximately $7,330,000 for new school construction. This provided 84 elementary classrooms and a junior high school for 1,000 pupils. It also paid for physical-education additions to WashingtonLee and Hoffman-Boston High Schools, which are still under construction. In spite of the extensive school-building program in which Arlington has been engaged, the county now finds itself seriously short of space for the 17,480 pupils currently enrolled in its public schools. These 17,480 pupils attend classes in buildings built to care for 13,200 students. The emergency is being met in part by having 2,200 pupils attend school on a shift basis, with half of them attending classes for 4 hours in the morning and half attending classes for 4 hours in the afternoon. Other pupils attend school in emergency classrooms made from former basement playrooms, from school auditoriums, and from libraries and office space. Still others are cared for by crowding present facilities. An example of this is the new Stratford Junior High School, opened last March to accommodate 1,000 pupils, but with 1,276 attending classes there today. Another example of serious crowding is at Washington-Lee High School, built for 1,900 students and now filled far beyond its capacity with 2,400. Seven classrooms have been built in a remodeled warehouse to house some Washington-Lee classes. Another emergency measure is the use of two residences, one nearly two blocks from the school, to care for girls studying home economics. The State school census and the Federal census prove unquestionably that Arlington will have at least 1,500 more pupils in its public schools next year than are in its classrooms now. This same rate of increase of 1,500 pupils each year will continue each year until at least 1957 because there are as many or more pupils of preschool age in Arlington today than there are in the entire school system. By 1957, it is estimated that there will be 24,500 pupils in our Arlington schools. Our increase this year is approximately 1,400 pupils above our total enrollment of last year. This fact was predicted by the school administration 32 years ago after a special school census. All factors point to a continued growing school population in Arlington. A large segment of the county's residents work for the Federal Government. Fresent world tensions will make it necessary for the United States to continue indefinitely in a state of military preparedness. Therefore, there appears to be little probability that there will be any curtailment of Federal employment for many years to come. Construction in Arlington of the largest retail shopping center in Northern Virginia will furnish much more private employment than has been available previously. This will also result in a constantly growing school enrollment. A recent economic survey indicates that there will be 200,000 people living in Arlington by 1960. The immediate critical need for steel exists today because Arlington is just launching another phase of its urgently needed school building program. Last April Arlington voters authorized bonds of $4,875,000 for six major construction projects. Plans for all these buildings are well under way and steel allotments totaling 1,020 tons will be needed to complete them. The separate projects are as follows: Wakefield junior-senior high school for 2,000 students- Nottingham Elementary, 20 classrooms- Tons 702 53 93 110 37 25 1, 020 Arlington has obtained priorities for the 25 tons of steel required at the Jackson addition and for the 93 tons needed at Nottingham School. With only this small percentage of our requirements allocated so far, we shall require 902 additional tons of steel to complete the school buildings authorized under last April's bond issue. It is important to point out that Arlington has changed its school construction to cut down on the use of steel. Instead of building the proposed new structures on a steel framework, such as was used in the schools built during the last 3 years, Arlington is now building all its schools of reinforced concrete. The reinforcement will require considerably less steel than would have been required for the same buildings if they had been built according to the method in use here since 1948. I have outlined specifically the need for steel to build schools for our Arlington children. The announcement of allocations for the months ahead would indicate that—in spite of our great need-there will be no steel for us. That is why we must appeal to this committee. On a recent trip I was struck by the fact that there is much construction going on. I venture to say that many of the projects are less important than classrooms for our children-yet there does not seem to be enough steel for schools. I brought with me today the clipping that you put in the record a moment ago on Woodward & Lothrop. (The article referred to follows:) [From the Washington Post] WOODWARD's To CONSTRUCT NEW STORE Excavation has been begun on a new Woodward & Lothrop branch store in Alexandria, Andrew Parker, firm president, announced yesterday. The two-story colonial building, designed to blend with the prevailing colonial type architecture, will occupy an entire city block bounded by Washington, Wythe, Saint Asaph, and Pendleton Streets. Though not a complete department store, it will feature women's misses', children's, men's, and boys' clothing and accessories. Construction of the building containing approximately 25,000 square feet, will be completed by 1952, store spokesmen estimated it will have parking facilities for about 200 cars. The property is owned by Garfield I. Kass, Washington real-estate man, and the building and parking space will be rented from him under a long-term lease with renewal options. Architects are Starrett and Van Vleck, of New York, with Raymond Loewy, nationally recognized architect, doing the interior. Store spokesmen said the new store will not alter Woodward & Lothrop's plans to open a major complete suburban store unit elsewhere in Virginia as soon as conditions permit. Property on South Glebe Road, about 100 yards south of Lee Boulevard, in Arlington, owned by Woodward & Lothrop, has been tied up in courts in a controversy over zoning. Woodward & Lothrop has branch stores in the Pentagon and at 7201 Wisconsin Avenue, Bethesda. Cost of the new building has not yet been determined. Arlington is a federally affected area. A careful and exact survey a year ago showed that approximately one-half of the pupils in our Arlington schools are children of men and women and moved here to work for the Federal Government. Despite the fact that we are recognized as a federally affected area, Arlington has never received 1 cent of Federal funds for school construction. Our own taxpayers have paid for all the schools we have built. As I pointed out previously, we have spent more than $7 million in the last 3 years to provide classrooms for the children who have crowded into Arlington in recent years. Now, with even more money voted by our taxpayers, and with the need for classrooms greater than ever, we are at the mercy of the steel allocations. I respectfully ask you gentlemen to consider carefully before you permit today's school construction in Arlington and in other areas of our Nation to be cut off for want of the steel we need. Steel necessary for schools is very small in proportion to the total production but it is very great in its importance to the future of our country. The Ford Foundation, in a recent report, says: All the attempts to solve the problems of human welfare rely heavily on education. Arlington, in common with other communities over the Nation, believes schools must be built, and they must be built immediately. This generation of children cannot be put in cold storage until some distant day when it is convenient to build schools. We need the schools now, and we believe they can be built without imperiling the defense effort. Thank you, gentlemen. Mr. MORTON. Thank you very much, Mr. Early. I want to make an announcement now for the benefit of those who may want to follow the hearings tomorrow. The committee will meet tomorrow at 10 a. m. in the committee room of the Merchant Marine and Fisheries Committee, which is room 219. We shall hear now from Mr. William T. Woodson, division superintendent of schools, Fairfax County School Board. STATEMENT OF W. T. WOODSON, DIVISION SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS, FAIRFAX COUNTY SCHOOL BOARD Mr. WOODSON. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, I am W. T. Woodson, superintendent of schools in Fairfax County, Va. I shall undertake to give you in some detail-although I trust it will not be too lengthythe situation that exists in the public schools of Fairfax County, which is across the river from Washington. Fairfax County today has an area of 417 square miles. The population in 1940 was 40,929. In 1950, the figure that I have is 98,557, although I could not get the exact population and I think that Judge Smith is more nearly correct when he referred to it as 104,000. He probably has more nearly accurate figures than I. We estimate that at the present time the population is approximately 120,000 and the increase is going on rapidly. As to the schools and the increased enrollments, in 1951 we had 31 white elementary schools; 4 white high schools; 10 Negro elementary schools, and 1 Negro high school. This Negro high school is in Manassas and is owned jointly with two other counties. We propose in this program to erect a high school in another county for Negroes. I would like to tell you what has happened by way of enrollments in our schools. In 1930-31, we had an enrollment of 5,095. 90912-51- -9 In 1940-41, the enrollment had increased to 8,195, an increase on the average of about 310 pupils per year. In 1946-47, over a 6-year period, the increase was approximately 469 pupils per year. Now I ask you to observe what has happened from then on. In 1947-48, the increase was 922 pupils per year; 1948-49, 1,538 pupils; 1949-50, 2,300 pupils, 1950–51, 3,185, and 1951-52, it is estimated at 3,200. On September 14, 1951, the enrollment was 18,787, an increase of 2,633 over the same date last year. A conservative estimate indicates an enrollment of 28,000 by 1955 and I would like to emphasize that we feel that is a most conservative estimate—an increase of between 9,000 and 10,000 pupils. As to existing school facilities, the county has, since 1941, despite poor building conditions during and following World War II, constructed 127 classrooms, 7 library rooms, 3 auditoriums, 3 combined. auditoriums and cafeterias, 8 cafeterias, and 9 clinics in the elementary schools. Since 1941 it has constructed in high schools 44 classrooms, 2 science laboratories, 1 band room, 3 home economics units, 6 industrial arts shops, 2 libraries, 1 cafeteria, 2 clinics, and 2 locker rooms. The county now has a total of 194 standard elementary classrooms. which should house only 5,820 (30 pupils per room) whereas the elementary enrollment is 14,235. There is a total of 104 standard high-school classrooms which should house 2,600 pupils (25 per classroom) whereas the high-school enrollment is 4,502. Pupils are distributed in spaces as follows: Acceptable classrooms: When I say acceptable, they may not meet all the requirements of the modern classroom, but we feel that they are reasonably good so that children will not suffer too much when 'attending classes in those rooms-acceptable classrooms, 214 elementary, in which we are housing 7,106 children; 104 high-school classrooms, housing 3,098 pupils. Unacceptable classrooms: That refers to makeshift classrooms, and let me say that by that I mean classrooms that were built for classroom use back before 1920, some of them back as far as 1900, that do not have proper light or ventilation and for the most part are entirely too small. In those days we did not have as many children and did not have as many pupils per teacher, but we would consider them unacceptable at the present time. In these unacceptable classrooms, in the elementary schools, there are 40 rooms, housing 1,226 pupils. In the high schools, there are 10 rooms housing 255 pupils. Principals offices: In other words, principals have been moved into storage rooms, or in corners or in corridors and their offices are being used for classrooms. In those offices we have, in the elementary schools, 4 rooms housing 114 pupils. In libraries, for the elementary schools, we have 11 rooms-and these library rooms are small, not much more than half the size of an ordinary classroom. In those libraries, in the elementary schools, 11 rooms housing 314 pupils; and in the high schools, 1 room housing 35 pupils. Partitioned auditorium rooms: We have used 2 by 4's, and Celotex and similar materials and put up framing to divide auditoriums into |