FEDERAL ASSISTANCE FOR CONSTRUCTION OF

PUBLIC SCHOOLS

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 8, 1949

UNITED STATES SENATE,

SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE ON

LABOR AND PUBLIC WELFARE,
Washington, D. C.

The subcommitee met, pursuant to adjournment, at 10:25 a. m., in room 412, Senate Office Building, Senator Hubert H. Humphrey presiding.

Present: Senator Humphrey.

Senator HUMPHREY. I think we had better get on with the program. We have three witnesses today. Will you start your testimony? Give your name, your occupation, and so on.

STATEMENT OF AUSTIN R. MEADOWS, STATE SUPERINTENDENT OF EDUCATION OF ALABAMA, AND CHAIRMAN, LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE, NATIONAL COUNCIL OF CHIEF STATE SCHOOL OFFICERS

Dr. MEADOWs. Mr. Chairman and members of the subcommittee, I am Austin R. Meadows, State Superintendent of Education of Alabama and chairman of the legislative committee of the National Council of Chief State School Officers. I shall present part I of the council's testimony and our executive secretary, Mr. Ed Fuller, will present part II. We hope the subcommittee will consider the two parts together.

I am glad to appear here as a spokesman for the council. The members of the council are the State superintendents and commissioners of education of each of the 48 States and of each Territory. No group of educational officials is more interested in all Federal legislation concerning education, for we are responsible to the Federal Government for the administration of most federally aided publicschool programs in the States. We are particularly concerned with the problem of financing the new school construction, which is so urgently needed for the public schools.

The chief State school officers have major professional and legal responsibility for coordinating Federal, State, and local educational programs into practicable and efficient State systems of education. We are already responsible to the Federal Government for such federally aided educational programs as the distribution of surplus property to schools and colleges, the school lunch, vocational rehabilitation, vocational education, and others. Our State functions in regard to these programs and to all other educational programs are similar: To supply leadership, general supervision, and, when necessary,

enforcement of reasonable minimum standards of education as defined by the laws of the State. We have special responsibilities for the school plant under the laws of most States.

Senator, I have briefed this down to 15 minutes.

Senator HUMPHREY. If you would like your whole statement incorporated in the record, we will make that possible.

Dr. MEADOws. I think this will be sufficient.

Senator HUMPHREY. All right, fine.

Dr. MEADOWS. The needs for school construction are generally understood over the country.

The critical need for school plant construction is a matter of common knowledge and is of great concern to millions of Americans. This critical need has been and still is accumulating.

One of the important causes of the present school building shortage is the increase in the birth rate from 17.9 per thousand population in 1940 to 25.9 per thousand population in 1947. Thus far, only the elementary schools have felt the impact of this increased birth rate. We know there will be tremendous cumulative increases in school enrollments during the next few years. The Bureau of the Census predicts that the total enrollment in elementary and secondary schools will jump from 24,546,000 in 1947 to 34,091,000 in 1957. That is approximately a nine and a half million increase.

The Council of State Governments in its May 1949 report on the 48 State school systems estimates new classroom needs at 440,000 to 480,000 by 1959, including 250,000 for increased enrollment in grades 1 to 12. This increased enrollment is coming in grades 1 to 12.

THE LAG IN SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION

School enrollment in this country has always increased faster than school plant construction. The lag in school construction has been sharp since 1930. During the depression years, local communities were unable to finance construction needed then. During the war years, neither materials nor labor were available. There was almost no new school construction from 1939 to 1946 due to the war effort and the scarcity of materials. Of course, there was some in these Federal aid projects in war defense areas on an emergency basis.

Since 1946, building costs have soared beyond the financial reach of most local school districts. The building of public elementary and secondary schools reached the highest dollar value in 1948 since 1925, but not as many schoolrooms were constructed during the average year in the 1920's, because they were so mych cheaper then. The dollar value does not represent the same number of classrooms. The cost per room was more than twice as high in 1948 as in 1925. We are neither reducing the long-time backlog of accumulated school plant needs nor meeting current emergency demands.

Another special reason for the need of additional funds is this backlog of school construction for Negroes. In many communities in the South, and I know in my State back 15, 20, or 25 years ago, school buildings were constructed on a matching basis with people donating part of the cost. As a result the community or the race which could not provide the local effort just failed to get adequate classrooms.

Senator HUMPHREY. May I interrupt there. Yesterday for the purposes of the record and in order to build a legislative history in

reference to these particular bills that are before the committee, I asked some questions of Dr. Alves as to whether or not the segregated school system in the South was not an extra expense, and whether or not there might not be some criticism for Federal appropriations if that duplication was an extra cost to the Federal Government.

Now, the reason I did so is that I think we need to get for the record what the condition of the school plant is with reference to the number of desks and facilities with respect to school populations. Are you crowded or are you not crowded?

Dr. MEADOWs. We are overcrowded with both races. have enough classrooms for either race.

Senator HUMPHREY. That is the information we need.

We do not

Dr. MEADOWS. There is no unnecessary duplication as far as I know in the South with reference to segregated schools, because we do not have enough classrooms for either race.

Senator HUMPHREY. The reason I want to bring this out, and we need to take your statement on it, is that someone will get up and say in reference to legislation such as this, "Well, there is a school over here for white children that is only half full, and why do you have to go ahead and build another school for colored children? Why do you not just move them over?"

Now without regard to arguing the social pattern of segregation, somebody is likely to bring up just that sort of statement. I want to find out from those who represent the Southern States whether or not there are crowded conditions in the white schools as well as in the colored schools.

Dr. MEADOWS. Yes, sir, in general, although there may be exceptional cases that somebody may be able to bring out, the picture is that the white and Negro schools are overcrowded.

Senator HUMPHREY. So, any Federal funds that would be appropriated where the funds would be adjusted equitably between white and colored schools would not be use of funds that you might say was on a duplication basis and without actual need.

Dr. MEADOWS. It would not be an unnecessary duplication.

Senator HUMPHREY. I just need that sort of documentation for the record. Anything more that you have to say about that I am sure will be very helpful.

Dr. MEADOWS. Well, I directed or assisted in directing school surveys in my State for 17 years before I came to the position I now hold, and in those surveys I found that in our State, by and large, in the rural areas the Negroes tend to live pretty closely together and the whites live over in another area, and I could not see where there would be any unnecessary duplication even in the future in building school buildings, as far as I can see ahead in my particular State, because we do not have enough classrooms for whites, and we do not have enough classrooms for Negroes, and even the distance factor, the transportation factor would be a minor one in connection with any additional

cost.

I think that the record bears out that these Southern States-most of them pretty well bear a reasonable burden for the whole school situation. For example, New Mexico, I believe ranks No. 1 in the rate of effort, that is in the part of their money used in terms of the income that they put into education.

I believe Mississippi ranks No. 2. My State ranks with the 48 States, 17.5, which ties in with some other States in this whole picture,

and yet we have not been able to build enough school buildings for either race.

Senator HUMPHREY. That is the kind of material I think would be very helpful.

Dr. MEADOWS. I have found in surveys looking way ahead that it would not be unnecessary duplication to maintain segregated schools there in these rural areas. In the cities they tend to group together in the South. When you take into consideration the distance factor of children walking to school, you will not have, in general, unnecessary duplication in the future, as I see the picture, by having segregated schools.

Senator HUMPHREY. And, of course, there is no way, is there, that you can guarantee that every foot of usable space will be used in any school in any particular area? I mean there is no guaranty of that.

You might build a school here, let us say, in the north part of the city, and have another school in the south part of the city, but the distance factor is so great that even if there were some empty seats or some partly filled classrooms in the north part of the city, it might not be economical to transport the children that far. It might be better to build extra classroom facilities in the south part to take care of the population there. Is that not correct?

Dr. MEADOWs. That is right; that is correct. You are familiar with that backlog of need for the Negro race and for the white race, too.

The Federal courts have insisted that the facilities be equalized between the races, and this backlog of need strikes most in the area of the country where the school facilities for white children are often meager and they are inadequate, as I have just said. In spite of the great progess that these Southern States have made, numerous southern school boards cannot finance equalization of school facilities for the races, and they cannot put them in the white schools because there is not space there for them. It is just an inadequacy there. Federal aid is needed to alleviate this situation.

Senator HUMPHREY. And the Southern States as a group are contributing on the basis of the States, a disproportionate share of income to education as compared to some Northern States, is that not correct? Dr. MEADOWS. That is right, to some of the wealthier States; the poorer States are.

Another reason for this building lag is found in the shifting population. All of us know that certain far Western States have increased their population early 50 percent during the last decade. Their school population has increased at an even faster rate, because the new arrivals have been families with more than the average number of children of school age. Many children attend school only half-time or under conditions of crowding which make good educational progress impossible.

Another reason for this lag in the school-building program in America that I think is especially important is the expanding of the school program in America. Communities and States with low economic ability have found it impossible to provide even meager buildings for all children, and they find it even more difficult to provide school facilities to house the needed programs.

This condition tends to limit the construction to that of merely providing shelter from the weather, without enough attention being

given to proper lighting or to heating or to sanitation, to say nothing of pupil educational activities that ought to be carried on in these schools.

We have expanded in education due to the demands of the people for the three R's to include at least some of the following educational activities: Vocational education for which Federal funds have been provided for current operation since 1917, but not for classrooms in which to offer such education. That burden has been left to the States.

That is not a criticism, but just a statement of facts. The national school-lunch program for which Federal funds are provided directly to provide adequate meals and surplus commodities, but not for the construction of lunchrooms.

Industrial education through trade schools and shops to meet the demands of industrial expansion in America, with which we are all familiar.

Education in the fine arts which is being increasingly demanded by the people of this country. They want to go beyond just those three R's. They are not satisfied with just those three R's. We do not have to propose it to them. They come in and demand it.

Education in social studies, especially in democratic Government for a free people, conservation of natural resources, and health. Those require additional teachers. They require space over and above that of just grouping children together in classrooms to get at the three R's of reading, writing, and arithmetic.

You require shops, vocational buildings, lunchrooms, places for people to meet, and places to have material, and all that takes space over and beyond what you had 25 and 30 years ago.

The inability of school districts and States to meet school building needs: Although the people of America have emphasized their desire for additional school facilities, they have not been able to satisfy their desires through State and community action. Thousands of school districts are handicapped by statutory debt and tax restrictions and limitations in State constitutions, at least one of which requires 5 years to change.

School boards have felt compelled to use increased State and local funds predominantly to increase teachers' salaries to check the exodus of teachers from the classroom. Last year I had to issue over 7,000 emergency certificates to teachers who could not qualify for regular certificates under standards set up in 1939 of requiring only 3 years of college training in order to get a certificate, and this year I have had to issue over 6,000 emergency certificates for a similar number of positions out of less than 21,000 teaching positions, so our local school boards have felt compelled to apply every dollar they could into teachers' salaries in order to check this exodus from the teaching profession, get it stopped so we can start back and build again.

I think Alabama made in 1948 about the third greatest increase in public school funds available for schools for current operation in the Nation, and we still were not able to start building back. We have stopped the exodus. We issued a thousand less certificates this year than we did the previous year.

Forty-four percent of all of our teachers out of less than 21,000 teaching positions have less than the minimum standards required for certifying teachers in 1939 for new teachers, and most of that is out