Any help you may need from me concerning this matter will be gladly given. I shall be back in Port Neches from time to time in the next several months, and will be glad to meet with your school board personally if requested. Very truly yours, PORT NECHES SAFETY COUNCIL, NOTE. Mr. E. E. Edmondson, Jr., was Safety Director of Neches Butane Products Co. from the beginning of its operation until June 1948. LETTER OF EDGAR FULLER, EXECUTIVE SECRETARY, NATIONAL COUNCIL OF NATIONAL COUNCIL OF CHIEF STATE SCHOOL OFFICERS, Hon. HUBERT H. HUMPHREY, Chairman, Subcommittee to Authorize School Construction, Committee on Labor and Public Welfare, Washington, D. C. DEAR SENATOR HUMPHREY: Enclosed are some materials which you may regard as desirable for the record of the hearings on school construction. I understand these will be open for a week or so. The New Jersey survey is submitted as typical of the surveys in a considerable number of States. It is not one of the States of greatest need. The other statements of need in local school districts might be added to the lists which have already been accepted for the record in connection with my own testimony, as appendix "C." Cordially yours, EDGAR FULLER, Executive Secretary. NORTH KINGSTOWN PUBLIC SCHOOLS, Dr. MICHAEL F. WALSH, Director of Education, Providence 3, R. I. DEAR DR. WALSH: Thank you for your inquiry of April 15, 1949. In order that you may pass along this information to Mr. Fuller, I shall try to make it brief and to the point. North Kingstown, R. I.: Incorporated within this township are the United States Naval Air Station at Quonset Point; administrative units and personnel, dock facilities and divers depots and storage dumps. $850,000 has been appropriated by the taxpayers within the past year for school-expansion facilities. $330,000 of this is committed to an eight-room addition to the Wickford Elementary School now about 80 percent completed. $520,000 is needed to relieve overcrowding in the high-school building which has necessitated two shifts since October 6, 1941. A new six-grade elementary school is needed in the north end of the town at an estimated cost of $350,000, including land and equipment. An increase in the physical-education and shop facilities at the high school is needed but cannot be included in the $520,000 program. This additional cost will run somewhere between $225,000 to $250,000. One or two of the outlying schools may be inadequate within the next 3-year period necessitating additional capital outlays approximating $100,000 at current costs. It would appear that North Kingstown, doing everything possible to assume its own financial responsibilities in support of public education, is going to be about $700,000 short in its program. Any further bonded indebtedness will be out of the question both as to the effect it would have upon the tax rate as well as upon the solvency of the community. Sincerely yours, HIRAM A. DAVIS, Superintendent of Schools. THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, Mr. CLYDE A. ERWIN, Washington 6, D. C. DEAR MR. ERWIN: Following receipt of your circular letter of May 26, addressed to all chief State school officers, I asked our division of school buildings and grounds to prepare a case history of one of our school districts which was having difficulty in taking care of its school plant needs. The case history of the Cambridge central school district has been submitted. The Cambridge central district has an enrollment of 623 pupils and a property valuation of $3,029,881. The school building of the district burned 2 years ago leaving only a small gymnasium and four classrooms. For 2 years the children of the school have been scattered throughout the district in five different buildings which have been taken over as temporary school quarters and are most inadequate. The estimated cost to construct minimum facilities for this district, based on sound economical planning, is $935,000. This is more than 31 percent of the valuation of the district. A school district should not be expected to bond itself for an amount equal to substantially one-third of the valuation of the district. Although the State will contribute about one-third of the cost of this project, the total bond issue remains a sole obligation of the Cambridge school district. Furthermore, even if the State's contribution is deducted from the total cost, the district's share of the cost amounts to about 21 percent of the valuation of the district. I trust that this information will be helpful to you. Sincerely yours, FRANCIS T. SPAULDING. In Telfair County, Ga., with an active enrollment of 4,167 has a total of 109 classrooms now in use, necessitating an average of over 38 pupils per room. Twenty-seven classrooms cannot be made fit for use and must be replaced. the Ocmulgee attendance area, two barrack-type temporary buildings are now used to house both elementary and high school program, since the original brick building was destroyed by fire. Enrollments have increased, and a census of pre-school children indicate further increase. In all, a total of 88 additional classrooms are required. The size and condition of school sites, provision of facilities for the lunch program, health and physical education including recreation, and for the expanding 12-year program are critically inadequate. Lighting, heating, etc. are not satisfactory. The total cost of providing adequate school plant facilities in the county is estimated at $954,150. The maximum local funds possible if legal limit is approved will be $189,700. This means that to provide those facilities which will make possible a good school program in Telfair County, a sum of $764,450, not now in sight, will be required. LETTER OF HON. LYNDON B. JOHNSON, A UNITED STATES SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF TEXAS, TRANSMITTING STATEMENT OF J. M. HANKS, SUPERINTENDENT OF YSLETA, TEX., PUBLIC SCHOOLS Hon. HUBERT HUMPHREY, Chairman, Subcommittee for S. 287, UNITED STATES SENATE, COMMITTEE ON ARMED SERVICES, June 14, 1949. Committee on Labor and Public Welfare, United States Senate. MY DEAR SENATOR: In a long-distance telephone conversation, Mr. J. M. Hanks, superintendent of the Ysleta, Tex., public schools, informed me today that he will be unable to appear before your subcommittee considering S. 287. Mr. Hanks asked, however, that I submit to you the attached statement expressing the interest of the Ysleta independent school district in passage of this legislation. I hope that you will be kind enough to incorporate Mr. Hanks' statement into the record and give consideration to the views which he expresses. Thanking you for your courtesy, I am Sincerely, LYNDON B. JOHNSON. To: Congress of the United States. YSLETA PUBLIC SCHOOLS, From: J. M. Hanks, superintendent of schools, Ysleta, Tex. Subject: Statement of needs of the Ysleta Independent School District in support of Senate bill No. 287. Senate bill No. 287, as amended, will authorize Federal aid for the construction of additional school facilities in school districts overburdened with school enrollment caused by war activities and the transition from war to peacetime conditions. The Biggs Field Air Force Base and Fort Bliss Military Reservation are located adjacent to the boundaries of the Ysleta Independent School District. William Beaumont General Hospital also is near the boundaries of the district. Since these installations are rather permanent, you will find a certain amount of activity at all times but during the war the housing facilities of the community were taxed beyond capacity. In recent months with both Biggs Field and Fort Bliss as established training centers this section is almost back to wartime situations. It seems there will be no relief in the future. We would like to point out the fact that a large number of military families, as well as civilians employed at the army installations, moved to the valley, which makes up a large part of the Ysleta Independent School District, since it is easier to find housing facilities in some of the new residential districts. This residential area, being accessible to the Army installations, makes the valley a desirable place in which to live. The Ysleta Independent School District would qualify for buildings under this bill which it is financially unable to provide out of local funds. In support of the foregoing I would like to offer the following information: Enrollment last normal year 1940-41 (mid-year)_ Estimated enrollment for 1949–50_ Estimated enrollment 1919-50 attributable to Federal activity Scholastic enumeration, March 1948. Scholastic enumeration, March 1949 Number of students on half-day sessions, 1948-49_. 2, 145 4, 024 4, 400 900 3, 754 4, 528 550 800 92 140 Number of students estimated to be on half-day sessions, 1949-50-- Estimated cost of constructing additional 48 classrooms needed.. Estimated replacement cost of present buildings. Estimated cost of additional facilities, plus present replacement costs $720, 000 $80, 000 $1,250,000 $2, 050, 000 $410, 000 $500,00 The estimated enrollment of 4,400 for the school year 1949-50 is based on the following information: The scholastic enumeration in the Ysleta Independent School District as of March 1948 showed 3,754 scholastics and the scholastic enumeration as of March 1949 which has just been completed, shows a total of 4,528 scholastics. This would indicate that a large number of students moved into the district after the census had been taken in 1948. In view of this increase in scholastic population it seems that the estimated enrollment of 4,400 for the school year 1949-50 is rather conservative. The estimated cost of replacing the present buildings and anticipated needs was furnished by a firm of architects who are familiar with school costs. The estimated 900 students enrolled attributable to Federal activity represents. 20 percent of the total estimated enrollment for the year 1949-50. The figure of $410,000, the estimated cost of facilities attributable to Federal activity, was arrived at by taking 20 percent of $2,050,000, which represents the present building replacement value plus the anticipated needs. The taxpayers of the Ysleta independent school district, in an effort to solve their own problem, increased the tax rate from $1 to $1.50, which is the legal limit in Texas. Even though the district may legally issue additional bonds in the amount of approximately $300,000 the money for this debt service must come from local funds now used for maintenance and operation. Any funds taken from this source would increase the maintenance and operation deficit now being met by funds from the Bureau of Facilities, Federal Works Agency. LETTER OF THOMAS B. KEEHN, LEGISLATIVE SECRETARY, COUNCIL FOR SOCIAL ACTION, CONGREGATIONAL CHRISTIAN CHURCHES Senator HUBERT HUMPHREY, Chairman, Senate Labor and Public Welfare Subcommittee on Federal Aid for School Facilities. DEAR SENATOR HUMPHREY: This statement is submitted on behalf of the Council for Social Action of the Congregational Christian Churches. It represents only the Council for Social Action. In a democratic organization like the Congregational Christian Churches, no individual or group is empowered to speak for members and churches. Because the Council for Social Action of the Congregational Christian Churches believes that every child has the moral right to an education so that he may utilize to the fullest his God-given talents, the council wishes to go on record supporting the Federal aid for school construction program as a needed companion to the federal aid to education program. We have long suprorted the Tederal aid to education program. But the job of giving every child in the United States the opportunity of an adequate education will be only partially done if the States are not also given help to build decent schools. It is obvious that books and teachers, while very important, cannot alone make a good education if the child is handicapped by overcrowded classrooms, poorly equipped schools or shortened school sessions. Yet the Office of Education reports that today 5,000,000 children are attending overcrowded school buildings and that several million more are attending classes in improvised buildings entirely unsuited for education. Moreover, 500,000 are on half-day schedules, getting just one-half of their share of education. The school housing situation today is serious, but the council is worried by the signs that it will become much worse. The United States Census Bureau forecasts that room will have to be made in the Nation's schools for about 8,000,000 additional enrollments over the next 10 years. At the present schoolbuilding rate, which is only one-quarter of what it was in the 1920's it would take many years just to house adequately the students we now have in school, let alone the increased enrollments expected. Back in the communities where our churches are located we face this problem first hand. We see the small, poorly ventilated classroom holding 80 bored children. We see the school board struggling unsuccessfully to finance an adequate school fatally handicapped by an approaching debt limitation. We know the community's desperate need for help in dealing with this problem, national in its size and importance. The Federal Government alone is able to give this help. As we have not been afraid of the bugaboo, "Federal control of the schools" in the Federal aid to educatlon program, neither are we afraid of it in the Federal aid to school construction program. For years the Federal Government has been giving grants to universities and colleges without controlling education in those fields. Now is the time to help elementary and secondary schools with the basic educational problems which are even more vital to the Nation's wellbeing. The children's need for desks of their own, for a well-equipped science laboratory for their experiments in an exciting atom age, for a safe schoolhouse-fire-retardent inside as well as out-cannot be postponed, for their schooldays are now or never. But for other reasons of Nation-wide school construction program would be very opportune now. Construction costs are down from high inflation levels. Montgomery County in Maryland, for example, this year is able to build classrooms at an average cost of $13,625, compared to an average cost of $20,000 last year. With the lowered construction costs moreover has come a slack in the postwar business activity. Now is the time to make plans for cushioning the effect of a possibly serious slump. Maj. Gen. Philip B. Fleming, the former Administrator of the Federal Works Agency, has pointed out that the present $4,500,000,000 reserve of public works would make up only about one-third of the lag in construction work, if it fell off one-half from the high level expected for this year. Construction of the needed schools alone could meet almost two-thirds of the lag. We cannot afford to wait until the present slowing down of business turns into a crisis. It takes time-from 6 months to 2 years-to turn a need for a school into on-the-site employment. We must get started now on the first steps of a Nationwide school construction program, as an important part of any over-all plan to prevent depression. We are interested that the school construction bill which will be supported by this committee have certain provisions in it. To insure that Federal funds will only be used to help build the best possible school buildings for the Nation's children, without interfering in any way with the State's freedom to determine its schools' physical plant set-up, we believe a provision should be included requiring basic construction standards, set up and carried out under the supervision of a Federal agency experienced in construction projects. Because we believe that every child, no matter where he happens to be born, is entitled to the opportunity for an education equal to that of any other child, it would like to see a provision in the final bill for granting more funds to the States with the most children and the least money. Then the Southern States with onethird of the Nation's children and only one-ninth of the Nation's wealth will be able to build their needed schools. Both S. 1670 and S. 287 have provisions which take into account in apportioning funds the per capita income of the States as well as the number of children in the States and we hope the committee will choose the more practical formula of these two bills. We also believe that this opportunity for an education equal to that of any other child cannot be morally denied to any child because of his race. For that reason, we would like to see specifically defined in the school construction program that where there are dual school systems funds be allotted to each school system in the proportion of the number of children enrolled in each system. The "equitable" distribution of funds asked in S. 287 without definition of "equitable" insures little if anything. Another provision of the Council for Social Action would like to see included in the school construction bill is an assurance that prevailing wage rates will be complied with on school building projects. While it is a temptation to cut cost corners by under paying the workers, no sound public works program with any effect on the Nation's economy can be built upon the imposition of below scale wages. The Council for Social Action of the Congregational Christian Churches is supporting a school construction program with these provisions to insure that every child in the United States has the chance to go to a decent school and to help cushion the threatening slump of the Nation's economy. We respectfully request that this letter be included in the hearings on the Federal aid to school construction program. Sincerely yours, THOMAS B. KEEHN, Legislative Secretary. LETTER OF HON. WARREN G. MAGNUSON, A UNITED STATES SENATOR from the STATE OF WASHINGTON, TRANSMITTING LETTER FROM DONALD I. CADY, SUPERINTENDENT OF SOUTH CENTRAL PUBLIC SCHOOLS, SEATTLE, Wash. Hon. HUBERT H. HUMPHREY, UNITED STATES SENATE, Chairman, Subcommittee on Appropriations, United States Senate. June 10, 1949. DEAR SENATOR: Attached is a letter I have just received from Donald I. Cady, superintendent of the south Seattle public schools of Seattle, Wash. Mr. Cady asks that his letter be placed in the record. I understand school superintendents from districts drastically overburdened with Federal activity will testify before your subcommittee on Tuesday. Perhaps Mr. Cady's letter could be inserted as part of that testimony. I have followed the hearings as closely as possible, congratulate you on the job you are doing and sincerely hope for a favorable report on S. 287 or some modification of it. Best personal regards. Hon. WARREN G. MAGNUSON, WARREN G. MAGNUSON, U. S. S. SOUTH CENTRAL PUBLIC SCHOOLS, United States Senate, Washington, D. C. DEAR SENATOR MAGNUSON: South Central School District No. 406 is one of the districts close to Seattle that has suffered greatly in the past years due to a sudden increase in enrollment caused by an influx of people from the Midwest |