the opportunities of the rural children with those of the city. Likewise, what is true in a county system or in a State is equally true of the Nation as a whole. To afford America's children the same opportunities from an educational standpoint, property must be taxed where values are found, and children must be educated where they are found. This can be accomplished Nation-wide only with a substantial equalization fund being provided by the Federal Government. The CHAIRMAN. Dr. A. D. Holt. Dr. DAWSON. Mr. Holt had to go back to Nashville. He left a statement with me to be put into the record. I also have a statement from Mr. B. O. Duggan, commissioner of education, for the State of Tennessee, to be put in the record. The CHAIRMAN. Give them to the recorder, for insertion in the record. (The statements referred to are as follows:) STATEMENT BY A. D. HOLT, EXECUTIVE SECRETARY, TENNESSEE EDUCATION ASSOCIATION TENNESSEE'S NEED FOR FEDERAL AID TO EDUCATION Tennessee needs Federal aid to public education particularly for the following reasons: 1. To provide school facilities for children recently removed to the areas of defense activities and industry in the State. The attached table indicates the amounts the State department of education has estimated will be needed to defray the cost of additional buildings and equipment, operation cost, buses and teachers in defense areas of Tennessee. (The table above referred to is also included in the statement of B. O. Duggan and is printed as table IX, on p. 253.) 2. To increase financial support of Negro schools, made imperative by recent Federal court decisions. Although Tennessee in recent years has made commendable progress in improving its Negro schools, there are still many counties and cities in the State which have been financially unable to raise Negro teachers' salaries even to the low minimum paid white teachers. A Negro teacher of Nashville, Tenn., has recently filed suit against the city board of education for the difference between the salary he has received since becoming an employee of the board and the salary paid by the board to white teachers of similar qualifications. A careful study has shown that to raise the salaries of its 205 Negro teachers to the level of those now paid its 574 white teachers, Nashville would have to raise an additional $70,000 per year for school purposes. It has been estimated that to raise salaries of all Negro teachers to the level of those paid white teachers in the same locality would necessitate an increase of $685,000 in public school expenditures in Tennessee. If the per capita cost per student for Negroes is increased to equal the per capita amount now spent for white students an increase of $2,425,000 will be made necessary. 3. To provide children of Tennessee with educational opportunities comparable to those provided children in other States of the Nation, without imposing an unbearable burden on the State. The following table will indicate a few inequalities of educational opportunities now suffered by the children of Tennessee: The following table indicates Tennessee's comparative ability to support an adequate program of public education, as measured by certain common indexes: Percent of tax resources (Newcomber) required to support a $60 per unit minimum program: 3.3 38.6 79.2 37 STATEMENT OF B. O. DUGGAN, COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION, FOR THE STATE OF TENNESSEE, NASHVILLE TENNESSEE'S CASE FOR FEDERAL AID Educational leaders of Tennessee, along with those of other States, have been thinking for a long time that it is an obligation of the Federal Government to assist the States in the program of public education in an effort to more nearly equalize educational opportunity among the various sections of the country. For the above reason we wish to endorse, and support, the Senate bill No. 1313 which is known as the "Educational Finance Act of 1941." Below are a few of the significant facts showing prevailing conditions in Tennessee and showing our need for funds anticipated as a result of this program. Tennessee must have outside assistance for public education if its rural children are to have the advantages which the Constitution of the United States gurantees to all its citizens. A. Elementary schools.--The foundation of all education is laid in the elementary schools and for that reason these schools should be the very best possible. Since Tennessee is very largely an agricultural State a large number of its children attend rural schools which are supported in large part by local taxation. These children attend 2,542 one-room schools enrolling 76,966 pupils; 1,558 two-teacher schools enrolling 95,106 pupils; and 1,201 three-or-more-teacher schools enrolling 215,396 pupils. In other words, 45 percent of the county elementary children in Tennessee are attending either one or two teacher schools where many of the buildings are in deplorable condition, instructional supplies are lacking, health and sanitation are below normal, and in many cases young and inexperienced teachers, or older men and women teachers are working. These conditions exist in spite of the fact that the counties are spending in some instances as much as 40 percent of the total county revenue, together with an equal amount in many instances from the State funds, on their elementary schools. As long as these conditions exist it is not difficult to understand that only 81 percent of the scholastic population in Tennessee is enrolled in its elementary schools, and only 66 percent of the total scholastic population is in average daily attendance. This situation cannot be remedied until additional funds are made available for consolidation and transportation, and these funds of necessity must come from sources outside the State of Tennessee since all available revenue is now being expended on the elementary program. A study of the statistical reports shows that enrollment in the schools varies from 70 percent in strictly rural counties where so many of the one-room schools exist, to 93 percent in some counties where better facilities are available to attract the interest of the children. The same conditions cause a variation from 75 percent in average daily attendance in a strictly rural county, to 92 percent in a larger county. The size of the school is also an important factor in the matter of promotion and retardation in the elementary schools of Tennessee. A study of table III will reveal the following facts in a very striking manner: 1. The promotion of children in one-room schools of a random selection of counties varies from 54 percent to 64 percent, while promotion in a two-teacher school varied from 55 percent to 74 percent, and promotions in three-or-moreteacher schools varied from 59 percent to 79 percent. This shows that the chances for promotion are increased with larger school units. 2. The problems caused by children dropping out of school also show the weakness of the small school units since from 14 percent to 33 percent of the enrollment dropped out of one-teacher schools, 5 percent to 30 percent dropped out of two-teacher schools, and 4 percent to 25 percent dropped out of three-ormore-teacher schools. 3. The question of pupil failure is always a subject for discussion, and very rightly so, since each year that a pupil fails means an additional year of expense for the educational program of the county. Therefore, every effort should be made to provide the type of school program by which the largest possible number of children could be promoted. Our records show that failures from a random selection of counties varied from 10 percent to 32 percent in one-room schools; 5 percent to 33 percent in two-room schools; and 6 percent to 24 percent in threeor-more-room schools. In other words, the failures in the county elementary schools, both white and colored, will cost the taxpayers of Tennessee more than one and one-half million dollars for failures during 1939-40. A careful study of table IV will reveal the same conclusions reached in connection with white schools to be true with colored schools, except in a more pronounced manner. The colored children in many of the strictly agricultural sections of the State, because of the economic situation of their families, are forced to lose much time from school in order to work in the fields. The work of these children is necessary that they and their families may have food and clothing. This loss of time from school, and accompanying loss of interest, in connection with inadequate housing and poor instruction, results in a percentage of withdrawals from school and failure to complete the work of the grades as shown in the abovementioned table. The differences in educational opportunities enumerated above are almost entirely due to economic conditions arising from differences in the wealth, income, taxpaying ability of the various counties of Tennessee, and the number of children to be educated. In wealth per child enrolled in school in Tennessee there is a variation from $4,464 in one of the richer counties to $794 in a poor county as shown in table V. In other words, one county has five times as much wealth as the other providing educational facilities for its children. These facts show that it would be a physical impossibility to provide equal educational opportunity for the children of these counties without aid from outside sources. A study of table VI shows that the tax rate for elementary schools varies from 23 percent of the total amount levied for all county purposes in one county, to a total amount of 40 percent in another county, with an average of 25 percent for the State as a whole. This reveals the wide variation in tax rates necessary for a county under the present system to operate its public elementary schools. A further study of table VII shows that the State school funds required to supplement county funds varies from 27 percent in one county to 87 percent in another county. This verifies the fact that the State is making every possible effort to provide an 8-month term for each child in the State, but even then must have aid from the Federal Government to equalize opportunity for advancement as well as equality of time spent in school. On the whole, the poorer counties spend a larger proportion of their tax resources for education than the wealtheir counties as shown in table VIII. While a strictly rural county with no industry other than agriculture spends $57.60 per pupil in average daily attendance, a more wealthy county with various industrial plants to supplement its revenue spends only $18.88 per child in average daily attendance. Finally, the schools of any State cannot be better than the teaching personnel, and the best teachers cannot be obtained unless they receive at least enough money to live comfortably. Insofar as the State is concerned, the teachers, white and colored, in 84 of the 95 counties of Tennessee, receive a uniform salary based on training and experience, but everyone agrees that the salary scale is far too low. Under the schedule adopted by the State Board of Education a teacher with less than 1 year of college training receives a maximum of $400 for a term of 8 months. The scale is graduated so that a teacher with a Master's degree receives a maximum of $920 for a term of 8 months. There is a further provision which allows a principal $3 per month additional for each full-time teacher under his supervision, or $3 extra if he is principal of a one-teacher school, provided that he has completed a minimum of 2 years of work in an approved college. The State must have additional funds to supplement teachers' salaries, or all the better teachers will leave the profession to seek more lucrative employment in the various fields of industry. In fact, many of our better men teachers are already leaving the profession in large numbers. The emergency that exists today in our Nation in its defense program applies particularly to the schools of America. Not only must the school teach the youth of America the principles of democracy, but it must also instill within the soul of youth these principles. It not only must train the physical bodies of American youth to work and to endure hardship, but it must also train youth to use its brain intelligently in working out our great problems. It must not only train youth to be able to work, but it must also train youth in the skills of labor in order to turn out a worthy product. For the accomplishment of these aims, the best equipment, the best teachers, and the best environment possible must be supplied. This the local unit and the State alone cannot furnish. It therefore becomes a function of the Federal Government to see that these facilities are provided that the Nation may stand and prosper. TABLE I. This table shows the scholastic population, enrollment, average daily attendance, and the number of the various types of schools in Tennessee, white and colored TABLE II.—This data shows the scholastic population, enrollment, and average daily attendance in 6 counties chosen at random. It also shows the wide variation in the percentage of attendance and enrollment from 1 county to another TABLES III and IV.-Number of pupils enrolled, promoted, dropped, and failed in both white and colored schools of 6 counties of Tennessee ranging from rich to poor in assessed valuation 1234 CO 2. 3. 4. 5 6. 64 1, 120 4, 717 36 56 780 70 3,650 77 20 31 220 599 1, 173 1,321 384 64 770 66 904 68 157 26 270 23 225 17 58 10 133 11 192 15 1, 830 373 2, 627 975 54 212 55 1,752 67 609 33 105 30 651 25 246 13 56 15 224 8 696 597 168 375 54 349 59 122 73 98 14 44 8 7 530 193 217 340 63 119 61 127 59 101 20 10 5 37 17 5 332 6 8 20 706 15 8 13 120 10 361 4 223 32 204 33 39 23 89 17 64 34 53 24 TABLE V. Showing the assessed valuation per child in average daily attendance in 8 counties in Tennessee, selected by random TABLE VI.—Showing the valuation, tax rate for elementary schools, total county tax rate, and the percent the school rate is of the total rate TABLE VII. This table shows the amount of State funds and county funds expended on the elementary program, together with the percent of funds furnished by the State TABLE VIII.—This table shows the wide variation in cost per pupil in average daily attendance from 1 county to another The high schools of Tennessee have made phenomenal progress during the past 20 years in spite of the fact that financial support from the State has been far below what was needed. In other words, the high-school program has advanced because of careful planning and close supervision by the division of high schools of the State department of education. It must be said, however, that the course of study in the majority of the Tennessee high schools is still the academic or college preparatory course, due to the fact that these subjects can be taught with very |