In other words, we keep falling farther and farther behind every year. So, it is not the fault of the school administration that we do not have the textbooks that we need. It is because we do not have the allotment necessary. We keep getting this large influx of children, and we have no books to give them. The ever-expanding curriculum requires increased amounts of teaching materials and increased numbers as well as frequent changes of textbooks. Thus the revision of courses of study, expanding curriculum, and continual price and pupil enrollment increases necessitate additional funds for textbooks, educational supplies, and printed courses of study. Therefore, we ask for the restoration of the textbook and supply item to the original amount requested by the Board of Education. CURRICULUM PRINTING Printed courses of study which should be given to each teacher. These represent blueprints of instruction. These outlines set forth the major components of each course or subject and contain guides for use in making effective presentations. They inform each teacher as to how much material she is expected to cover within a given period of time on a particular grade level, and within various instructional groups. These guides are one of the methods by which the school administration attempts to assure a relatively uniform coverage of each subject in each of the schools where it is taught. These teaching aids are necessary for both new and experienced teachers in order that all may be guided by the same standards in each field. The need for curriculum guides increases in direct proportion to the expanding size of the enrollment because additional teachers are hired as enrollment increases. Courses of study must have frequent revisions and reprints if they are to be kept up to date. As more and more is discovered that needs to be taught, and as more and more is discovered about teaching methods and procedures, the school system will be able to do an increasingly better job if it is adequately financed. As in industry, the field of education has made rapid strides during the past two decades in the development of new and improved techniques in teaching, testing and counseling. However, in the District of Columbia public schools a review of our courses of study shows that some have not been revised for as long as 15 years because there have not been sufficient funds to allocate to this purpose. Therefore, we are asking that you restore the curriculum printing item to the 1959 budget as originally requested by the Board of Education. CONCLUSION In conclusion the educational program aims at training each individual student to the highest level of which he is capable. The trend is definitely in the direction of concentration upon the specific needs of the individual and away from mass education. The major operating needs of the District of Columbia public schools stem from the ever-increasing enrollment and from the attempts to gear the educational program to present-day requirements. 27235-58- -20 Many school items are currently being paid for from personal funds of principals, teachers, custodians, and students and from limited PTA funds or the schools are doing without these items because appropriations for operating expenses simply are not sufficient to cover them. I have attached the sheet showing some of these items. Of course, there are many, many more that I could put on there. Senator PASTORE. We will make the sheet a part of the record. (The information referred to follows:) SOME OF THE ITEMS FOR SCHOOLS BOUGHT BY EMPLOYEES OF THE SCHOOLS, PTA OR STUDENTS 1. Accreditation fees for high schools and Teachers College (these fees have been paid by student funds). 2. Reference books (such as World Book, dictionaries, etc.). 3. Bookshelves (for storing books during summer or for short time before another class uses the same series). 4. Stamps (for mail from one school to another, from school to parents or from school to administration or attendance department. All regular mail is sent by carrier truck which sometimes takes 2 to 3 weeks to send mail and receive a reply even though the answer is sent the same day the mail is delivered). 5. Radios, TV's, phonographs, and records (these are used for classroom teaching of various subjects. Almost every school bought TV's at the time that there were a number of subjects being presented by our local channels. The school authorities urged PTA's and other people to help buy them for the schools. No appropriation money was used for them). 6. Toilet tissue, soap, mops, cleansers of all types (these items were items in very short supply or of such inferior quality that they could not be used). 7. Couch covers (there is no appropriation to cover the purchase or cleaning of covers or pillow cases; these are used by children who get sick or hurt at school). 8. Linoleum rugs (kindergarten, first- and second-grade children do much work in groups on the rugs). 9. Emergency taxifare for hurt or sick children (when unable to walk home). 10. Money for emergency lunches (if for some reason child is stranded at school). 11. Miscellaneous items needed for immediate use (e. g., mousetraps, screens, hinges, braces, wire, padlocks, light bulbs). 12. Flower seeds, grass seed. 13. Ropes, balls, etc. Almost all playground equipment. 14. Raincoats for safety patrol children (their ordinary raincoats are not heavy enough for such long periods of standing in the rain or snow while on duty). This is, of course, not a complete list of such items. APPROPRIATION RECOMMENDED Mrs. VAN SANFORD. All of the citizens of the District of Columbia are asking that the Congress appropriate public funds to pay these public expenses so that the schools of the District of Columbia will no longer have to beg funds from its employees, the students, or their parents. Thank you very much. Senator PASTORE. Thank you very much. STATEMENT OF MRS. FLORENCE V. CRAVER, LEGISLATIVE GENERAL STATEMENT Mrs. CRAVER. Senator Pastore, and members, I am legislative chairman of area 2B. We wish first to thank the Members of Congress who have appropriated salaries for 74 additional teachers, and for leaving intact the $26,791 for a psychiatric team in the pupil-appraisal department. We are very sorry that the $40,000 for further help in this department was deleted. "Hope springs eternal in the human breast" so we are again calling to your attention the great need for a 30 to 1 pupil-teacher average in the near future. NEED FOR MORE TEACHERS The 74 added teachers may hold the average of 33.4 where it is or possibly reduce it to 32, providing no more pupils join the waiting list of 1,210 as per the May 1958 count. We need the other 48 teachers now. If we wait another year or two the bottleneck will be terrific. True, there are not enough classrooms, but why not relieve the high employment payroll and start building some now. More teachers, elementary supervisors, counselors, assistant principals, all enter into the realization of that goal of small classes. These are greatly needed to relieve the already overburdened principals of the many conferences, letters, record searching, et cetera, necessary for proper placement of emotionally unstable children of elementary age. If we do not start to help with the young child, there will be no relief for anyone concerned with the delinquency problem in the foreseeable future. A few weeks ago Congress appropriated $6 million plus for additional dormitory space and recreational center at Occoquan. I know it was needed. I was one of a group who voted to support the bill. But are we using plain commonsense to stifle educational needs and build more prisons and reformatories? It is discouraging for educators and parents who see the need for smaller classes. Five hours a day, 40 or more pupils in a class-how much individual help can be given? RESTORATION OF SPECIAL TEACHERS REQUESTED Yes, we need counselors, assistant principals, psychologists, school nurses, social workers, all the help we can get for these emotionally disturbed youngsters. Also the normal child is entitled to his share of the 5 hours. We, therefore, earnestly request, gentlemen, that you restore the eliminations for counselors, assistant principals, the 48 teachers, sevral more psychologists, and social workers. We hope that you will agree with the House committee that in order to achieve a better educational program for the District of Columbia the construction plans should be pushed ahead rapidly. Thank you for your kind attention. MACFARLAND GUIDANCE CLINIC May I read one more letter from the chairman of the board of trustees, Macfarland Guidance Clinic, Mrs. Fern H. Jacobi. It may throw a little light on the question you asked some of the people about-emotionally disturbed children. DEAR MR. PASTORE AND MEMBERS: The board of trustees of Macfarland Guidance Clinic urge that school budget requests which directly affect the mental health of children be granted. It is our understanding that the House Appropriations Committee has recommended the psychiatric team, including a psychiatrist, a clinical psychologist, and two psychiatric social workers for the Department of Pupil Appraisal. Since psychiatric services for children are such an important need in the District of Columbia, with long waiting lists for all public services, we are pleased that the psychiatric team will be working the schools. We feel, however, that the 4 additional psychologists and 2 clerks for the Department of Pupil Appraisal, which were omitted from the budget by the House committee, are urgently needed in order to honor the thousands of requests for individual study and testing which cannot now be accomplished with the present staff. We also request respectfully that the Senate committee reinstate the provision for elementary school counselors. These counselors are urgently needed to help with study and guidance of children of elementary school age. Counseling service beyond what the teachers of our overcrowded classes can do must now be done by harrassed principals in elementary schools without assistant principals or nurses. This one item should materially help to reduce delinquency. We alo respectfully request that the Senate committee restore the 48 teacher salaries needed to bring elementary school enrollment to 32 to 1. Increased enrollment next fall will cause an even more undesirable ratio than the present 33.4 to 1. Reduction of elementary class size to a 30 to 1 ratio by additional teacher salaries still remains the prime mental health need in our schools. Sincerely yours, FERN H. JACOBI, Chairman, Board of Trustees, Macfarland Guidance Clinic. I would like to add that this Macfarland Guidance Clinic has been in operation 3 years, and it has not had one cent from the school appropriations-it is not budgeted by the schools. Funds for its operation are contributed by the citizens organizations in the area and other charitably inclined organizations that give as much as they can afford each year. And the workers have all been volunteer workers; haven't had one cent of pay for what they have done. I think they should be given a great deal of thanks for what they have done. The psychiatrists and the psychologists and the nurses have all given their time, 1 day, 1 night a week, for 3 years. That concludes my statement. Thank you. PREPARED STATEMENT I would like to have put in the record the Petworth Citizens Association statement. Senator PASTORE. It may be included. (The statement referred to follows:) Hon. JOHN O. PASTORE, PETWORTH CITIZEN'S ASSOCIATION, INC., Chairman of the Senate Subcommittee, District of Columbia Appropriations. DEAR MR. PASTORE AND MEMBERS OF THE COMMITTEE: The Petworth Citizens Association has a present membership of between five and six hundred members. We are presently interested in the educational budget for the District of Columbia for 1959, and are pleased to note that the House committee has seen fit to speed up school construction a bit. We feel strongly that the 48 new teachers should be added to the budget. These were eliminated by the House committee reasoning, as per newspaperthat every time the pupil-teacher ratio has been reduced, the number of parttime classes has increased. We feel that this statement does not tell the story in its correct form. Perhaps some figures may help. In the 1958 budgetCongress provided for 143 new teachers. The increase in school population for that same year was (in grades 1 to 6 only) 2,095 pupils. The estimated increase for the 1959-60 (grades 1 to 6) is 2,049-with an allotment of only 74 new teachers. This will not reduce the ratio to any considerable extent. So there we have part-time classes again. (Somehow babies do not stop being born but it takes several years of training for them to become teachers.) We are urgently requesting the inclusion of 48 new teachers, 6 elementary supervisors and directors, 5 school psychologists, 4 clerks for the personnel department, 6 junior high assistant principals, and we are also requesting the services of at least a part of the 100 counselors for elementary schools which were eliminated by the Commissioners. As to the District of Columbia Teachers' College, we feel that steps should be taken and soon to get a new site and new buildings and make it into a 4-year city college with added courses and enough personnel for the granting of a master of arts degree. We spend millions to rehabilitate our A.A.'s-more millions for prisons and reformatories, more millions for unemployment compensations and indigents. Why do we not give more thought to the educational foundations of our youngsters. We might help at least to keep a larger percentage of human beings from becoming inmates of our institutions. As taxpayers we would like to have a voice in our educational processes. Thank you for listening. Sincerely yours, FLORENCE V. CRAVER, Secretary. Mrs. Harvey O. Craver. MARION WEAVER, President, STATEMENT OF MRS. DONALD E. BAILEY, PRESIDENT, AREA IV COUNCIL, PTA GENERAL STATEMENT Mrs. BAILEY. Mr. Chairman, members of the subcommittee, I am Mrs. Donald Bailey and I represent area IV, council of the PTA. We have exactly 27 schools in the Southeast and Northeast sections of the city. We of the Parent-Teacher Association are once again glad to meet with this committee to talk over some of the many problems, moneywise, that confront us as citizens of the District of Columbia and to point out what we think are some of the very urgent needs of our schools. We might wish, however, that the problems were not so great and that the needs were not so urgent. We appreciate the sympathy and understanding with which this committee has approached in the past the financial questions pertaining to the District. You were chosen by your people back home to |