Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-01-18
TEACHERS POORLY PA|D
Salaries in Local Schools In
adequate.
SOME COMPARISONS
REASONS FOR STAYING IN THE
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.
Services Not Compensated to Same Ex-
tent as in Other Places
Some Opinions.

has been reckoned as one of the most
valuable teachers. To attain experience
means the constant devotion of oneself to
the particular line in which one would be
perfect 1t means sacrifice and hard study.
application to the various little things that
go to make up the whole and constant at
tention to the various new details that
arise from time to time in the march of
progress, with which one is constantly sur
rounded. no matter what the occupation in
life may be.
For a class of workers in the District OF
Columbia that have reached a high stand
ard in their chosen profession 1t has been
said by those who have come in close touch
with them that the teachers in the local
public schools receive far from adequate
compensation for the valuable service rem
dered to the pupils, and through them to
the community at large, and to mankind
generally.
Local public school teachers are classed
amCng the best in the United States. y
high standard has been set for them by the
board of education. This standard is not
reached alone through the medium OF
books but is reached by good morals, pa
thence, diligence and strict attention to
every detail of life that goes to make up
good citizen. be it man or woman, who
will be Of value to the community.
Attention has frequently been called to
the very low rate of pay given local school
teachers. This low rate does not simply
mean that they do not get enough money,
but that III comparison with the amounts
paid for inferior teachers in cities other
than the national capital the salaries
amount to mere pittances Certain 1t Is
that the teachers take advantage of every
opportunity for leaving the service of the
District as soon as they can get a better
opportunity Of having their general as
well as their financial worth appreciated,
and these opportunities are said to come
with great frequency. 1t has been urged
by those who have made a study of the
matter that something should be done by
Congress to put the teachers of the local
public schools on firmer foundation, not
alone by paying them salaries adequate to
the duties they perform, but by making
these salaries Of such moment that once a
teacher Is established in the local school
he or she can feel assured that there are
better things to come in the way of sub
stantial financial advancement
Views Of Superintendent Stuart
In recent report to the board of educa-
ton, Mr.. A. T. Stuart, superintendent of
the local public schools, called attention
to this matter of salaries. He said:
THE insufficiency Of the salaries paid to
our teachers is a topic which has been
fully discussed in every annual report of
the present board of education The board
has been aroused to the necessity of Sc
curing some relief from the loss of num-
bers of our best men teachers who have
been lured away to other cities by the
offer of more attractive salaries. In every
instance these teachers have given up their
positions in the capital city with reluc-
lance, being keenly appreciative of the adj
vantages Of Washington as an educational
center and willing to remain here for a
much smaller advance than was offered
them in other cities. This enforced emf
grafton of seasoned teachers has served to
weaken our teaching force, as in no case
has the salary which was given up been
large enough to enable the board to secure
teachers of equal experience and skill to
fill the places vacated
"A condition which threatens even more
permanent damage to the future well-being
of our schools than the loss of few
high-clasS teachers now confronts the
board In the fact that the falling off in the
number of graduates of our high schools,
who are aspirants for the profession of
teaching has been so marked within the
last few years that the supply of material
for the making of trained teachers is In
sufficient to meet the home demand. The
normal school for white pupils should
graduate annually sixty. or possibly sew
enty. pupils in order to keep up with the
local demand. Instead of this number 1t is
found difficult to get fifty. This condition
is partially explained by the large number
Of capable boys and girls who accept the
college scholarships offered to graduates of
the Washington High Schools, but l think
the chief cause is the small pecuniary in
ducsment held out to the normal graduate
in Washington, for although under the
rules of the board the normal schools in
wife college graduates to take their courses
accepting their diplomas as the equivalent
of a years work. yet few of this class
are tempted into field which offers so
few rewards to scholarship and training
wrote recently to the principals of the
leading normal schools in the east inuuir-
ing about the availability of their gradu-
ates for service in Washington after our
own graduates should all be appointed and
among the replies were these from which
quote. The principal of well-known
normal school in the state of New Jersey
writes:
1.-The last class graduates from our
school would hardly be attracted to go to
Washington. Please realize that there is
nothing personal in my feeling of regret
start the teachers of it's schools at salary
that l am sure would not offer to the
lowest sweepers in the public buildings
when it Is reckoned that there are 1856 days
in a year.
New York Normal School.
The principal of New York state nor
NAL school writes
1T is not likely that we can aid you in
securing teachers for your schools be-
cause Of the insufficient salary The sum
offered is so small that it would hardly
pay for board and travelling expenses
1.-The principal Of New England state
normal school says:
The amount you pay is not sufficient to
get the first-class teachers to go to WASH
ington.'
at has long been known to those versed
in school statistics that the salaries paid
for principalships and the higher .superyi-
sorry work In Washington would not ena-
BILE the board to go into the market and
secure the best people of their class from
any other city, should 1t ever wish to do
so, but my correspondence with the normal
school principals which l have quoted. in
dicates that in spite of the generous in
crease given by Congress last year in the
salaries of the lowest grades we are still
unable to offer current market rates for
even the f1edglngs from other normal
schools The reports from the normal
schools to which l have referred also show
that the demand for trained teachers is
apparently in excess of the output of the
normal schools. The inevitable result of
such condition will be the employment of
persons to instruct our children who have
neither scholarship training nor aptitude to
teach for these qualifications cannot be de-
termined by single examination, but can
only be rightly measured through the sci
entific instrumentalities of normal training
schools.
Turning from the consideration of the
small salaries paid to the lowest grades in