The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1920-10-16
TEACHERS SALARY
STILL INADEQUATE
Does Not Increase as Fast
as Cost of Living Dur
o.. ing the War
MANY EMERGENCY
TEACHERS EMPLOYED

Third of Teachers Have Not Had Two
Year Professional Course - Commit
tee Declares Teaching Should Be Made
Real Profession.
NEW YORK, Oct. 16.-Chambers of
States with a population of 5000 or
more will receive today from their ma
tional committee for cooperation with
the public schools the results of a ma
tion-wide survey relating to salaries,
training and experience of teachers in
which it is declared that in point of sal
airy the average school teacher is worse
off than before the war; The report,
the first of four interpretive inquir-
les" will enable these cities, it is said.
to learn for the first time the truth about
their own schools and to compare them
with the schools of other cities through
out the country.
The questions to which answers were
were: How much training do your
teachers have?" and How well do you
pay your school employes?"
/ One-half of the men elementary
! teachers in all cities reporting. it was
shown, have had less than the median of
!
| have had less than 81 years exper-
fence. OF 6S,291 teachers. 3,493 have
had only one years experience. and of
this number 75S are men and women
high school teachers and 2,735 are men
and women elementary grade teachers.
More than 10000 women and 300 men
in the cities surveyed, however, have
been teaching 20 years and over.
Emergency teachers lacking proper
training for their work are said to com
pose IAN alarmingly large proportion
of those now in the clasSroomS 1t is
a commonly accepted standard among
city boards of education, the report
points out, that the teachers in the ele-
mentary schools should be at least grad
yates of standard normal schools, which
means two-year professional course
above graduation from four-year high
school. 1T is very significant to note
in this connection" the report saws
that more than one-third of the teach.
ers of American cities have less train.
ing than this low standard and that
there are thousands of teachers in the
elementary schools of our American
cities who have even less preparation
than graduation from a four-year high
school course"
Declaring that national problems
) Of iIliteracy, Americanizatiou. racial
controversies, equalization of educa.
tiOnal opportunity, health. industrial or
.ganiZatiOn. require that the product of
our schools be thinking Americans. pro
vided with the knowledge and habits
which will make them contributing mem
bers of a Democratic society" the report
says that teaching needs to be made a
real profession" and that adequate sal
aries are an absolute essential for the
realization of this ideal"
The returns disclose what are de
seribed as "many surprising facts con
corning teachers salaries. " The aver
age increase the country over since 1913
II has been GO per cent. The increase
in the cost of living, meanwhile, it is
shown, has been more than 100 per
cent. In view of the decreased pur-
chasing power critic dollar the average
school teacher in the United States is
therefore, worse off than she was be
fore the war" the report states.
The method of calculation used in
the report is basedaOn "a meslian, or mid.
point In the scale of salaries which di-
vides it exactly. in half, one-haf the
cases falling below the median and the
other half above it.
The following cities respectively
paid the highest and lowest median sal
aries during the school year 1919-1920
according to survey charts eastern
States) Halyoke. Mass, S1,S4T. Owego
IN. Y, $500; (Great Lakes states) Chi
lcago, 1894: Coshocton and Belle Cen
, ter, o.. 1868; Western states) Oakland
Cal. 81 .S14; Standpoint Idaho, $3.50
: Great Plains States) st. Paul, Mimi,
81 sos Independence, Mo-, 1856
(Southern Statesl Greenville, Miss.
i 81, 275; Jackson, Tenn, SAT-.