Evening star., 1927-02-08

4
courtesy in making clear the view,
point of our organization?
Contrary to the belief of school
| officials that the quality of instrhE.
tion will be lowered" and Classroom
hardships" suffered as the result of
the eliminatio of an item of $l21 900
for salaries for IA additional teachers
from the District appropriations act
for 1928, the District of Columbia
Congress Of Parent-Teacher Associa-
tions is confident that a valuable and
seif-sacrifcing service has been per
formed by it's legislative chairman,
Mrs. w. T. Bannerman, for the chill.
dren. the parents and the teachers OF
the District of Columbia.
Four out of five of the committee
on appropriations Of the House OF
Representative were convinced, not
by Mrs. Bannerman's figures, but by
the figures and testimony or Schooi
officials themselves, that their pro
gram is eXtravagant, wasteful. un.
wisely planned and administered and
seems to be conceived and promoted
for the benefit of persons other than
the school children" and that many
Of the tables that were inserted in
the hearings are wholly untruSt-
worthy and cannot be used for the
guidance Of persons seeking correct
information about the schools OF the
District of Columbia" The House
supported the committee report by a
vote of 81 to 13
Mrs. Bannerman'S method or COM
putation. so severely criticized by
school officials, is not unique nor orig
inal with Mrs Bannerman. 1t is the
method employed by the chief of the
division of statistics of the United
States Bureau of Education in com
p!ling statistical information for all
cities in the United States, and is
regarded as the most and only re-
liable method of arriving at precise
and dependable conclusions.
The wide divergence from reliability
of the school officials method of com
putation is best illustrated by their
own figures, wherein a school whose
whole enrolment" is recorded as 40,
it's actual enrolment" as Sc, its
average enrolment" as 1879, its
average daily attendance" as 1879,
and it's number of pupils per class,
room teacher" as sc. DO the tax
payers of Washington want their
money appropriated in accordance
with estimates based on a method of
computation capable of the elasticity
demonstrated by these figures?
On precisely the same basis of com
putation-including all of the special
teachers, supplementary teachers, etc.
employed by Mrs. Bannerman m as
certaining the figure of 23.1 pupils per
teacher in Washington, Baltimore In
1924 had 31.85 pupils per teacher:
Atlanta, 30.SS; Chicago, 36.27; Indian
apolis, 29.1S; Boston, 1922; Detroit
3O42; ST. Louis, 1872; New York City,
$3.50; Philadelphia, 34.40 Pittsburgh
31.39: Milwaukee, 3419, the general
average of all cities of over 100,0 600
population in the country being 30.55
Mr.. Frank II. Funk. chairman of
the subcommittee on the District OF
Columbia of the House committee on
appropriations said, relative to the
elimination of these "a teachers Con
gressioual Record, page 2773): "In
closing the general debate on the Dis
trict appropriation bill / wish to refe'
briefly to the subject that has con
sumed the largest part of the general
debate which has pertained to the bill
itself, and that is as to the question
of "A additional school teachers. OF
course, the committee gave due and
proper consideration to the statements
and recommendations made by DR.
Ballou, superintendent of s. hoolS, bui
l say to you frankly that he did no
present his figures or his statistics in
such shape that the committee, or al
least a majority of the committee
four out of FIVE of the committee-felt
justified in granting his request for
IA additional teachers. We accord
him all the respect he is entitled to
but / give great weight and great con
sideration to the views of my tive
colleagues, the gentleman from Ne
braska (Mr. Simmons), and the gentle
man from Mississippi (Mr. Collins)
both of whom are parents of scholars
in the elementary schools of the Dis
trict, and I take 1t those gentlemen
are as vitality interested in the welfare
of the schools and their proper main
tenance as any one else in this city
1t is their unbiased and conclusiv'
opinion that this item for IA add
tional teachers was not jutifled."
What we need is building space.
When there are overcrowded class
rooms surely there would not be q
need for more teachers unless the
teachers are to be put on part time, -
as the children are.
Where would you put more teach
ers' in the John Eaton, the Truesdell
the Petworth, the Takoma, and sew
eral other overcrowded schools?
If this money which is being asked
for to pay group Of teachers wh
are not needed was spent for assem-
bly, halls, to relieve the pressure o.
overcrowded classrooms. there would
be many happier children and man
a teacher relieved of the terrible
strain of trying to teach so or more
children at one time.
MRS. GILES SCOTT RAFTER,
President