Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-10-09
Legislating by Correspondence.

correspondence released yesterday by
the Board of Education, consisting Of
letters between DR.. Ballou, Senator
Bingham and Representative Simmons
on the proposed reorganization of the
kindergartens, is interesting in that it
establishes a unique principle in the
business of interpreting legislation.
A legislative provision written into
the last appropriation bill stated that
as teacher vacancies occur In the
primary grades from one to four during
the current fiscal year. such vacancies
may" be filled by transfer of kinder
garten teachers. Taken on its face
value, the provision merely made kin
dergarten teachers eligible for transfer
to the grades. Heretofore they have
not been eligible.
While that was all that appeared in
the law, q great deal lay behind 1t else
where. During hearings on the bill,
Mr.. Simmons, In the language of his
subsequent report on the bill, developed
that the District of Columbia was
greatly overstaffed with kindergarten
teachers" and while the average en-
rollment per teacher elsewhere was
SIG, it was 31.8 here. BY cutting down
the number of teachers in the kinder
gartens, rs of them could be transferred
to the grades, thereby saving the en-
ployment Of that number of new grade
teachers.
The policy to be pursued in cutting
down the kindergartens was never writ
ten into law. When Congress adjourned
the school officials were left with a
rather innocuous legislative provision on
their hands. But in order to find out
what the conferees finally had In mind
regarding the kindergartens, seven let
tiers passed between the superintendent
and the conferees during the Summer,
in which DR.. Ballou was asking If the
conferees meant this-and-that or thus
and-so, and the conferees were replying
that they did not mean thus-and-so
but this-and-that. The resulting policy,
which the Board of Education will dis
cuss soon, was recommended by DR..
Ballou on the basis of what the con-
ferees had in mind as developed in
lengthy correspondence, but which was
never written down clearly enough or
definitely enough, either in legislation
or in reports on legislation, to be I'M
derstood. One naturally wonders If
this method will be pursued hereafter
to its logical extreme, and in the
absence of our legislators from Wash
ington during the Summer, District ON
Gals, other than the school authorities,
will be exchanging letters concerning
what the members Of Congress really
had in mind, but failed to write down,
as to the way the various agencies of
the municipality should be run. Many
interesting possibilities present them
selves.
AS for the correspondence itself, it
is comforting to note that the con-
ferees never intended that kinder
gartens failing to show the required
minimum daily attendance of twenty
five pupils before October II would be
closed. Such was the apparent inter-
probation by the school officials Of what
the legislators had in mind, until an
article in The Star was brought to the
attention of Mr.. Simmons in Chicago,
who promptly wrote to DR.. Ballou about
1t. Two subsequent letters have cleared
up the matter and it now appears that
while a minimum daily attendance of
twenty-five pupils per teacher is the
standard set for kindergartens, the
matter of what is to be done with
kindergartens failing to show such a
standard will depend upon enrolment
and other considerations left to the
discretion Of school officials.