The Daily Alaska empire., 1933-09-07
,y ALEXANDER R. GEoFGE

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 By ALEXANDER R. GEOFGE. I WASHINGTON, Sept. T. = The nations school system, already crippled by lack of funds and fa- cilities to care for normal educa- tional needs, faces an extra burden ! this fall.
 | Thousands of children, released from the wage earners' ranks by elimination of child labor under the various industrial codes, will l be seeking their places in schools where classes have been over crowded and where educational services have been eliminated or drastically curtaiTed.
 Shorter Sessions Likely Officials of the National Edu- cation Association predict that ow- in 10 the shortage of funds and to widespread retrenchment, the average school year of 1933-1s34 will be shortened two months, d curtailment double that of the preceding year.
 Dr. wi1,1,.ssiTT wi,1,.sssiTT G. Carr, assistant director of the research division of the association, says that in the last school year more than 250.- 900 children were allowed to at tend school only on a part-tine basis and an additional 150,000 were housed in portable shacks. Last Years Schooling Inadequate The records indicate, he says, that an exceedingly inadequate and and brief educational opportunity, and in some cases no education at all, was offered last year to about 500,000 American boys and girls. a-fsf N's !. The number of children who will be released from child labor to return to school under the indus trial codes cannot be determined definitely, educators say. pr. Carr has estimated that roughly 2,100- GOO, out of 31,OO0000- children from 5 to IT years of age, are employed.
 What would normally happen if some 100000 young Americans were taken out of factories, mills and mines and from behind store counters and placed in, school? l .cl- u.~sIIs,. NnnrynA
 pr. Carr says that in addition to the opening up of their jobs to unemployed adults, at least 80,- 900 additional teachers and 10000 new school employees of other types would be required adequately to instruct this new army in the schools. Hundreds of new school buildings would be needed. i Yet, owine to the lack of funds and tc drastic economies in school expenditures, there has bean de- lay, he says, in the construction ' of some 4,O00 needed rural school houses while more than 'l8,0o0 ru- ral school districts arc not making the neressory minor repairs to keep thsir buildings and equipment fer, detericrStion
 | Enrollments Rising | He pctasss out that while the supply cf educational opportunity ] is diminishing, the demand con- tinues to increase. Each year tsere have been approximately 100000 more children enrolled in the pubic schools than the year previous.
 Meanwhile, there has been de- c-essing number of teachers, which c-mbined with the increasing number of pupils means higher nlpil-teacher ratio and in most schools an increased size of class. The-e was a general tendency, however, to increase class size in city school systems before the de- pression.
 With the prospect of a greatly in--eased enrolment and a fur ther retrenchment in expendi- -uras. educators are apprehensive taat the school crisis this year will l.: even more acute than it was last year when teachers in several states worked without pay and thousands of schools were c,o-ed months before the expira- tion of their regular terms.