Evening star., 1941-04-28
Lack of School
Facilities Seen
For or265,OOO
McNutt and Dawson
Speak at Hearing
On 300-MiIIion Fund


would be without school facilities
was made today as Federal Security
Administrator McNutt warned that
you can't put education in cold
storage for the period of an emer-
gency.
MI McNutt and Dr. Howard A.
Dawson. director of rural service for
the National Education Association,
were the first to speak at the open
ing of hearings on the $300,000000
Federal school aid bill before a SUBJ
committee of the Senate Commit
tee on Education and Labor
Spending of the funds would be
done entirely by State and local
school authorities. with the District
of Columbia benefiting in the dis
tribution Of funds just as State.
Five Man Board Proposed.
The bill provides for creation of
a five-man board of apportionment
in the Federal Secruity Agency 10
decide how the funds shall be dis
tributed. No estimates of the ap-
portionment have been made yet. al
though discussion in the committee
touched on various centers, where
there have been great increases in
the population. 1t is known that
thousands of new people. many with
families, are coming to live in Wash
ington each month
DR.. Dawson told the committee
that due largely to defense con-
centrations of population. 26500O
children would be without school
facilities in the fall
The school-aid bill. he said, also
would provide for educating chill
dren of migratory families. who, he
said. are being exploited without
education" and for children of Fed
eral employees on Federal reserva-
tionS.
Recent Supreme and lower court
decisions regarding minority rights
in education have brought need for
the equalization Of school facilities,
DR.. Dawson pointed out, adding that
it has been declared unconStitu-
tional for a school board or State
TO maintain two separate teachers
salary scales based solely on color.
Called Federal Problem.
Discussing the differences in
school standards in many OF the
States, DR.. Dawson said it is some
times appalling" and that the diff
ferences fundamentally are due to
economic conditions largely beyond
the control of the States" 1t is
purely Federal problem. he said.
Some persons have declared. he
added, that if the poorer States
would put their fiscal houses in
order, their schools could be i'm
proved
That's not true" said Mr.. Daw-
son. Many of the States with the
lowest educational funds per capita
are administering the money more
efficiently than some of the States
that have lot more money to
spend
Mr.. McNutt told the subcommit-
tee that while the need for Federal
aid to State educational systems
did not first arise with the current
emergency it had been intensified
by it.
Can't Defer Education.
Terming education "one of the
deathless values of civilization" he
said:
You can defer a road or a bridge,
but you can't defer education. You
can't put education in cold storage
for the period of emergency and
then get it out later and give it
back to an ignorant world. 1t is
too late then"
He said that an underdeveloped
child not only has been wronged by
society, but that the Nation is the
loser"
Details of the bill were explained
to the committee by DR.. Floyd w.
Reeves, chairman of the Advisory
Committee on Education of the
Federal Security Agency. The sub
committee. of which Senator
Thomas of Utah is chairman, also
was to hear testimony from Sidney
B. Hall, State superintendent of
public instruction for Virginia; DR..
Willis A. Sutton, superintendent of
schools in Atlanta, Ga. and DR..
John K Norton of Teachers Col
lege, Columbia University.