The Daily Alaska empire., 1943-01-27

in other types of work.
 "On the other hand, how7ver, it should be pointed out that over three-fifths of the tcrritorial bua get of $4,385, ,499 submitted for you consideration goes for three cace- gories: elementary education, well fare of various types, and the Pioneers Home. The support of schools, for which $1,438,000 is asked, represents about a third of the total Territorial budget.
 Balance
 "The balance of the more than three -fifths-the $1,04l 600 request cd by the Department of Public Welfare and the $304,330 by the Pioneers Home, totalling $l,345 ,930 lis for assistance to aged residents of the Territory living at home or in the Pioneers Home, for the care of crippled children, for children who are wards of the Board of Children's Guardians and for de- pendent children.
 Tn my judgment, it is not pos sible to make any substantial re- duction in these three categories although the determination as to that of course rests with the Leg islature.
 On the contrary situation has arisen in this connection which it is my duty to call to your atten- tion. Our primary and secondary educational system faces a serious crisis, the extent of which is re- vealed by the tremendous and in- creasing turnover of teachers in the last two or three years-which has reached new all time high in the current year In the city schools there has been a turnover of 48 percent. In the rural schools, the turnover has been 35 percent. For all schools, the turnover aver aged 444 percent A few of the younger men teachers have left to enter the armed forces, but the majority who have given up teach ing in the Alaska school system have done. so to accept positions that offered both more pay and $ more security. Since Alaska offers no security for the teachers fu- ture-neither pension plan nor re- tirement plan-it is hardly sur- prising that so many teachers have gone elsewhere. They would un- doubtedly prefer to adhere to their chosen profession, in which they have been trained and to which they have given many years of de- voted service, were it made pos sible for them to remain. However, they find that they, the teachers to whom we entrust our children they to whom we entrust the mold ing of the future citizens of oul democracy, are almost at the bot tom of the scale of remuneration now receiving less than unskilled laborers. Apart from the much higher scale of wages paid ir other occupations which have drawn away most of these teach. CTS, a comparison of teachers sal aries weighted in relation to the higher cost of living in Alaska Cir other words the teachers req wages) shows that Alaskan teach CTS are underpaid.
 Teachers Salaries
 "A minimum salary schedule fol teachers was established by the Ter ritorial Legislature in 1887 as fol- lows: First Division $500, Third Di- vision $1980, Second and Fourth Di- visions $2100. In the rural schools and in most of the city schools, that minimum has become the maximum During the current school year, ir an effort to meet the crisis, the Commissioner of Education (utiliz- ing funds allocated for building and repairs which could not be expended because the materials could not be secured, and also funds from a few rural schools which were closed) gave all rural teachers a $2O0 living