The Waterbury Democrat., 1944-09-19

committee, headed by Miss Fennessy Canty, spokesman, appeared before the board last night to renew their request,
 "ClOsed" Chapter 60
 When Miss 0anty completed her address, the board disclosed that the joint committee selected to study tho proposal already had madc a finding, which then was read py pr, Thomas J, Condon, Superintend. ont of schools, Eight ponits were enumerated in tho report, The board then voted, ( to 3, for aeeept- anee of the report, and the matter was dropped, The teachers, who evidently had anticipated some discussion on the matter in their presence, immedi. ately found themselves listening to routine school matters, with their presence ignored for the remainder of the meeting.
 Miss Canty in her address referred to the unprecedented balance" in the city treasury, pointing out that the dilferentlal could he removed all at once without any additional tax burden on the public, The group asked, however, for removal of one- half of the ditferentlal during tho coming year, and the remainder the following year,
 Party Lines
 The vote on the proposal, again went along party lines, four Demo. eratS voting against equalization and three Republicans faVoring It. One Republican and one Democrat memhere were absent.
 The proposal, which was ruled out last night in unexpectedly brief pro- eeedings, was first made more than . year ago by Q Democratic mem- Dor of the board, who is still mera- ber and who was present last night
 Scores of Waterbury organizations and private individuals have sent communications to the board, askine for equalization, The matter aroused 90 much interest at one time last year that many proposals for popular referendum to settle the natter were suggested,
 Sex Factor
 Under the present set.up the women high school teachers re. ceiVe about $500 less per year thar tho men teachers, although all per- form similar work. It has been pointed out that the differential i' based purely on the factor of sex.
 Last year the board, while Ad' mitting that the pay schedule I unfair, ruled that budgetary consid' eFations would not permit an in' crease ct that time. Tho teaeherI were told at that time that the bud get had already been drawn up, aae it was "too late" to change it,
 This year the board expressed nc sentiment on the fairness aspect and merely stated It's reasons for c refusal,
 'TOr What Ia Fair, Just"
 Miss CantyS statement to tho board was as follows;
 Tt is almost Q year now since we first appeared before you to ask that we Do paid the same sal. aries as are paid the male teach. CTS As Q matter of fact, it was one of tho members of this Board who first brought up the matter of Q salary diaerentiAl based on sex,
 such di6erentials are rare nowadays In cities of 100000 popu- lations,
 The latest information released by the Research Division of the NEA revealing that at least 76 of the 02 such cities in our country have the same salary schedule for men and women teachers, and be 1t said further to the credit of the fairmindedness and progressive thought of Boards of Education, both state and municipal, 1t is also true that ten states in our Union have laws forbidding dis elimination against our women teachers.
 "You have agreed that the prin- ciple of equal pay for equal work for our teachers is . just one you have admitted the injustice of the present differential. We are here tonight to ask you to sub. stantiate your admission of the injustice of the differentiai by adopting Q plan which will defl. nitely remove it,
 TO say that the differential cannot be removed because there are other inequalities in our edu- cational department is neither logical nor fair. To say that the differential cannot be removed because the education department lacks certain necessary and de- sirable equipment is unfair to the women teachers. Are they the ones to pay for this equipment? We know that necessary repairs have been made, and will continue to be made, We hope, to our school buildings, but we also know that allocatlonS of funds from other departments to meet the cost of such repairs can be made if nec- essary.
 We know that our per pupil cost" is not out of line with that of other cities in our state, but we also know that nothing statistical is more illusory than per pupil cost" figures, because in one city certain factors are considered in arriving at the figure: in another
 city other factors enter into the picture, for example-There- fore accurate conclusions are dim cult to make.
 '"The unprecedented balances in our city treasury are conclusive proof that the differential can be removed all ct once without any additional tax burden being inc posed on anyone. However, there may be reasons why you would prefer to remove the differential by more gradual process. Real izing this, we submitted to you last June a plan whereby one-half the differential would be added to