Eastern Connecticut news., 1947-04-26


 newly formed Connecticut State Federation of Teachers at the Yale Divinity School Auditorium.
 The campaign of the National Education Association to check the rapid progress of the AFT, MT. Kuenzli declared, rather than hindering it's expansion, is serving as a boomerang and accelerating the organization of teachers.
 "On March 22," MT. Kuenzli said, willard Givens, national ex- ecutive secretary of the NEA, gave an address to group of teachers in Cleveland, Ohio, in which he emphatically condemned the or ganization of teachers in unions affiliated with organized labor. During the week following MT. Givens' address five new local of the AFT were organized.
 Since the NEA is controlled largely by superintendents of schools, most of whom occupy po- litical jobs and many of whom have been imported by certain or ganized groups for the purpose of keeping teachers salaries down, it is not surprising that officials of the organization should feel that teachers should not organize in groups which would give them real power and the advantages of collective bargaining.
 Herein lies the basis of the er-ending school crises which have eliminated in the present critical situation in the schools. In a profession in which the en- ployer-WhO hires and fires the teacherSecontro1s the employees organization, it is not surprising that salaries and working condi- tions have been at such low professional level that teachers are leaving the profession in a mass exodus.
 Tn 1943, MT. Givens, address ing the annual convention of the NEA, described the weakness of the NEA as follows:
 "'The Associations chief weak ness is in the field of teacher well fare and in mastering legislative pressure where rapid and integra- ted actin is demanded Is it possible that teachers associations as now organized. with small dues and limited welfare programs, can compete indefinitely with the or ganized groups that have expan- sive and powerful purposes?'
 This failure of nonunion groups to provide for the professional welfare of teachers and to muster legislative action when needed is basic cause of the present school crisis. Our answer is clear-cut No to MT. Givens' query as to whether teachers associations as now organized can compete inde- fnitely with the organized groups that have powerful and expan- sive purposes. In this question, asked by MT. Givens three years ago, lies the cause of the present crisis in the schools.
 Teachers are beginning to real ize this fact and are disregarding the advice of the NEA officials to stay out of the AFT. The AFT now has locals in all but one of the 25 largest cities of the Nation. There are also AFT locals in near ly three-fourths of the cities of the Nation over 100000 popula- tion and in hundreds of cities and $ towns under 100000. Some of these locals are still new and re- latively small but a large per- centage of them are strong Or- ganizations representing major ity of the teachers in the school system"
 MT. Kuenzh outlined the recom- menadtions of the AFL in the field of education and stated that there would be no crisis in the schools today if the teachers had been or ganized with sufficient strength to carry out these recommendations.
 Inadequate education is very costly in the long run," he added, since crime and delinquency are costing several times the total costs of education and most of the ar- rests are in the field of school age