The Catholic times. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1951-current, 1954-02-19

gIdHleu fringe DeHeIllS III the
form of health and welfare Serv-
ices.
The result of the MEAS stand
was to split the educators and the
people of America, and to generate
an acrimonious debate. No federal
aid, therefore, has been granted
to date.
A further result was that our al
ready overburdened facilities for
educating American young people
fell farther and farther behind the
ever-growing need.
Equally unfortunate, or even
more unfortunate, is the fact that
teacher pay, far from being in
creased in real buying power, as
it should have been, fell lower and
lower in relation to the cost of liv-
ing. And the teaching profession
became less and less attractive to
young people.
We face, consequently, a des-
perate teacher shortage.
The argument in favor of fed
eral aid rested on the self-evident
proposition that educational OPP
portunities for American children
in various sections of the country
ought to be made much less un-
equal than they Were-and are.
But the NEA blundered into
position in which it opposed the
equalizing of school opportunities
for children whose parents, for rea-
sons of conscience, sent them TO
religious schools.
The NEA held, 1.-THE public
schools are available. Let every
body 60 to them. Anybody who
doesn't, has only himself to blame.
He has forfeited his right to equali-
ty of opportunity. Anyhow, the
government must not aid religion"
And so on.
That was certainly a ShOrt-Sight-
ed view. The concern of the Amer
lean people is to see all American
children properly educated. other
wise, what kind of citizens will we
have tomorrow?
No such objections as the NEA
raised are raised in, for example,
Holland or Ireland or Quebec, or
any number of other countries.
Those governments contribute to
the cost of educating all children
without exception, leaving it to
the parents to select the school.
Ii the school, in the process,
teaches the youngsters the Ten
Commandments, and love of God
and neighbor, and fidelity to
church or synagogue or meeting
house-well, that is the least OF
Hollands worries; or Quebec's or
Irelands.
Nobody, so the Dutch and Irish
and Canadians would tell you, was
ever the worse for obeying the
Commandments.
Americans, | think, also are be-
ginning to see things in that light.
There are signs that the niggling
bigotry of few years ago is dis
solving.
AS far as | know, nobody was
scandalzed the other day when
Archbishop Karl j. Alter remarked
that true freedom of education
does not mean that some schools
are to be economically penalized.
Addressing the Association of
American Colleges in Cincinnati,
he observed that it is difficult to
see how genuine educational free
dom exists if "the state sets up a
uniform and inflexible system of
education with monopoly of pub
lie benefits reserved entirely TO it.
self.
After all, he said, we need all
our school systems TO do the full
American job. With "open mind
and good Will" all difficulties
about giving everybody a square
deal can be overcome.
Yes, the climate has changed |
believe the time is near when we
can all stop quarrelling and get
down to the Job of perfecting and
equalizing school opportunities for
all American youngsters, bar none.
That. after all, is one of the main
things that America is all about.