Milford chronicle., 1960-10-21
Hon. John w. Rollins
Speaks On Education
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A little research shows that Del
aware schools have made steady
Improvement In the year 1920, our
schools were small, and sometimes
stated with people who were poor
ly prepared and poorly paid. A
general reorganization took place
and remarkable progress was made
in the next twenty-five years. Along
wit hthis Improvement in our
school SYSTEM. people became in
terested in the QUALITY of our
schools. PTA's were organized and
they expanded rapidly.
| have four children in school
and, like you. / am familiar with
some of the problems facing edu-
cation, which are:
The rapidly growing school en-
rollment; Inadequate financial
support for our schools; The
shortage of teachers; The need for
more local support for our schools; !;
A program for our most able stu
dents; And the continued inn
provement of our university and
State College.
We have tried to meet the prob
lem of increased enrolment and
inadequate financing by hindsight
BY this / mean, instead of plan
ming for adequate facilities and
teachers for the coming year and
setting up realistic budget for
the increases, we consistently use
last years enrolment to arrive at
the number of cIassrooms, teach
ers, that we will need for the COM
ing year. believe we should use
the excellent data we have on the
number of students forecast for
the coming year set up realistic
budget to meet these demands, then
stick to our budget.
What l recommend is intelligent
planning for the future.
A major study known as the Mort
Report, to analyze the needs and
to make plans for further inn
provement of Delaware schools in
the years. to come was begun in
the spring of 1853 and completed
just last month. This study was
undertaken on the invitation of the
leading educators of our state
These included leaders from our
State Department of Education
the University of Delaware, and
our local school districts. The
study was carried out in coopera-
ton with DR.. Paul r. Mort of Co
lumbia University and associates
from other key educational insti-
tutions in the u. S.
With; this excellent study now in
our hands, propose when elected
Governor, to use this office to work
with educators and YIN q
throughout the state to develop q
legislative program that will meet
Delaware's educational needs. By
working together we can make
this program major milestone in
Delaware education.
You and l want the best schools
we can get for our children. Edu-
cation in my book is one of oul
most important responsibilities. But
the money we spend for education
must be spent wisely. Wasteful and
unnecessary items have to be re-
moved from our budget. New school
building programs should be ex-
amined carefully.
I propose that school construc-
tion procedures be modified to in
sure full value for our money. We
now appropriate a fixed sum for q
school and then draw up plans on
which contractors bid to build the
structure. Such a plan invites un-
necessary expenditure. Instead, we
should survey the districts needs
for classroom space, design the
school to satisfy these needs, and
then authorize the expenditure or
the basis of firm bids. This is the
way business handles construction
projects, and it works successful
ly. We hould use this technique fol
school construction to save Della
ware money for other worthy
uses!
The shortage of teachers in Del
aware is understandable. To begin
with, we don't train enough teach
ers to meet our needs. Our present
system fails to attract enough
teachers to Delaware. One reason
for this is that we do not give as
much credit for teaching expert
ence acquired outside the state as
we do for experience in the state
To help attract teachers to our
state, / propose that we give the
same credit for teaching expert
ence whether this experience in
wolves teaching Delaware children
or other children. Another factor
contributing to the teacher short
age is that valuable people have
left Delaware because the Demo
crat-controlled State Legislature
has limited salaries and down