We earnestly recommend that you explore public "grass roots" sentiment on the question of Federal aid for schools further than these hearings permit you to go, before you take the revolutionary step of cutting the Federal Government into public education. I do not think you get to hear the right people at these hearings. I believe that most of those who come here to speak to you in behalf of Federal aid represent groups which have a vested interest in the spending of the funds they seek. The people back in my State are not seeking Federal aid. They would much rather have you make deeper cuts in Federal expenditures and taxes and debt. They cannot see their dollars buying much more very soon unless you do these things. I cannot believe that the people in North Dakota and Wisconsin and Maine and Arkansas and even Mississippi are much different than we are in New Jersey with respect to these matters. A well-organized publicity and propaganda campaign has made us aware that there is a crisis in American public education. Unfortunately, the publication of distorted facts and the hysterical outbursts of radio comedians have tended to convey the idea that there is nothing in this much-advertised crisis which more money cannot cure. I believe there is great danger that the public and our legislatures may misjudge the nature of the crisis which undoubtedly exists in public education. Every State that I know of has engaged in an all-out effort to provide more funds for its schools, with primary emphasis put upon more compensation for the teachers. But while we are concentrating on pouring more money into our school systems, we seem to be neglecting the much more difficult, yet much more important, task of securing improvements in the service commensurate with the increase in our investment of tax dollars. Although our teachers' colleges appear to have record-breaking enrollments, little effort is being made to secure the best possible talent available for teacher training. Actually a derecruiting campaign seems to be in progress. The teaching profession is held up as something to be avoided by all enterprising youth. Its many attractive features including compensation, if you please, in many communities and States-are played down or ignored. Although we hear much of teacher shortages, the "closed shop" against the recruitment of some of the finest teaching talent available to us-namely, the large number of liberal arts college graduates who would like to teach-is still maintained in many States, through adherence to arbitrary certification requirements which make it virtually impossible for any but teachers' college graduates to qualify for positions. In New Jersey, for instance, a woman who earned a Ph. D. in education at Yale could not qualify to teach in a New Jersey public school. Graduates of Wellesley, Smith, Vassar, and Mount Holyoke cannot meet our 150-hour student-teaching requirement, or some other, but they are picked up quickly by the private schools and colleges to fill teaching positions, and the children of New Jersey are thus deprived of some exceptionally well-trained and personable instructors. am informed this condition obtains in other States, in varying degrees. I have touched upon but one or two of the problems which bear upon the true crisis in American public education. Much more than money is involved. The need for modernizing and improving the entire edu cation process is urgent and vital. This need can best be met by the States and the school districts, working together under more inspired leadership. Mr. Chairman, I have been authorized by the National Association of State Chambers of Commerce to state that the 32 State-wide business organizations affiliated with that body give their wholehearted endorsement to the general views expressed in this statement in opposition to Federal aid for education." I am submitting with this statement a list of the organizations referred to here. (The list referred to is as follows:) STATE-WIDE BUSINESS ORGANIZATIONS SUPPORTING FEDERAL SPENDING REDUCTION CAMPAIGN OF THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF STATE CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE Alabama State Chamber of Commerce, Montgomery 1, Ala. Arkansas Economic Council, State Chamber of Commerce, Little Rock, Ark. Connecticut Chamber of Commerce, Hartford, Con. Chamber of Commerce, Delaware, Wilmington 24, Dela. New Jersey State Chamber of Commerce, Newark, N. J. Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York, New York City, N. Y. North Carolina Citizens Association, Inc., Raleigh, N. C. Ohio Chamber of Commerce, Columbus 15, Ohio. Chamber of Commerce of the State of Oklahoma, Oklahoma City, Okla. Mr. McCowEN. Does that complete your statement? Mr. McCowEN. We have a few minutes for questioning. Mr. Schwabe. Mr. SCHWABE. Mr. Burger, I enjoyed your statement very much. It is one of the most comprehensive, to my way of thinking, that I have heard. I was particularly interested in what you said about the dollars taken out of New Jersey, sent to Washington, and then going back in a shrunken condition. Would you elaborate a little on that? You said something about a ratio of $1 to $2. Did you mean just for education, or for all things? Mr. BURGER. For all things. The State of New Jersey, as represented by the present Governor, the present legislature, and the majority of interested civic groups in the State, is quite committed against the general principle of Federal aid for any public service, at least at the present time when this high level of Federal spending, partly caused by vast amounts of Federal aid now given, is causing and has been causing the value of the dollars which we spend in our States, in local government, in schools, and in State government, to decrease. Our Governor has said that he is forced today to operate the State's activities on 60-cent dollars, and he has publicly attributed that very largely to the financial policies of the Federal Government over the past decade and a half. In the case of Federal aid for education we find that under the bill introduced by Congressman McCowen our contribution would be about $7,000,000 plus, that is, the contribution of the taxpayers of New Jersey. We would receive back about $2,000,000 plus. Under the other bill, the NEA bill, H. R. 1870, of course, we would receive nothing, but, as a matter of fact, if I understand the temper of the present Governor and the present Legislature of New Jersey, I would say that we would refuse to ask for the $2,000,000 which would be granted under the McCowen bill if it became law, because we want to keep free of any threat whatever of Federal intervention in our education activities. Mr. SCHWABE. But there would be no way that you could refuse to contribute? Mr. BURGER. No, sir. Mr. SCHWABE. You have no discretion in that regard. Mr. BURGER. It appears we have not. Mr. SCHWABE. Is it not true that most teachers throughout the country, not only in New Jersey, when they think of these bills, think of higher remuneration for teachers? That is usually the reason they are interested in it, is it not? Mr. BURGER. Yes, sir. Mr. SCHWABE. Because of self-interest? Mr. BURGER. Yes, sir. Mr. SCHWABE. And is it not true that perhaps not 1 out of 500 of these teachers realize that the real cause of the crisis is, as you state, the loss of the purchasing power of the dollar? The dollar today will buy far less groceries and necessities of life than it would a few years ago; it has been going steadily down in the last 14 years. Mr. BURGER. Yes. Mr. SCHWABE. Just transferring the responsibility for financing your teachers to the Federal Government might not mean more groceries and clothes and housing for teachers in the long run. It might help them temporarily, but in the long run I fail to see how it would bring any greater remuneration for them. Do you go along with that? Mr. BURGER. Yes, sir. I would say that an increasing number of teachers are beginning to see the light with respect to that situation. I would say that so large a number of individual teachers in our State of New Jersey entertain that viewpoint today that it could almost be said that the sentiment expressed before your committee by the New Jersey Education Association is not necessarily reflected in the individual sentiment throughout the State. Certainly it does not reflect the sentiment of the State commissioner of education of New Jersey, or the majority of the superintendents and principals of the State of New Jersey. Mr. SCHWABE. We perhaps do not understand inflation, but we are becoming more and more cognizant of it than formerly. Mr. BURGER. Yes, indeed. Mr. SCHWABE. That is all. Mr. McCOWEN. I have little more than compliment. I want to compliment you on your very fine and concise statement representing your point of view. Mr. BURGER. Thank you. Mr. McCowEN. We are very glad to have it, even though we may not agree with some of your statements because we want to get at the allaround picture, all sides, so far as we can get that. Mr. BURGER. Yes. Mr. McCOWEN. With regard to one statement you made, that you knew of one who held a doctor's degree who could not qualify to teach, I am sure you can understand how that could be. Some people may have had as many years college training as a doctor, but cannot practice medicine because they have not taken the right subjects, and there are certain definite qualifications teachers are supposed to make in their preparation, which qualifies them to teach in our complex system today. So, of course, any person who does not possess the prescribed qualifications cannot be certified, and consequently cannot teach except in an emergency, where an emergency or temporary certificate may be granted. Mr. BURGER. I appreciate that. May I make a comment on that? Mr. McCOWEN. Certainly. Mr. BURGER. I am told that this "closed shop" situation that I referred to exists in a number of States. I have been told that by men in my profession from other States. In New Jersey the certification requirements are considered by many boards of education to be extremely arbitrary. Some much so that graduates of Wellesley, Smith, Vassar, Mount Holyoke, Princeton, Williams, Amherst, and other standard liberal-arts colleges who would like to teach in New Jersey, because salaries paid in many parts of New Jersey are sufficient to attract people to teaching Mr. McCowEN. Of course, the answer to that is just this: If they want to teach, they ought to take the course of study that would prepare them to teach, if they do not do that, they are not qualified to teach. Just because a person knows a subject well does not mean they can be a good teacher, or can teach at all. Mr. BURGER. That is true, but this is the situation, and I have letters from the deans of these colleges I have mentioned; these young women and these young men usually make their decision to teach, or to try to teach, when they are in their junior year or senior year in college, and by that time they find they have been too late in arriving at that decision insofar as the certification requirements of New Jersey are concerned. The result is that since our State board of education, which has pursued a policy of protecting the teachers colleges in this matter, have so far refused to relax some of the arbitrary restrictions and arbitrary certification requirements, we are giving up an opportunity to obtain some of the finest teaching talent we could obtain for our children, and the private schools and colleges and universities of the East quickly grab up this splendid talent. Some of our boards of education are attempting to get permission to employ some of these liberal-arts graduates as an experiment, and until now, in spite of the fact that they have passed resolutions addressed to the State board of education, they have been unsuccessful in securing the relaxation of certification requirements even for experimental purposes. I think that is wrong. Mr. McCowEN. Of course, I do not know about the qualifications of your particular State, but I do say that from the standpoint of your own statement there in the last minute or two, you have it just backward. A doctor who finally becomes a doctor has to make his decision to study medicine in time to do it, and that is the business of every person who expects to teach, because teaching has become a profession, and it is not like it was 25 years ago, or maybe further back, where everybody felt that anybody could teach school. That has passed now. A doctor is not going to be licensed to practice medicine unless he has taken the course prescribed for the study of medicine. So it is in teaching and in anything else. I thank you for your statement, and we will call the next witness. Mr. BURGER. Thank you. Mr. McCowEN. The next witness is Mr. Alexander E. Ginsberg, representing the American Jewish Congress. STATEMENT OF ALEXANDER E. GINSBERG, REPRESENTING THE AMERICAN JEWISH CONGRESS Mr. GINSBERG. My name is Alexander E. Ginsberg; I am an attorney, admitted to practice before the New York Bar and other bars, and I have offices in New York, and also in Washington. In addition to that, I hold degrees from both Columbia and Cornell Universities. I am one of the editors of the Journal of Legal and Political Sociology, and I appear this morning on behalf of the American Jewish Congress, of which Stephen S. Wise, wellknown to all of you, is the president. The American Jewish Congress, an organization of thousands of American Jews, was organized in part * to help secure and maintain equality of opportunity for Jews everywhere, and to safeguard the civil, political, economic and religious rights of Jews everywhere. To achieve this end, we believe our principal function to be the preservation, maintenance, and extension of the American democratic way of life, for only in a democratic society can equality of opportunity for Jews be truly secured. But, even more fundamentally, the Jewish tradition and the philosophy of democracy have always been indissolubly linked. The late Justice Brandeis, one of the organizers of the American Jewish Congress, stated in these words: The Jewish spirit, the product of our religion and experiences, is essentially modern and essentially American. Not since the destruction of the Temple have the Jews in spirit and in ideals been so fully in harmony with the noblest aspirations of the country in which they lived. America's fundamental law seeks to make a real brotherhood of men. That brotherhood became the Jewish fundamental law more than twenty-five hun |