Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 19 August 1936 — Page 6

KANSAS SCHOOL

STATUS LOOMS AS U. S. ISSUE

Teachers’ Low Pay, Poor Facilities Charged and Defended.

BY MAX STERN Times Special Writer WASHINGTON, Aug. 19.—The status of the public schools in Gov. Landon’s home state is becoming a campaign battleground. Only a few days ago the Republican National Committee took notice of the widespread criticism of Kansas’ educational policies. It circulated in Washington the radio remarks of Oscar Stauffer, an editor at Arkansas City, Kas.,, who denied that Gov. Landon’s economies had harmed Kansas’ educational system, He added: “The Kansas common schools are directly and wholly under the supervision of local school boards. The Governor has no jurisdiction over them. It is nevertheless to be noted that a larger percentage of the local Kansas tax-dollar is now spent on schools than before the depression. “It is also to be noted that Gov. Landon successfully resisted an effort to put a fixed limit on local expenditures by means of a state constitutional amendment. On this point the Kansas teachers have frequently expressed their gratitude to him.” New Dealers Cite Record

On the other hand, New Dealers |

dug out of the records today the story of Gov. Landon’s alleged refusal to arrange state aid for rural schools in the winter of 1934-35. Landon applied to the Federal Relief Administration in January, 1935, for a grant of $150,000 to carry these schools until June. Harry Hopkins turned him down, on the ground that the state should be able to raise that sum and that the legislature was then in session. Gov. Landon, however, refused to appeal to his legislature, and the schools suffered. This spring prominent educators wired Gov. Landon asking whether, if he were elected President, he “would approve balancing the Federal budget by similarly restricting education for American children and relief funds for American families in need.” The telegram was signed by George A. Davis of Chicago, secre-tary-treasurer of the American Federation of Teachers, and indorsed by Willard E. Givens, executive secretary of the National Education Association, and Clyde R. Miller of Columbia University Teachers’ College.

Reports Made Public

“Official reports,” said the telegram, ‘show many Kansas schools are closed, that thousands of teachers and administrators are receiving notoriously low salaries, that school terms and educational facilities for thousands of Kansas children are restricted.” Dr. Givens, indorsing this felegram, said a Kansas school superintendent had informed him that large numbers of Kansas teachers were being paid less than $350 a year. “Parents and educators have a right to know where every candidate for the Presidency stands on this issue,” he continued. Leslie Doud, editor of the Kansas Labor Weekly at Topeka, made a Series of charges about the Kansas schools at the recent meeting of Labor's Non-Partisan League in Washington. He charged that Kansas is dominated by a ‘school book trust,” that Kansas one-teacher rural school salaries average $37.79 & month, that Kansas’ school system compares with school conditions of the South 30 years ago. Superintendent Asks Aid

Kansas’ own state superintendent of public instruction, W. T. Markham, is being quoted as having criticised the state’s failure to help the counties and districts. “There is no state aid whatever,” Mr. Markham told the Kansas Legislature in a report in May. “Only the interest on the permanent school fund and the dog tax is added to the local property tax. This aid amounts to only 84 cents per census child. . “Kansas ranks forty-eighth among the states on the state-aid basis. The Kansas schools are not O. K. so long as the local district property - tax is the sole means of support.” According to Gov. Landon’s last message to the legislature, Kansas’ school costs have been reduced “approximately 40 per cent” in three years. Mr. Markham says total taxes levied for general school purposes have been reduced 37.4 per cent since 1930. Writing in “The Kansas Teacher” in April, Mr. Markham said:

Average Salary $453

“The average salary paid the 6936 rural teachers in Kansas during the year 1934-35 was $453.50. This means that approximately 3400 teachers taught for. less than that amount. The lowest salary contracted was for $25 a month. . .. Three hundred and fifty-seven teachers failed to receive all their salary.” Records at the United States Office of Education disclose the following facts about Kansas schools: Kansas teachers’ salaries, including those of superintendents, principals and teachers, in 1934-35 averaged $858. The average for the United States was $1227. New York's salaries average $2361, the District

of Columbia's, $2004, Californias,

$1899. ~The National Education Association ranked Kansas in 1930 as No. 20 among the states in literacy (Iowa is No. 1); twenty-ninth in the value of school property; twen-ty-seventh in teacher’s salaries, and twenty-sixth in school attendance. Tnere is no record of its present

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