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PAGE 10—Feb. 3, 1955—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
Oklahoma
OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla.
five-point proposed constitution
al amendment to provide operat
ing and building money for Okla
homa schools was introduced in both
legislative houses Jan. 27, and capitol
leaders announced a timetable that
would put the package program be
fore state voters by late March.
Introduced following weeks of con
ferences and compromises, the bill
includes a non-controversial measure
replacing the present 4-mill county-
wide levy restricted to Negro school
use. The separate Negro'school re
venue system, peculiar to Oklahoma,
presumably will become illegal under
desegregation.
Although schoolmen have viewed
integration as a major budget prob
lem ever since the Supreme Court’s
ruling last May, the new four-mill
levy for all schools is not expected to
figure in legislative battles, if any,
over the proposed omnibus amend
ment. The big stumbling block in pre
liminary conferences was the ques
tion of whether school districts
should be enabled to vote operating
millage beyond the current 20-mill
limit.
Finally presented, the amendment
would allow extra millage elections
on a formula basis, keyed to a work
ing figure of $250 per pupil. That is,
districts with high schools could vote
extra mills up to 10 if necessary to
reach the $250 per pupil and those
with only grade schools could vote up
to five extra mills.
Oklahoma’s new Gov. Raymond
Gary had first opposed any millage
increase, then agreed to a raise for
Oklahoma City and Tulsa, and finally
to relief for other districts provided
a workable formula could be mapped.
Metropolitan districts had threat-
RAYMOND D. GARY
New Oklahoma Governor
ened to bolt from the entire program
unless an extra millage proposal were
included, terming it their sole chance
of meeting continuous and dangerous
budget shortages.
Capitol observers still expect legis
lative hurdles before a final decision
is reached on an extra millage pro
posal to submit to state voters.
OTHER PROVISIONS
Other provisions have met with
little or no opposition thus far. They
would:
1. Liberalize the present five-mill
building fund levy law to allow use
of funds for repairs as well as new
construction.
2. Create a building authority to
issue bonds for common school build
ings. Bonds would be retired by that
portion of the school land trust fund
income now going to increase the
principal.
3. Permit school boards to extend
teacher contracts past the present
one-year limit.
4. Permit school districts to vote
up to 10 percent of their assessed
valuation in bonded indebtedness. No
district can now vote more than five
percent.
House speaker B. E. Harkey of
Oklahoma City has set a timetable for
clearing the whole package through
the legislature in time for a March
vote. He wants legislative approval by
mid-February and a statewide elec
tion in late March. Harkey suggested
a week-long legislative recess be
taken just before the election, allow
ing members of both houses to go
home and explain proposed amend
ments to their constituents.
Under present plans the legislature
can then vitalize all the provisions
and open the way for combined-
budget, integrated operations when
Supreme Court instructions come
down. In event the election is de
layed, Harkey said, legislators may
stay in session into summer months
or return for a special session.
‘FREE TRANSFER’ PLAN
An unexpected proposal for out
right voluntary segregation in Okla
homa school emerged in the house
of representatives Jan. 19. But even
its exponent conceded the idea will
stand or fall on merits unrelated to
interracial education.
State Rep. Bill Shipley, Okmulgee,
house education chairman, distrib
uted mimeographed sheets to all
house members asking their reaction
REP. BILL SHIPLEY
House Committee Chairman
to a “free transfer” law. It was the
first public proposal, from any quar
ter, of a measure that could circum
vent integrated education.
Shipley said he would press for
such legislation if support proves
strong enough. He said patrons in
both Oklahoma City and other school
districts had favored the plan, but
explained the proposal does not have
endorsement of the city school sys
tem or the Oklahoma Education As
sociation. He made the suggestion on
his own and not as a spokesman for
the education committee, Shipley
said.
Text of the proposal, which was
followed by “yes” and “no” blanks
for noting reaction, follows:
It has been suggested that legislation
be prepared, designed to permit school
children in grades one through twelve
to transfer to the school district of their
choice; that such transfers shall be made
prior to May 15 but in event a change of
residence occurs after the date of legal
transfers, a transfer may be made at the
time of the change in residence, subject
to the approval of the receiving district.
That such transfers shall not have to be
made more than once in the school life
of the child: that boards of education of a
receiving district shall have the authority
to reject transfers or assign pupils to
buildings or schools within their district.
A week later, Shipley told the
Southern School News that he had
received no strong response on either
side of the issue. Shipley said, “This
involves a lot of controversy. It’s an
awful question. Most of the boys may
be slow about deciding just how they
would vote, and I doubt if some of
them will turn in any response at all.”
Shipley said he expects no con
troversy on the racial phase, although
such a law would, in effect, allow
school boards to keep their schools
all white or all Negro. He does anti
cipate hot objections from small
school districts, mainly white, which
could be decimated if students had
free right to transfer to larger dis
tricts offering better facilities, easier
transportation, bigger all-around
programs and other lures.
Oklahoma Education Association
sources also harked back to 1949 when
James C. Nance, Purcell, then a state
senator, proposed a free transfer
clause for the modernized school code
then in preparation. Nance stumped
the state arguing for the plan, but
it was erased before the code reached
the legislature, under fire from small
school districts fearful of resulting
losses.
However, OEA sources speculated
the new free transfer plan might find
some backers among supporters of
the current effort to reorganize state
districts and eliminate small, alleged
ly expensive schools. The state ex
penditures council and the rural
school teachers association are now
involved in an open battle over the
council’s campaign to modernize and
tighten the high school structure.
Shipley said he is still considering
introducing the transfer measure, but
“I am going to wait until I get some
reaction from some of the boys.”
He said he deemed separate schools
the fairest route for both white and
Negro children. Shipley said he cam
paigned in Okmulgee last summer on
a segregation platform and received
50 per cent of the county’s Negro
ballots. “I told them the mixed
schools should come last, after you
have desegregation in cafes and
theatres, and so on. I said the experi
mentation shouldn’t be put on the
children first,” he said.
“I also think it would be fairer to
the Negro teachers,” he added. “I
haven’t found a place in the state—
and I have traveled all over checking
on this—where they are going to have
mixed schools that the school boards
will give a Negro teacher a job.”
Shipley said he had received no
official response from the Oklahoma
Association of Negro Teachers after
broaching his idea. F. W. Moon,
OANT executive secretary and prin
cipal of Oklahoma City’s Douglass
high school, said the group’s legisla
tive committee is studying the plan.
Moon reiterated his former stand:
“I know our teachers feel that if it is
a question of losing our jobs or hav
ing segregated schools, we will take
the job loss.” Moon said he was “not
much disturbed” at the new develop
ment, and predicted free transfers
would again be squelched by small
school districts. Further, Moon ex-
presed confidence the state will fol
low the spirit of the U. S. Supreme
Court integration order without
circumvention attempts. “I don’t
think we will do that way in Okla
homa,” he said.
Shipley’s county has the fourth
largest Negro school population in
the state. The 1954 school census
showed 1,998 Negroes aged 6 to 17,
and 938 pre-school children, com
pared to 7,234 whites in the 6-17
barcket and 3,624 white pre-school
ers.
The senate education chairman,
Sen. Oliver Walker, has made no
public suggestions touching on de
segregation. His committee, like
Shipley’s, has been participating in
SEN. OLIVER WALKER
Heads Senate Committee
capitol conferences with OEA leaders
on a new public school finance pack
age including a combined white and
Negro education budget. Finances are
the sole integration issue in that pro
gram.
Walker entered the senate in 1948
from Dale, where he has been school
superintendent since 1929. Dale is in
Pottawatomie county, central Okla
homa, where present and potential
Negro students total 527 compared to
12,998 whites.
CHAIRMAN GARLAND GRAY, Vice-Chairman Harry B. Davis and
Counsel David J. Mays (left to right) of the Virginia Commission on Public
Education look over the preliminary report issued by the segregation study
group on Jan. 19.
Virginia
RICHMOND, Va.
r J T HE Virginia segregation study
commission, in a preliminary re
port filed with Gov. Thomas B. Stan
ley on Jan. 19, declared that it will
search for legal means to prevent en
forced integration in the public
schools of this state.
The report said that the public
hearing held in Richmond on Nov.
15, as well as other expressions of
the people’s views concerning the
segregation issue, “have convinced
the commission that the overwhelm
ing majority of the people of Vir
ginia are not only opposed to integra
tion of the white and Negro children
of this state, but are firmly convinced
that integration of the public school
system without due regard to the con
victions of the majority of the peo
ple and without regard to local con
ditions, would virtually destroy or
seriously impair the public school
system” in many sections of Virginia.
“The welfare of the public school
system,” the report continued, “is
based on the support of the people
who provide the revenues which
maintain it, and unless that system
is operated in accordance with the
convictions of the people who pay
the costs, it cannot survive; and this
is particularly true in Virginia where
a larffe percentage of the cost of pub
lic education is dependent upon local
revenues.
“In view of the foregoing . . . the
commission, working with its coun
sel, will explore avenues toward for
mulation of a program, within the
framework of law, designed to pre
vent enforced integration of the races
in the public schools of Virginia.”
COUNSEL APPOINTED
Simultaneously with submitting its
report, the commission, which con
sists of 32 members of the state legis
lature appointed by the governor, an
nounced the appointment of David J.
Mays, of Richmond, as counsel.
Mr. Mays, 58, one of Virginia’s best
known lawyers, and an authority on
constitutional law. is the author of a
biography of Edmund Pendleton,
Virginia statesman and Revolution
ary leader, which won the Pulitzer
Prize in 1953. Mr. Mays also is chair
man of the state library board.
Gov. Stanley made this brief state
ment as he released the commission’s
report to the press:
“I appreciate the preliminary re
port of the commission which I un
derstand was unanimously adopted.
“It seems to me the commission is
endeavoring to make a thorough
study to find a solution, and I am
confident in its ability to bring in a
recommendation that will be accept
able to the large majority of the peo
ple of Virginia.”
The commission’s declaration that
it will seek legal ways to prevent en
forced integration came as no sur
prise to Virginians. Chairman Gar
land Gray has been an outspoken op
ponent of integration, and the feeling
here has been that virtually all the
other commission members share
that general viewpoint. When he ap
pointed the commission last August,
Gov. Stanley stated emphatically
that he would use “every legal means
at my command” to preserve segre
gated schools.
ALMOND BACKS REPORT
Virginia’s Atty.-Gen. J. Lindsay
Almond, Jr. told reporters that the
Gray commission’s report “is entirely
consistent with the position I feel
compelled to take before the Supreme
Court of the United States.” Mr. Al
mond, along with Richmond attorney
J. Austin Moore, Sr., counsel for the
Prince Edward County School Board,
will appear before the court when
arguments are presented on the scope
and nature of a final decree to carry
out the antisegregation ruling of last
May.
“I feel that the report is construc
tive,” Mr. Almond declared, “as I
have felt all along that enforced inte
gration would destroy the public
school system in vast areas of Vir
ginia. That we must seek to avoid
through any legal means available.’’
The Gray commission (formally
titled the State Commission on Pub
lic Education) pointed out in its re
port that “the great majority” of
those who spoke during the Nov. 15
public hearing in Richmond’s
Mosque auditorium were opposed to
integration.
The commission continued:
“The hearing was well attended,
orderly, and apparently representa
tive of the view of the people of the
entire state, and it is presently the
view of the commission that further
public hearings would result only id
cumulative testimony, rather than
fresh viewpoints.
“The testimony at the hearing
brought into sharp focus the nature
and intensity of the feeling as to the
effect that integration would have on
the public school system. Not only
did the majority of persons speaking
at the hearing feel that integration
would lead to the abolition or de
struction of the public school system,
but some groups indicated, through
their spokesmen, that they preferred
to see the public school system aban
doned if the only alternative was id'
tegration.
“It is noteworthy that 55 counties
located in various parts of the state’
through resolutions adopted by th eIf
representative governing bodies-
have expressed opposition to integra"
tion in the public schools and that 0
the 55 counties only 21 have over
50
per cent Negro population. A numb er
of school boards have expressed oP"
position to integration of the raee-
in the schools as have many n° n
governmental organizations and asso
ciations of our citizens. Included m
the latter group are large and repr e
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