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SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—JANUARY—PAGE 13
KENTUCKY
Special Session Called
To Revamp
LOUISVILLE, Ky.
ITH A NEW GOVERNOR at the
helm, Kentucky in Decem
ber moved toward a constitutional
convention at which school inte
gration, among other issues, would
be excluded from the agenda if
Gov. Bert Combs has his way.
Inaugurated on Dec. 8, Gov.
Combs moved rapidly to initiate
his promised reform program. In
his first address after taking office
he pledged anew to work for im
proved public schools.
To speed the revamping of the
Constitution of 1891, he called a
special session of the 1958 General
Assembly (its two-year term ex
pires when the 1960 Legislature
convenes Jan. 4) on Dec. 22. A
prime goal is raising the 70-year-
old constitutional salary limit as
interpreted in a recent court deci
sion that educators say would
“wreck the public school system
of the state.” (See “Political Ac
tivity.”)
The state school superintendent-elect,
Wendell P. Butler, who takes office Jan.
4, predicted that the 1960 Legislature
would pass a three per cent sales tax
that would enable the state to raise its
expenditure on education to as much as
$100 million a year (it is now $65 mil
lion). (See “Political Activity.”)
The state’s highest tribunal, the Court
of Appeals, scheduled a special session
Jan. 6 to hear arguments on the con
stitutionality of a veterans-bonus
amendment approved by the voters in
November. The bonus would be financed
by a one per cent sales tax, and educa
tors hope to use this “ice-breaker” to
get a two per cent tax earmarked for
public schools. (See “Legal Action.”)
Addressing the Kentucky Assn, of
School Administrators on Dec. 11, Gov.
Combs said he believed that his school
program would have much to do with
“whether our administration will suc
ceed or fail.”
He said that 63 cents of every gen
eral-fund dollar now goes toward edu
cation and that in the past 12 years the
state’s taxpayer had made “great and
commendable efforts to strengthen and
support our public school system.” But
this, he said, “has not been good enough.
As we have moved ahead, other states
have moved faster.”
He listed these as the main steps of
his educational program:
An immediate and substantial teach
er-pay raise; prompt construction of
classrooms with state aid; a revised
transportation formula; an end to the
textbook deficit; substantial capital out
lays for colleges and universities, and
a better teachers’ retirement system.
PRAISES BUTLER
On the same occasion Combs praised
State School Supt.-elect Wendell P.
Butler, voicing confidence that Butler
would work “hard and effectively” for
the state’s educational program. This
was an olive-branch gesture, matched
subsequently by Butler, who served as
superintendent under Gov. Lawrence
Wetherby and who ran in November
with Chandler-Waterfield support.
It was the Wetherby administration
that initiated school integration in Ken
tucky, with both the governor and the
school chief saying that Kentucky would
do “whatever was necessary to comply
with the law.”
Gov. Combs took the same stand dur
ing his election campaign, in common
with his Republican opponent, John M.
Robsion. Asked specifically if he would
“close the schools rather than accept
statewide integration,” Combs replied,
“No—I would follow the law as enun
ciated by the Supreme Court.”
Under Comb’s plan, according to his
aides, the school integration question
(along with religion, racing, liquor,
and county consolidation) would be
excluded from consideration at the
limited-revision convention, which, at
the earliest, would meet in 1963.
would ‘cut deadwood’
What Combs does want is to “cut the
deadwood out of the Constitution” and
to effect changes in such fields as judi
cial reform, organization of county and
municipal governments and of the
legislative branch, and salary limits.
In a court decision more than a de-
Constitution
cade ago, the constitutionally set limit
of $7,500 annual salary for “state of
ficials” was held not to apply to hun
dreds of municipal employes and school
officials, but in 1959 the Court of Ap
peals reversed itself, scheduling the
new-old limit to become effective again
next June.
Political reporters predicted smooth
sailing for Combs’ constitutional-con
vention call, noting that the incoming
Legislature is the most heavily Demo
cratic this century has seen. Former
Gov. Chandler, though he contended
that the convention would be “a tragic
mistake,” said he knew of no organized
opposition to it.
The new Legislature will consider a
legislative package sponsored by the
Kentucky Education Assn, that is more
specific (and expansive) than Gov.
Combs’ promises. Items: A national-
average pay scale for teachers (at an
increased cost of $40 million a year);
a 10-month school term; a $450 increase
in the minimum annual teacher-retire
ment allowance; more funds for special
education and vocational education, and
a doubled state allowance for capital
outlay on new schools.
No legislative action on school in
tegration has been introduced at any
session of the Kentucky Legislature
since 1954, and none is expected in 1960.
PREDICTS SALES TAX
Looking ahead to his second term as
superintendent of public instruction,
Butler in mid-December predicted that
the 1960 Legislature would pass a three
per cent sales tax and enable the state
to increase its annual expenditure on
education from the present $65 million
to $100 million.
He said he would order an imme
diate study of the operation of the
Minimum Foundation Program in order
to ask the legislators to make necessary
adjustments in the law. He said there
would be no “wholesale firing” in the
department, and complimented the out
going administration for “a splendid
record of accomplishment.”
Combs named Butler’s predecessor,
Dr. Robert R. Martin, his new commis
sioner of finance. Martin helped man
age Combs’ campaign in both the pri
mary and general election.
The legal fate of the veterans bonus
amendment bears heavily on educators’
hopes of getting more school money by
the sales-tax route.
The amendment, which would finance
bonuses to veterans of four wars with
a one per cent sales tax, was approved
by a majority of 38,000 votes in Novem
ber. But on Dec. 19, Circuit Judge W. B.
Ardery at Frankfort ruled it unconsti
tutional because certain legislators who
voted to submit it to the people had a
financial interest in its adoption. On
Dec. 21, Chief Justice Morris D. Mont
gomery said he would call the Court of
Appeals into special session Jan. 6 to
hear oral arguments on the appeal.
Bonuses would be payable not only to
veterans but to their heirs and next of
kin. Estimated cost: $500 million.
UNDER SURVEY
, . . 0. ■ ■
The National Education Assn, on Dec.
21 offered Kentucky a statistical meas
urement of its educational problems.
The NEA reported the state’s average
teacher salary had risen $174 to $3,375
this year—with only Arkansas, Alabama
and South Carolina below that aver
age.
Other statistics:
Estimated population of five-to-17
years of age (as of July 1958): 810,500,
of which 633,164 or 78.1 per cent were
enrolled in public schools. Average
daily attendance: 562,093, or 88.8 per
cent of enrollment. Estimated popula
tion five-to-17 in July 1959: 819,000,
with 78.3 per cent enrolled in public
schools.
Estimated number of emergency
teachers in 1958-59: 2,382; in 1959-60,
2,574. Of these, 91 per cent have less
than four years of college.
Estimated departure of teachers from
public-school employment in Kentucky:
2,029 last year, 2,007 in 1959-60.
Estimated expenditure per pupil in
average daily attendance in 1958-59:
$205; this year, $217—ranking Kentucky
45th in the nation, $152 below the aver
age of all states and the District of
Columbia ($369). # # #
Outgoing, incoming and future presidents of the Southern Assn, of Colleges
and Secondary' Schools talk it over in Louisville. From left are J. R. Hawkins of
Charlotte, N.C., Dr. Harry E. Jenkins of Tyler, Texas, and Spencer F. McCallie Jr.
of Chattanooga. McCallie’s father headed the association in the 1920’s.
Two More Negro Colleges
Are Given Accreditation
By GARRY FULLERTON
LOUISVILLE, Ky.
wo more Negro colleges were
admitted to full membership
in the Southern Assn, of Colleges
and Seconday Schools at its 64th
annual meeting here last month.
They were the A & T College of
North Carolina, Greensboro, N.C.,
and St. Paul’s College, Lawrence-
ville, Va. They bring to 34 the
number of Negro colleges admit
ted to the regional accrediting
agency which was formerly re
stricted to white colleges and high
schools.
Eighteen Negro colleges were admit
ted to the association in 1957, and 14
more last year. Another 31 are listed
as “approved” by the Southern Associa
tion, but have not yet been admitted.
Meanwhile, Dr. James A. Colston,
president of Knoxville College, Knox
ville, Tenn., told the Assn, of Colleges
and Secondary Schools (the Negro ac
crediting agency) it must not relax its
efforts until all Negro colleges and high
schools qualify for admission to the
Southern Association. No Negro high
schools have yet been admitted to the
Southern Association, though 364 are
“approved.”
2,000 ATTEND
More than 2,000 southern high school
principals, college presidents and deans
and school administrators attended the
meetings of the two associations in
Louisville the first week of December.
They represented every state in the
Southeast.
A highlight of the Southern Associa
tion meeting was a speech by Gov. Le-
Roy Collins of Florida in which he
urged the region to abandon its “politi
cal inferiority complex.” In an interview
following the talk, Collins said he saw
no reason why a southerner could not
be elected president in 1960.
Six more white senior colleges, five
junior colleges and 66 high schools were
admitted to membership in the Southern
Association. In addition, 24 Negro high
schools were added to the “approved”
list.
The association, which has gradually
extended the scope of its services since
its founding in 1895, took an additional
step this year by voting to accredit
specialized and professional schools un
der certain limited conditions. Such in
stitutions will not be eligible for full
membership in the association, however.
THREE REQUIREMENTS
In order to qualify for accreditation,
specialized or professional schools must:
• Require high school graduation or
equivalent for admission of students.
• Be non-profit institutions.
• Include a “core” of liberal arts
courses or general education in their
programs.
The educators also voted to begin a
debate on higher standards for high
school members of the association.
Under the rules of the body, the new
standards must be debated for a year
and may then be adopted, modified or
rejected at the 1960 meeting of the asso
ciation in Memphis. Among the pro
posals are these:
• Each school must have at least one
staff member with 12 semester hours’
training in counseling and guidance,
and each school with more than 500
students must have the equivalent of a
full-time trained counselor.
• Schools with more than 1,000 students
must have an assistant librarian as well
as a librarian.
• Schools with more than 300 students
must have a full-time secretary, and all
schools at least a half-time secretary.
• The overall student-teacher ratio will
be reduced from the present 30 to
1 to 25 to 1.
STEADY RISE
The proposed new standards are typi
cal of the slow but steady rise in accre
ditation standards for both colleges and
high schools since the association was
founded. While raising standards, the
organization has also extended the scope
of its accreditation, first to elementary
schools, and now to specialized and
professional schools. In addition, it has
ventured into other fields, including re
search, dissemination of information
and school improvement.
In the view of some members, it
should also exercise educational lead
ership in the South; co-ordinate the
efforts of other southern educational
agencies, and promote better relations
between colleges and secondary schools.
One of the things the association will
try to define during the next year is its
exact relationship with the Southern
Regional Education Board.
HIGHER STANDARDS
If standards for accreditation have
been rising over the past few years, so
have the standards of admission to col
leges, the president of the College En
trance Examination Board told the edu
cators.
Addressing the Southern Assn, of In
dependent Schools which held its meet
ing in conjunction with the general con
vention, Dr. Frank H. Bowles predicted
that in the next 10 to 20 years college
entrance requirements will include what
is now taught in the college freshman
year.
At the same time, Bowles said, the
average college graduate will have an
education equivalent to that of the stu
dent with an MA degree today.
TWO DIRECTIONS
Bowles said the higher admission
standards are the colleges’ answer to
the problem of ever increasing enroll
ments and demand for college educa
tion. The enormous expansion of higher
education since World War II has taken
two directions, he said:
1) More people are enrolled in liberal
arts and other traditional college and
university courses, because of the in
crease in college age population and
because of a higher standard of living.
2) Programs which used to be outside
the field of higher education, such as
teacher training and many technologi
cal studies, have now been expanded
into college programs.
This expansion has led colleges to
adopt new entrance requirements, more
entrance tests, earlier applications and
more careful selection of students,
Bowles said. At the same time, he added,
it has meant a stiffening in the high
school curriculum, especially in the
fields of science, mathematics and for
eign languages.
WANTS MORE IN SOUTH
In another session, Dr. Hans Rosen-
haupt, who invests $5 million a year in
the careers of future teachers, said he
would like to see more of the money
go to the South.
Rosenhaupt, director of the Woodrow
Wilson graduate fellowship program,
said southern schools by and large fail
Maryland
(Continued From Page 12)
which the pupil is transferring and the
school to which he desires to transfer,
the Director of Instruction, and the
county supervisors working in these
schools. The court’s decree further pro
vided that, apart from the fact that
these conditions may be applied only to
Negro students not qualified for admis
sion under paragraph 4, no racial dis
tinction is to be made in the administra
tion of these tests and evaluations. . . .”
After reviewing the application and
screening of the Pettit boy, the state
board’s opinion says: “. . . The commit
tee decided that young Pettit did not
possess the special qualifications requi
site to the probability of success, as pre
scribed by the court’s decree and, ac
cordingly, disapproved his application.
Its report was then transmitted to the
Board of Education of Harford County,
which at its regular meeting on August
5, 1959, approved the three transfer re
quests recommended by the professional
committee and disapproved the transfer
requests of Alvin Dwight Pettit and
Phyllis Alphonzia Grinage.”
ARM OF COURT
The state board winds up by saying:
“Upon close examination, we conclude
that as the decree is now framed, it has
constituted the foregoing committee as
an arm of the court. No power over the
assignment of pupils applying under the
decree is vested in the county superin
tendent. Were he to countermand the
committee’s decision, his action would
be invalid and would have to be set
aside as violative of the decree, without
any examination of the merits of the
controversy.
“The jurisdiction of this board under
Article 77 of the Annotated Code of
Maryland, Section 150, extends to ap
peals from decisions of the county su
perintendent. In the instant case, there
was no decision of the county superin
tendent, nor could there have been one.
There was merely a decision of a pro
fessional committee acting as an arm of
the court.”
(A footnote states that while the com
mittee’s action was approved by the
county school board, “as such review
was not provided for in the decree, we
believe that the board’s action may
properly be disregarded for purposes of
this discussion.”)
“As the jurisdiction of this board is
limited to appeals from decisions of the
county superintendents, it follows that it
lacked the power to review the de
cisions of the professional committee
created by the court.” # # #
to attract their fair share of highly
qualified students.
Only one Wilson fellowship winner
from the northeast attended a southern
graduate school last year, he said, while
98 winners left the South to attend
schools in the northeast.
Rosenhaupt blamed lack of adequate
funds for the unfavorable position of
southern graduate schools. Because of
higher salaries paid men in higher
academic ranks in other parts of the
country, the South loses some of its
most able people, he said.
He said many southern students
would prefer to stay in the South if
they were sure the graduate degrees
they earned in the region would equal
in prestige those from northern and
western universities.
SOUND WARNING
Two speakers at the convention
warned of the dangers of over-speciali
zation in education.
“Even astronauts have to know a little
poetry or they’ll go nuts,” the Most
Rev. John T. Wright, Catholic bishop of
Pittsburgh, warned colleges of his de
nomination.
Large universities have been forced
into specialization, the bishop said, but
small colleges should stick to what they
can do best—providing students with
the perspective which is the long-range
aim of education.
This theme was echoed later in the
convention by Dr. Edward McCrady,
vice chancellor of the University of the
South, Sewanee, who urged a sweeping
revision of curriculum beginning with
the primary grades and going all the
way through college.
“All human knowledge is ultimately
one,” he told the educators. “A special
ized field is merely the vantage point
from which you survey the whole ter
rain, and the more you know about the
whole terrain, the more you know about
where you stand.”
McCrady urged the schoolmen to get
away from the idea that education is
preparation for a job.
“That is not the function of educa
tion, but of apprenticeship,” he said.
# # #