NEA News Article on School Housing
Source Images
Transcription
``` NEA NEWS NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION, 1201 SIXTEENTH STREET NORTHWEST, WASHINGTON 6, D.C. VOLUME 6, NUMBER 4 MAY 2, 1952
[stamp: NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION]
School Housing for America’s Children
Most statements about the nation’s school housing are relative to statistics and dollar signs. “We are actually dealing with flesh and blood and mind and spirit,” says Commissioner of Education Earl J. McGrath, so correctly observes. “We talk of bricks and chalkboards, glass and concrete, but we are thinking in terms of public school children—more than 20 million of them. When we talk about firetraps, overcrowding, dilapidation, and part-time schooling on two or three shifts a day, we are thinking also of an enlightened and intelligent nation and one in which ignorance and functional illiteracy prevail.”
Hearings Reveal Needs
Early in April a subcommittee of the House Committee on Education and Labor, under the chairmanship of the Honorable Cleveland M. Bailey of West Virginia, opened hearings on the nation’s school housing problems. These hearings, which closed April 25, the nation’s tragic told of the needs of their respective areas, and an overall picture of the situation has been reflected in the school housing survey just completed by the U.S. Office of Education.
The National Survey
Estimating from reports in 25 states the Office of Education points out that:
♦ By 1960, we need 600,000 additional classrooms to provide proper housing for those now in school and for the additional pupils who will enroll by that date.
♦ Housing needs have been accumulating for two decades and then be- cause of the depression and then be- cause of war and defense efforts. In 1920, school build- ings in six states were over 40 years old. Getting worse day by day, seven buildings in every too are over 50 years old.
♦ Seven pupils in every too are attending school in buildings over 40 years old.
♦ One of the two-story buildings and one- fourth of the three-story buildings are built of combustible materials. One pupil in five is housed in buildings that clearly do not meet minimum fire-safety conditions and an equal number of these school fires 395 persons lost their lives.
♦ Over a recent 15 year period there have been an average of 2000 school fires per year, and in 31 of these fires 395 persons lost their lives.
♦ One-fourth of the three-story buildings and one- fourth of the two-story buildings are built of combustible materials. One pupil in five is housed in buildings that clearly do not meet minimum fire-safety conditions and an equal number of these school fires 395 persons lost their lives.
♦ Over a recent 15 year period there have been an average of 2000 school fires per year, and in 31 of these fires 395 persons lost their lives.
♦ Over a recent 15 year period there have been an average of 2000 school fires per year, and in 31 of these fires 395 persons lost their lives.
To provide decent housing for the nation’s schools is one of the major problems facing the America’s schools today. Except for limited assistance in critical defense areas, states and com- munities have been left to cope with every other public need, many of them less deserving than the welfare of our munitions most every other public need, many of them less deserving than the welfare of our sub- sidizes most every other public need, many of them less deserving than the welfare of our sub- sidizes most every other public need, many of them less deserving than the welfare of our sub- sidizes most every other public need, many of them less deserving than the welfare of our sub- sidizes most every other public need, many of them less deserving than the welfare of our sub- sidizes most every other public need, many of them less deserving than the welfare of our sub- sidizes most every other public need, many of them less deserving than the welfare of our sub- sidizes most every other public need, many of them less deserving than the welfare of our sub- sidizes most every other public need, many of them less deserving than the welfare of our sub- sidizes most every other public need, many of them less deserving than the welfare of our sub- sidizes most every other public need, many of them less deserving than the welfare of our sub- sidizes most every other public need, many of them less deserving than the welfare of our sub- sidizes most every other public need, many of them less deserving than the welfare of our sub- sidizes most every other public need, many of them less deserving than the welfare of our sub- sidizes most every other public need, many of them less deserving than the welfare of our sub- sidizes most every other public need, many of them less deserving than the welfare of our sub- sidizes most every other public need, many of them less deserving than the welfare of our sub- sidizes most every other public need, many of them less deserving than the welfare of our sub- sidizes most every other public need, many of them less deserving than the welfare of our sub- sidizes most every other public need, many of them less deserving than the welfare of our sub- sidizes most every other public need, many of them less deserving than the welfare of our sub- sidizes most every other public need, many of them less deserving than the welfare of our sub- sidizes most every other public need, many of them less deserving than the welfare of our sub- sidizes most every other public need, many of them less deserving than the welfare of our sub- sidizes most every other public need, many of them less deserving than the welfare of our sub- sidizes most every other public need, many of them less deserving than the welfare of our sub- sidizes most every other public need, many of them less deserving than the welfare of our sub- sidizes most every other public need, many of them less deserving than the welfare of our sub- sidizes most every other public need, many of them less deserving than the welfare of our sub- sidizes most every other public need, many of them less deserving than the welfare of our sub- sidizes most every other public need, many of them less deserving than the welfare of our sub- sidizes most every other public need, many of them less deserving than the welfare of our sub- sidizes most every other public need, many of them less deserving than the welfare of our sub- sidizes most every other public need, many of them less deserving than the welfare of our sub- sidizes most every other public need, many of them less deserving than the welfare of our sub- sidizes most every other public need, many of them less deserving than the welfare of our sub- sidizes most every other public need, many of them less deserving than the welfare of our sub- sidizes most every other public need, many of them less deserving