Break Downs

Near Little Rock, Ark. last fortnight was found a school teacher who had taken to 'legging. Graduate of the University of Arkansas, she gave her name as "Maureen." Said she: "I was paid in county warrants but I could not get them cashed. . I have a drawer full of them. ... A destitute farmer near the school makes and furnishes the whiskey. I retail it for him. . . . Bootlegging isn't as profitable as one would think. But I make a few dollars. Hell, I have to live!"

More than 300 rural schools in Arkansas have been closed. Elementary school teachers have taken pay cuts averaging 22%, high-school teachers 19%. Most teachers are now paid in tax warrants.

Arkansas was not alone in its educational troubles. School systems in many another State have either broken down or are perilously close to collapse: P: In 20 Alabama counties 85,762 rural children have no schools to go to, 2,500 teachers no place to teach. Rural schools in 16 more counties may close any day. A few schools are kept open by parent subscriptions--$5 per half-year for grade pupils, $7.50 for high-school students. P: Chicago school teachers last week were threatened with a 14% cut on their still-unpaid salaries. P: New York City school teachers grudgingly took pay cuts averaging 6% to 7%. In the municipal budget other savings are scheduled by closing three teachers' training schools, increasing the size of classes. P: The Nebraska Farmers' Union demanded that educational costs be reduced to 50% of the 1928-29 level. P: The Tennessee Legislature was asked to save $2,000,000 biennially by abolishing four normal schools, Tennessee Polytechnic Institute and the University of Tennessee Junior College of Agriculture. P: Professors and other officials at the University of Kentucky have not drawn more than half-pay for months. P: In Pittsburgh public men and civic organizations mobilized to combat a proposal to make the school board elective instead of, as at present, appointive. P: A nation-wide survey of school finance under the auspices of the U. S. Office of Education last week found that 9,500,000 children in the nation are deprived of proper education.

P: Last week hearings began before a Senate Banking & Currency sub-Committee on a bill by Georgia's George to permit R. F. C. loans for school maintenance. Twenty-three cities wanted such advances, including Minneapolis. Houston, Detroit, Phoenix, Chattanooga.

What many a pedagog could not see was why schools did not have as much right to R. F. C. money as railroads and banks. If denied relief, they warned that: 1) rural schools in Wyoming may close in a year; 2) Michigan may be unable to refinance its school debt; 3) teachers' salaries may remain delinquent in New Jersey; 4) school years may be shortened in Ohio and Idaho; 5) San Francisco may be forced to leave unfinished its school building program for lack of $5,000,000.

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