Fellow Citizens

In the postwar re-examination of the U.S. public school system, no state is ahead of Connecticut. In their separate cities and towns, 85 different citizens' groups have been organized to find out what their schools need, and then get action started. Cause of all the activity: a five-man fact-finding commission appointed two years ago by Governor Chester Bowles and headed by Norwalk Commuter Norman Cousins, editor of the Saturday Review of Literature. Last week Cousins & Co.* summed up what school-minded Connecticut citizens had learned and what they were doing about it.

After analyzing their population trends, more than half the towns found they would have to do some building. Farmington, for instance. decided it needed 18 new classrooms. East Haddam set out to build a new high school. To advertise its own plight, Stamford, which has hundreds more pupils than it has proper facilities for, put on a public mock trial: the People v. Miss Double Sessions.

Like a good many other towns, Westport concluded that its salary scale ($2,400-$4,500) would have to be raised. Westport was shocked to find that 69% of its family-supporting teachers were working at part-time jobs after hours to make ends meet. Hartford was concerned to find that only 69% of its boys & girls finish high school, set about interviewing dropouts all over town to find out why.

While the 85 cities and towns were examining themselves, the commission was looking at Connecticut as a whole. Among its recommendations: a string of community colleges, a system of state scholarships, reorganization of school districts to streamline administration. The commission also suggested higher salaries for teachers, a state TV station strictly for education, and a re-examination of "the whole question of homework."

* Merlin Bishop of Avon, international representative of the United Auto Workers, C.I.O.; Carl A. Gray of Farmington, manufacturer of electronics equipment; Mrs. Robert Mahoney of Hartford, trustee of the University of Connecticut; Mrs. Clifford F. Thompson of Wallingford, onetime state president of the P.T.A.

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