The Augusta Courier

Local School Systems Build To Meet Crisis

Local school systems throughout Georgia are doing much toward solving the housing problem, but their best efforts are inadequate in spite of the magnificent spirit of cooperation they have shown, records of the State Department of Education reveal. A compilation submitted to State School Superintendent M. D. Collins by Claude Purcell, of the Division of Administration, disclosed that in the past five years local systems have issued $46,150,143 in bonds for new school buildings and that the value of Georgia's educational plant has increased nearly 50%.

Yet Georgia's children are not adequately housed, and with an increased enrollment of nearly 50,000 expected in the next two years, a crisis is mounting as old buildings become obsolete and class rooms become congested.

55 county school systems voted $28,757,143 in bonds since 1945, and 28 independent districts voted school bonds totaling $17,393,000. Thirteen counties and one independent district rejected bond proposals totaling $2,912,000. School bond elections are pending in Harris county and in the Decatur and LaGrange districts.

With more than half the buildings housing white children obsolete and with 90% of those housing negro children in substandard condition, the housing crisis is beyond the control of local communities and counties, except in a very few of the wealthiest counties of the State. Minimum needs for construction are placed at between $125,000,000 and $210,000,000 by various authorities, but the figure of $172,000,000 is generally accepted by educational authorities in the State.

Local effort, however has done much, especially in solving the problem of better facilities for Negro students and in modernizing obsolescent plants. Praising the determination of Georgia citizens to provide better housing for the school children of the State, the Atlanta Constitution pointed editorially to the gravity of the situation, saying:

"However willing local people may be to vote bond issues for schools, it obviously is not going to be possible for each community to take care of its full needs. A great many of our counties are financially unable to pay for facilities that would be adequate. The State is going to have to face the task of distributing the burden. The Minimum Foundation Program, which has been enacted into law but not yet fully financed, contemplates an annual expenditure of $5,000,000 for construction. At that rate it would take approximately 34 years for school facilities to reach the desired level, not allowing for those which would become unsuitable meanwhile. All of us in Georgia have a tremendous problem."