The Augusta Courier

County School Heads Put
Thumbs Down On Thrasher's Sleight Of Hand Agenda

Educational Future Of Children Would Be Hurt Badly By Damage To System

The proposition of State Auditor B. E. Thrasher, Jr. to increase the teacher load by three would set the educational program of Georgia back at least a generation according to some county school superintendents.

Others say that his proposition would be "penny wise and pound foolish."

And still others say that it would sacrifice the opportunity of the youth of this state.

There is no doubt that his proposal would wreck the entire school program.

But, it's better that you hear from the county school superintendents in their own language and we give you quotations below from the county school superintendents in the state.

County No. 1:

"Based on our first 7 months attendance reports we qualify for 86 white and 32 colored teachers on our present basis of allotment. Under Mr. Thrasher's proposal we would qualify for only 76 white and 28 colored teachers. This would mean a big reduction in maintenance funds, as well as teachers, which would cause us to have to cut services. If we used the average of one teacher for every twenty-five pupils we would qualify for 86 white (no change) and 29 colored.

"We actually need more teachers instead of less teachers. Some of our teachers at present have more than 40 pupils. All principals, except High School principals, have a full teaching day besides their other duties.

"I do not believe Mr. Thrasher's proposal is for the best interest of the boys and girls of Georgia. I think it would set the educational program of Georgia back at least one generation. Investment in the boys and girls would give the state its greatest dividend in the years to come."

County No. 2

"First I will give you some information regarding this county. Our total A. D. A. for the last completed school year-1951-52 was 1652. Based on this figure we were allotted 70 teachers and one Jeanes Supervisor. This gives us a teacher for each 23.60 pupils in A. D. A. Should the proposed change become operative and our A. D. A. remain unchanged we will be allotted 62 teachers or 8 less than we now have. In our county at the present time we operate a total of 28 schools and a number of these are one teacher schools. Our new plans call for consolidating these 28 schools into 4 schools; but we must operate for the present with what we have. Now if this proposed new plan is adopted I wonder what 8 should be closed;

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Educational Future Of Children Would Be Hurt Badly By Damage To System

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or from what schools I could draw 8 teachers and still offer the children any kind of a program that would approximate satisfaction. Plainly speaking it can't be done. And as your letter stated to reduce the number of teachers would also reduce certain funds and this would further complicate and impair the program. Surely we can devise better means of economizing.

"The proposed change suggests to me the old saying, 'Penny wise and Pound Foolish.'"

County No. 3:

"This is to advise that in this county, which is the largest county in size in this section of the state, our teachers are allotted on a basis of one to twenty-six A. D. A. in the elementary school and one to twenty-one in the high schools. Because we have some sparsely settled sections of the county, we are carrying fourteen teachers locally.

"Since the school system is operating at a deficit this year, we are going to be compelled to reduce the number of these county paid teachers. For the state to further decrease the number would create for us an impossible situation. Actually, our local school leaders are clamoring for more and not fewer teachers."

County No. 4:

"I cannot see the wisdom of this change especially in the rural areas where transportation and other things become a definite criteria in getting children to and from school. I think in a system where children walk to school and no transportation is involved that 30 children per teacher is all right, but take in our county where we have thinly settled communities as far as population is concerned we have only 3 or 4 teachers for eight grades—Yes, we would like to have a teacher per grade out here and in that case we figure the A. D. A. would be about 10 to 15 children per teacher, but too, that runs into money. I believe a fair allotment would be 25 elementary children and 20 high school children per teacher.

"Here in our county on an A. D. A. basis we are allotted 72 white teachers and 40 colored teachers. This allotment is broken down as follows:

"44 White Elementary teachers.

"33 Colored Elementary teachers.

"28 White High School teachers.

"7 Colored High School teachers.

This gives us a total of 112 state-allotted teachers.

"Because of inadequate buildings and transportation at the present time we have employed 6 teachers over and above our allotment which are paid entirely from local funds. No state aid at all for these 6. Neither do we get any funds for maintenance for teachers over our state allotment.

"Under Mr. Thrasher's proposal we would lose approximately 8 white elementary teachers, 7 colored elementary teachers, a total of 15 elementary teachers lost in this county, and the maintenance loss with these teachers would be $4500.00 per year. In the High School under Mr. Thrasher's proposal we would lose 6 white high school teachers, 2 colored high school teachers and maintenance for them which would be $2400.00 per year. On State allotted basis this county would lose 23 teachers and $6900.00 maintenance and operation.

"In conclusion and in fairness to everyone, more especially to the school children of the State of Georgia, this County school system very definitely does not have too many teachers.

"Remember, we are operating on a 'MINIMUM' program and minimum, to me means what it implies. Now, understand I am in favor of economy but I am not in favor of sacrificing opportunity."