Thank you for visiting SNEWPapers!
Sign up free
Story
November 8, 1954
The Augusta Courier
Augusta, Richmond County, Georgia
What is this article about?
The US faces a severe shortage of school buildings, needing 720,000 more classrooms by 1960 for 7 million additional children due to higher birth rates and retention. Georgia anticipates 200,000 more students, with urban overcrowding from rural migration, emphasizing education's critical role.
Clipping
OCR Quality
98%
Excellent
Full Text
Entire Nation Suffering For More School Buildings
7 Million Increase In Children By 1960 Is Facing United States
The entire United States is now suffering for school buildings and the suffering will grow more intense.
The United States Commissioner of Education says that by 1960 we will need seven hundred and twenty thousand more classrooms to take care of seven million more school children.
We know that we will have an increase of seven million by 1960 because the children are already here. We are not dependent on what may happen later.
These seven hundred twenty thousand classrooms will cost a total of twenty-eight billion dollars.
This increase in enrollment is due to the increased birth rate and to the increased holding power of schools. These factors increased the enrollment from 1930 to 1953 by six million.
It is expected that there will be forty-five million children going to school in the United States by 1960 if we have the facilities to house them and the teachers to train them.
In Georgia, we know that we will have two hundred thousand more school children to educate by 1960. We now have approximately eight hundred thousand in the public schools and within five years that figure is expected to exceed one million.
We know this to be true because the children are already here. Enough to swell the rolls by this amount has already arrived.
The birth records show that within five years they will be ready for school.
In Georgia today, we are spending two hundred million dollars in an effort to provide classrooms for those who are in school today. This building program will not take care of this two hundred thousand increase that is expected by 1960.
So, to take care of these two hundred thousand new pupils, it is going to be necessary to build new classrooms and to get new teachers. If we limit the number of pupils to thirty for each teacher and thirty to each classroom, you can readily see how many more classrooms will be necessary and how many more teachers will be needed.
This problem is critical now and it will become more critical as time goes by. Each year, the classrooms become more crowded and the schools become more numerous.
If we expect to meet the problems of the future, then we must meet this problem in advance. It will be too late to wait until after they are in school to build the classrooms and to supply the teachers.
There will be no need for all of these children to go to school unless they do have a classroom and unless they have a teacher.
To add to this problem, the enrollment in the schools in the rural areas is declining and the enrollment in the towns and cities is growing by leaps and bounds in Georgia. As the people of Georgia are moving to the towns and cities the population in the urban centers is swelling and in the rural areas it is declining.
This shift in population is placing an increasing burden on the public school system in Georgia. It makes the operation of the schools in the rural areas more expensive and causes serious over-crowding and dislocation in the towns and the cities.
It is a problem that faces the nation today and the most serious problem we have confronting the people of the Nation.
The problem is more acute in Georgia and in most of the South than it is in the rest of the nation because we are so far behind the times in our public school system.
We are twenty-five years behind the times in building and in planning.
The same condition will be true in the colleges in Georgia.
Where we now have twenty-two thousand college students in the various branches of the University System we know that there will be over forty thousand knocking at the door by 1960.
The biggest business in Georgia today is the school business. It involves more money and more people than any other enterprise or business.
Not only is it the biggest business, but it is the most important because the future of this state is hung around the development of our educational system.
How the people of Georgia solve this problem, and the people of the nation solve it, will determine the course and the progress of the state and the nation.
7 Million Increase In Children By 1960 Is Facing United States
The entire United States is now suffering for school buildings and the suffering will grow more intense.
The United States Commissioner of Education says that by 1960 we will need seven hundred and twenty thousand more classrooms to take care of seven million more school children.
We know that we will have an increase of seven million by 1960 because the children are already here. We are not dependent on what may happen later.
These seven hundred twenty thousand classrooms will cost a total of twenty-eight billion dollars.
This increase in enrollment is due to the increased birth rate and to the increased holding power of schools. These factors increased the enrollment from 1930 to 1953 by six million.
It is expected that there will be forty-five million children going to school in the United States by 1960 if we have the facilities to house them and the teachers to train them.
In Georgia, we know that we will have two hundred thousand more school children to educate by 1960. We now have approximately eight hundred thousand in the public schools and within five years that figure is expected to exceed one million.
We know this to be true because the children are already here. Enough to swell the rolls by this amount has already arrived.
The birth records show that within five years they will be ready for school.
In Georgia today, we are spending two hundred million dollars in an effort to provide classrooms for those who are in school today. This building program will not take care of this two hundred thousand increase that is expected by 1960.
So, to take care of these two hundred thousand new pupils, it is going to be necessary to build new classrooms and to get new teachers. If we limit the number of pupils to thirty for each teacher and thirty to each classroom, you can readily see how many more classrooms will be necessary and how many more teachers will be needed.
This problem is critical now and it will become more critical as time goes by. Each year, the classrooms become more crowded and the schools become more numerous.
If we expect to meet the problems of the future, then we must meet this problem in advance. It will be too late to wait until after they are in school to build the classrooms and to supply the teachers.
There will be no need for all of these children to go to school unless they do have a classroom and unless they have a teacher.
To add to this problem, the enrollment in the schools in the rural areas is declining and the enrollment in the towns and cities is growing by leaps and bounds in Georgia. As the people of Georgia are moving to the towns and cities the population in the urban centers is swelling and in the rural areas it is declining.
This shift in population is placing an increasing burden on the public school system in Georgia. It makes the operation of the schools in the rural areas more expensive and causes serious over-crowding and dislocation in the towns and the cities.
It is a problem that faces the nation today and the most serious problem we have confronting the people of the Nation.
The problem is more acute in Georgia and in most of the South than it is in the rest of the nation because we are so far behind the times in our public school system.
We are twenty-five years behind the times in building and in planning.
The same condition will be true in the colleges in Georgia.
Where we now have twenty-two thousand college students in the various branches of the University System we know that there will be over forty thousand knocking at the door by 1960.
The biggest business in Georgia today is the school business. It involves more money and more people than any other enterprise or business.
Not only is it the biggest business, but it is the most important because the future of this state is hung around the development of our educational system.
How the people of Georgia solve this problem, and the people of the nation solve it, will determine the course and the progress of the state and the nation.
What sub-type of article is it?
Historical Event
What themes does it cover?
Misfortune
What keywords are associated?
School Shortage
Enrollment Increase
Classroom Needs
Georgia Education
Birth Rate
Urban Migration
Educational Crisis
Where did it happen?
United States, Georgia
Story Details
Location
United States, Georgia
Event Date
By 1960
Story Details
The United States requires 720,000 additional classrooms costing $28 billion by 1960 for 7 million more schoolchildren due to birth rate and retention increases since 1930. Georgia faces 200,000 more students, current spending of $200 million insufficient, with urban overcrowding from rural-to-urban migration exacerbating the crisis in an underdeveloped system.