The teachers have no lounge, dining area nor office space. All special services are crowded into one converted classroom. The only men's room is on the third floor. The morale of both pupils and teachers is understandably low. It's not easy to come to a building, day after day, which is literally falling apart. When you add the problems of the community-such as a lack of community facilities, the high percentage of children from low-income families who come to school hungry each day, the large numbers of youngsters with low-achievement scores in basic skills-teaching also can become a very frustrating experience. As an example, of the 540 pupils in the school, 65 percent scored below the 16th percentile on the Iowa test of basic skills-which is considered to be the minimum functioning level for pupils. Senator MONDALE. This is an elementary school? Dr. SHEDD. An elementary school. Senator MONDALE, And the Iowa test of basic skills doesn't ask what grade level students are in; It asks whether they can read, write, and count, that sort of thing? Dr. SHEDD. That is correct, sir. Senator MONDALE. And it's assumed that any child who scores below 16 percentile lacks the minimum skills necessary to function as a student? Dr. SHEDD. That is correct. Senator MONDALE. And 65 percent of the children in that school fall below that figure? Dr. SHEDD. Yes, sir. Senator MONDALE. So that 65 percent of the children attending that school, if that test is accurate, are unable to learn? Dr. SHEDD. Not unable. Senator MONDALE. Apparently have not learned? Senator MONDALE. Is that unusual? Is this a peculiar, exaggerated sort of down-and-out school, or would it be typical of your schools? Dr. SHEDD. It would be very typical of many of our schools in the low-income ghettos of the city of Philadelphia. It's not at all uncommon. Senator MONDALE. Now, would some of those children scoring below the 16 percentile be in the fourth and fifth grades? Dr. SHEDD. Yes, and beyond. These tests compare them with other youngsters of their age and grade in school systems across the country, so in comparison with a nationwide norm, so to speak, 65 percent of the kids are doing as poorly or poorer than the lowest 15 percent across the country. Senator MONDALE. But the 16 percentile point, that is an abysmal level, is it not? They can't be functioning? Dr. SHEDD. That is correct. And these are comparing second-graders with second-graders across the country, our third-graders with thirdgraders, eighth-graders with eighth-graders, and so on, across the country. Senator MONDALE. Is this a typical ghetto school? Dr. SHEDD. This would be a typical ghetto school, yes, sir. And this problem is compounded when you realize that the faculty is comprised of 45 percent of inexperienced teachers, teachers with 2 years' experience or less. It is also apparent how woefully inadequate are the number of positions allotted for necessary services. In this school there are only 12 positions for art, music, remedial education, counseling, and special programs for educationally, physically, and emotionally handicapped. This falls far short of providing the help that is needed for pupils who begin their education with social, cultural, and economic handicaps. Yet these conditions are prevalent in some 30 other school buildings in Philadelphia. And I say, 30 school buildings that are firetraps. But large numbers of additional buildings while facilities might be of more recent construction-would still reflect the same test score failure. We simply can't go on like this any more. Yet, in spite of such deplorable conditions, we have trimmed from the budget some 600 teachers and 800 support personnel in the past year alone. We have cut drastically on books, supplies, and equipment. We have increased class size and have been forced by escalating debt-service costs to halt our school building program, despite the fact that every day more than 30,000 youngsters attend school in Philadelphia in firetraps. We have cut the heart out of our night school program and closed our schools to community use. Only last week, we restored extracurricular activities to the budget based on the admittedly tenuous pledges from both candidates for mayor, and the present mayor that they would get the money for us-somewhere. And in these times of rapid change, we have had to all but abandon staff and leadership development programs needed so desperately to equip our teachers and administrators to meet the challenges of urban education. CRIPPLED SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION The interruption of our school construction program is especially crippling. In the past 6 years, we've been able to build three new high schools, four new middle schools, 25 new elementary schools, 77 major additions, and 13 supportive facilities, providing an additional 48,000 student spaces to handle an increased student population of some 17.000 and to ease overcrowding by 31,000 pupils. We've also been able to spend $53 million on alterations and improvements, including building libraries into 200 elementary schools where two existed in 1965. But now we have to stop, despite the fact that there are still some 30 nonfire-resistant buildings in use, class size is still far above accepted standards. We have to rent an additional 400 rooms in churches and community buildings just to handle the overflow. Where we have an extreme need to invest another $480 million in our building program by 1980, we must now stop. And the reason is simply that our operating budget no longer is able to handle the debt service, which has risen from some $10 million in 1965 to $56 million this year-which is equivalent to 16 percent of our total operating budget. On top of it all, we have been forced to cut back our research budget to one-third of 1 percent of our expenditures. Gentlemen, if any major industry in this Nation-and education certainly is a major industry— ever tried to exist on a research budget of one-third of 1 percent, they'd be out of business within months. Yet, the country's public schools, particularly the country's urban public schools, charged with the mission of educating a massive cross section of children with all kinds of learning disabilities, can only spend pennies on research vitally needed to overcome not only today's educational problems, but the far bigger ones we are certain to face in the future. The story is the same in most big cities. Chicago is faced with the probability of having to shut down its schools for most of the month of December. New York had to borrow from this year's funds to finish last year, and now it faces a staggering deficit next spring. Detroit cut 200 teaching positions last spring, stopped repainting old schools, put its maintenance crews on a 4-day week, still finished the year with a $20 million deficit-and faces an additional deficit of some $50 million this year. Similar conditions exist in the cities from coast to coast. SHOULD BE BOLSTERING-NOT CUTTING The simple fact is that at a time when we should be bolstering urban education with new expertise, new programs, and new enthusiasm to meet the critical problems that face us, we are constantly cutting back, spending most of our time trying to stem the flow of fiscal blood with bandaids and looking back over our shoulders at the specter of bankruptcy. Perhaps the worst part is the psychological impact on the school district staff as budget cut piles upon budget cut, and firings and demotions are the order of the day. Statistics show that the trend is nationwide. In 1969, for instance, American voters approved only 56.8 percent of public school bond issues, rejecting some $2.2 billion necessary to pay increased educational costs and to build new schools. The total rejected in 1960 was but 20.4 percent of the Nation's school bond issues, a rejection of only $368 million. In short, everyone seems to want better education, but no one wants to pay for it. Parents and politicians alike beat the drums loudly for better education, which certainly is their right and privilege; but when it comes to raising taxes to pay for better education, the drums seem strangely silent. The political tune turns quickly to educational overspending, and parents become suddenly concerned with the high cost of living. The schools as usual, are left holding the bag. Unfortunately, the track record of congressional committees and commissions isn't much better. I have watched and talked with consultants and experts from one Federal commission or another come in and out of the city of Philadelphia, asking the same questions about the urban nightmare. Later, I read in the papers that they have again reported that, indeed, the cities are in a mess; that indeed, their institutions are blighted and disintegrating, that children can't read, or can't get jobs, or drop out of schools frustrated, alienated, and angry. You have to stop and wonder just how bad things have to be before something is done about it. Absenteeism alone has a staggering impact on the ability of urban youngsters to learn. During the past school year, we had in Philadelphia approximately 18,000 high school students-some 30 percent of our enrollment-absent every day. Senator MONDALE. Have those absentee percentages been rising? ABSENTEE PERCENTAGES RISE Dr. SHEDD. Yes, they have. Over the last 5 years they have been rising dramatically. Senator MONDALE. What were they 5 years ago? Dr. SHEDD. I would say that on a citywide basis absenteeism is up a good 10 percent from 5 years ago. Senator MONDALE. Are many of these truants chronic truants? Dr. SHEDD. Many of them are. For the last 4 years, we have had four high schools that are on complete dual shifts. We are lucky if the afternoon attendance rate goes above 50 percent. Senator MONDALE. Are those ghetto schools? Dr. SHEDD. Yes, sir. Senator MONDALE. Is this truancy rate a phenomenon of the ghetto, or is it a result of the school situation or both? Dr. SHEDD. I think it is most marked in the urban system. What the record in suburban or rural America is today, I don't know, but I suspect that the attendance rate has been falling off there, too, although not nearly as dramatically as this; and this is partly due to the need for greater relevance of school programs to the needs of kids today, but the urban school, in high schools, some of our really tough indirectly high schools would run average attendances of 63 to 65 percent attendance. Senator MONDALE. What about the most disadvantaged ghetto schools? What would the average attendance be? Dr. SHEDD. Attendance, 60 to 65 percent. Senator MONDALE. So there would be about a third missing? Dr. SHEDD. That is right. Senator MONDALE. What would be the percentage in one of the more affluent schools? Dr. SHEDD. About 90 percent attendance. We have two schools, one boys' school and one girls' school, for academically talented students. They tend to be the more affluent students in the community. These serve the city at large. Their attendance would be 92 to 93 percent. Interestingly enough, we also have a farm school, the School of Agricultural Science in town where the attendance also is very high. Senator MONDALE. Have they heard about farm prices? You better not give them a course on that. Do you know that a Minnesota farm family of four, working a full week, gets 60 percent as much as a family of four on welfare in New York City? Dr. SHEDD. No, I didn't know that. Would you care to comment upon their living expenses? Senator MONDALE. No. Living expenses are lower. There is no question about that. But what I am saying is they have a very bad deal, the economics of agriculture Dr. SHEDD. I have always had a great deal of admiration for people who make their living from the earth, and particularly in the Midwest. Senator MONDALE. God bless you. CONTEND WITH MANY PROBLEMS Dr. SHEDD. Standardized test scores indicate that some 40 percent of the children in our elementary schools, or 56,000 youngsters read at such low levels they can be considered functionally illiterate. And more than 6,000 of these children-who are totally disillusioned with the learning process because they can't read-simply drop out of our schools each year. There are many other problems, too. Briefly, they are: ENVIRONMENT Many urban children, particularly those from the inner city come to school generally unprepared to learn. They have not had the kind of home experience that teaches them their numbers and letters and colors at age 3 and 4. Many ghetto youngsters, both black and white, have not had the benefit of educated parents taking care of their early childhood education in the home before they ever get to school. Many urban youngsters, in short, are already years behind their middle-class suburban counterparts which make up the bulk of the so-called "national norm" before they ever get to school. BASIC SKILLS Faced with the kinds of early childhood handicaps inherent in ghetto life, and with teachers unable to cope with their problems, many urban youngsters withdraw from the educational process once they are in school. Learning to read is like learning a foreign language. There is a fear of failure and rejection. So the youngsters "turn off" from the normal educational process and remain well behind national norms; Iowa test results from both black and white ghetto areas show this conclusively. PUPIL MOBILITY Test results also show that youngsters leaving the school system to go to other schools take with them conclusively higher test results than those coming into the system from other school systems. As a result, just the simple factor of pupil mobility tends to cut drastically into any improvement in test results. When you add to this the fact that many schools in the Philadelphia ghettos have a pupil mobility rate in excess of 100 percent per year, you have just about an impossible situation. TEACHER TRAINING Teachers trained through the normal pedagogical routes simply cannot cope with the frustrations of inner-city education. Although the tide is beginning to turn, the teacher training process must become far |