For These Our Children (1959)

hahaha [Music] you're looking at a prominent South Carolina his name is Billy he's a seventh grader this year because of Billy and thousands of boys and girls like him the state of South Carolina has been the site of an educational Revolution the entire State School System serving more than half a million children has undergone vast changes in drastic reorganization in less than six years more has been done for public schools in South Carolina than was accomplished in any other similar period in the state's history as one example enough new classrooms have been built to accommodate 250 000 children all in five years and the results of these physical changes have been and will continue to be felt in All Phases of education for years to come [Music] before and during World War II South Carolina schools were like those in many other states today in fact worse than average many were overcrowded some even operating on double shifts underpaid overworked teachers struggled to maintain order in ancient buildings with bad lighting leaky Roots worn out Furniture bad floors [Music] the sand plate of South Carolina schools began with the national depression of 1929. South Carolina was hard hit the state's textile mills curtailed operations some even shut down for long uncertain periods Farmers had little market for their staple crop cotton and so the cotton withered in the fields thousands were jobless and the Hill People sang Up plenty of ballad with tents and cotton and 40 Cent meat how in the world can a poor man [Music] foreign rural areas older boys and girls dropped out of school hoping to find work younger children were kept home because they liked shoes and clothing [Music] communities found it more and more difficult to pay teachers salaries with dwindling tax receipts many teachers had to seek other work [Music] repairs to school plants were meager indeed then came World War II and the school situation became even worse to the armed forces and to and tutorial shortages aggravated by the [Music] War by the time the war was over many rural schools had deteriorated into miserable Shacks unfit for human use and buildings such as these one teacher strove to maintain order and instill knowledge in 30 to 40 children ranging in age from 6 to 16 years students built lean two sheds to serve as cafeterias outdoor toilets contributed to the spread of disease as the drinking water drawn from tumbledown Wells in the schoolyard Urban schools were of course in better shape physically but many were old badly designed ill-heated poorly lighted typical of General conditions of the state was Abbeville County and the rolling Piedmont Hills by 1950 Abbeville County had more than 5 000 children enrolled in its 58 schools staffed by 191 teachers there were only 12 school buses and 12 private cars whose honors had contracted to drive a few remote youngsters to school each day annual salaries for teachers range from an unbelievable low of 700 to a maximum high of nineteen hundred dollars the administrative organization of schools in Abbeville County was a hodgepodge and was typical of the situation in other parts of the state the county was divided into 27 school districts each district governed by a Board of Trustees some appointed some elected and since there were 27 school districts in the county operating without coordination there was no possibility of planning a program for all the pupils of the county school districts operating elementary schools were independent of the district operating high schools under these conditions which were typical there was no authority to plan the Improvement of the educational program as a whole to learn anything about the economics of County School operation for decades back it was necessary to look up original claims filed by dozens of different individuals obviously a more business-like Arrangement was called for creaking groaning school system accessibility of modernization on local funds alone and the ever louder complaints of parents were having their impact in the state capital in January of 1950 then Governor Strom Thurmond called on the legislature to investigate the school situation and said that additional revenues would have to be found for our school system a legislative committee was chosen to look under the matter the committee headed by representative Ernest Hollings after intensive study and consultation with many Educators such as Mr G.C Frampton the superintendent of schools of Charleston County recommended that the state come to the rescue of the districts by providing aid for school construction and also recommended a program of school district reorganization and state supervised transportation recommendation and supplementary legislation was heartily endorsed by incoming Governor James F Burns when I resigned as Secretary of State I fully intended never again to serve in public office however a study of our school situation impressed me with the inadequacies of the system and with the inequalities existing between rural and urban schools and between schools for white and colored pupils an ambition to change that condition caused me to return to public office in 1950. when he inaugurated as governor I advocated the bond issue of 75 million dollars and the levying of a sales tax of 3 percent for the purpose of equalizing school facilities I said then it is our duty to provide for the races substantial equality in school facilities we should do it because it is right for me that is sufficient of the first 75 million dollars 70 percent was allocated to negro schools even though the Negro School enrollment constituted by 39 of the total enrollment subsequently the bond issue was increased to 137 million dollars it was supplemented by local funds in every school district Negroes now have one high school and more than one Elementary School on the whole the Negro school buildings are superior to the white school balloons because they are modern today I am proud that notwithstanding the relatively low per capita income of our people our school facilities for white and colored students compare favorably with those of any state of the union this new law created a state educational Finance commission to promote the Improvement of the school system and the physical facilities of same to modernize the public school system to issue bonds and to secure funds for building and to assume responsibility for transporting students the commission was appointed in April of 51. it selected Dr E.R crew one of the state's outstanding Educators as its director Dr crew in turn named assistant director Patrick C Smith who is in charge of financial accounting W.B Sutherland supervisor of Schoolhouse planning and Ralph a Durham supervisor of Transportation the state educational Finance commission held its first meeting on April the 30th 1951 since that time it is it has allocated to school districts for building purposes some 171 million dollars and with this amount enough classrooms have been built to seat more than half the state's school children this is an achievement unprecedented in the history of this or of any other state this has been done with an annual appropriation of twenty dollars per pupil for per year for the year 1955-56 this was approximately 21 percent of the revenue from the sales tax if the school districts should Bond themselves to secure the amounts provided by the state for school building purposes it would require an average tax rate of 19 and 7 10 mills to retire the indebtedness one of the most important results of the school building program has been the elimination of small school districts and the consolidation of schools as a result pupils in rural areas henceforth will have educational advantages equal to those living in cities and towns and improved education Administration should result in better educational achievement the educational Finance commission has discharged its duties fearlessly and without regard to political considerations the achievements of these five years have been made possible by the cooperation of local school officials and local communities and finally it should be noted it has been the general assembly which has been responsible for this the state's most serious effort to educate all its children on the commission allocated funds for the new school program the Revolution was underway the state's Architects and contractors threw themselves wholeheartedly under the project and a building program began the quiet Southern ERA reverberated with the rattle of jackhammers drills power shovels and the shelves of laborers plasterers bricklayers electricians plumbers Carpenters steel erection workers and a host of others of the state's most skilled men and women in a room of the educational finance commission's office in Colombia are several tons of blueprints and working drawings representing an astronomical number of man hours of plans and dreams of radically new buildings and of more conservative structures somewhere in South Carolina today the stand the structures depicted by each of these sets of blueprints in the country in small towns and large cities from the Blue Ridge Foothills to the edge of the Atlantic Ocean no area has been slated each has received new schools new buildings renovation and modernized position according to its needs and within the bounds of available local funds and those dispersed by the educational Finance Commission significant that despite the speed with which the school building program has progressed the dictates of beauty utility and other phases of good design were not ignored eloquent testimony to the interest in cooperation of South Carolina's Architects and building contractors is the large number of national award-winning School plats such as this one in the small community of Wagner located on spacious rolling grounds with plenty of room for future expansion the school embodies all the fine concepts of modern architecture and its relationship to use it was one of six in the nation given design award citations and a national competition [Music] early in 1951 the Abbeville County Board of Education Consolidated 27 school districts throughout the county into one and employed Dr Ellison M Smith as administrative superintendent of Abbeville schools Dr Smith former director of the state's teacher certification program made plant consolidation and Improvement of existing school buildings his first aim he believed that successful School operation could be accomplished only with the informed cooperation of teachers and parents and placed budget records and disbursement charts on permanent display in his office for all to see visits from interested citizens were always welcome and he inaugurated monthly newsletters to trustees faculty and PTA members Dr Smith's wide open policy attracted cooperation during the consolidation process and by 1955 33 elementary schools were combined into 11. 10 high schools were concentrated into four in four years time all Abbeville schools had central heating cafeterias libraries and were provided with home economics Agricultural and science classrooms schoolyards were cleared and planted School shops turned out shelves and storage cabinets for classrooms Dr Smith also keeps an eye on the future with approval of the Abbeville Board of Education he has arranged purchases of sites adjoining School properties leveled them and made playgrounds and athletic fields and planted lawns when necessary building expansion can proceed without delay changes within School organizational setups have been tremendous in 1951 there were 1221 school districts today as a result of reorganization there are 106. more than one thousand small schools where physical facilities were the poorest and educational results most meager have been eliminated those few remaining are rapidly being Consolidated into larger plants the third revolutionary maneuver executed by the South Carolina educational Finance commission ran into some opposition it involved the school bus transportation system long operated by local districts each district employed its own bus drivers out of its own operational fund and in some rural districts the low salary job became a political Grant to be handed out Anew each time a county election was held the state's lawmakers passed legislation transferring maintenance of school buses to the state highway department conferences between Dr crew and chief Highway commissioner CR MacMillan resulted in Rapid mobilization of the highway Department's experts and the largest mass driver training program in the state's history was begun the new school bus drivers were Junior and senior high school students with good records and they were pleat the driver training courses operated by the highway department they were to be paid 25 a month for their services [Music] within four months highway patrolman and driver training Experts of the American Automobile Association trained and certified more than 3 000 student drivers these new bus drivers receive intensive classroom instruction in both driving and bus maintenance and then pass rigorous field tests before being eligible for employment position to students was based on the belief that teenage dangerous drivers drivers at the highway Department's records show that South Carolina Student drivers have established one of the nation's best school bus driving records today with 4 000 school buses transporting a quarter million South Carolina children to and from school each day the transportation program costs about one-third less per child than it did five years ago when there were 2200 buses carrying 140 000 students duplication of bus routes has been eliminated and more efficient purchasing methods have resulted in lower cost Abbeville of course got new school buses according to its population today 47 well-kept County buses transport around 2500 boys and girls to Abbeville schools the Abbeville school picture since 1951 includes workshops for parents and teachers resulting in a greater interest in the school's welfare and where active interest in advanced education was lacking in many citizens in the past now a clear unlimited Horizon of opportunity presents itself and with it the inevitable signs of economic betterment to date almost two million dollars has been spent in this County alone to construct four new schools and to renovate and remodel 11 others in some cases entire new wings were built containing as many classrooms as the existing building in other cases the repairs were relatively minor some building and Improvement remains to be made but it is small compared to the desperate needs that existed before on the program now nearly 90 complete is finished Abbeville County will be prepared to meet basic educational needs for the next decade [Music] while South Carolina's rural schools have undergone tremendous changes the urban problem while different in many respects was quite serious and equally difficult to solve since World War II the South and especially South Carolina has been the scene of the greatest Industrial Development in the nation's history hundreds of plants have built in this area and with them have come thousands of new people and new families South Carolina educational authorities are aware of the fact that school facilities are a vital concern to industrialists in terms of available educated labor it is probable that South Carolina's rapidly expanding school system has played a part in the industrial Trek to the state South Carolina's largest cities are burgeoning sprawling spreading expanding into the peaceful Countryside and for the past five years thousands of War babies have entered City Schools the national birth rate is still soaring and there will be thousands of new first graders for every year in the foreseeable future the urban School problem therefore is a matter of space of keeping up with a fantastic demand for more physical facilities since 1950 the total School population in Colombia South Carolina's largest city has increased from a total enrollment of 18 000 to more than twenty five thousand many City Schools too were old and in bad repair when World War II started after the war demands were greater than ever Colombia was barely able to squeeze in the 1951-52 enrollment of pupils until the educational Finance commission's allocation made it possible to build additional classrooms and new school buildings [Music] still a severe problem an average of 1713 children will enter crowded City Schools each year for the next five years in addition to classroom space need for new Personnel such as lunchroom workers clerical help and nurses will be very great Columbia City schools have thus far been allocated about seven million dollars by the educational Finance Commission allocations are per capita based on the child population of the area Colombia's allocation has produced nine new schools 14 new additions and Renovations and 12 sites for new schools but the end is not in sight and neither is a prominent solution either in Colombia or Abbeville local school officials and parents must go on working as well as the educational Finance Commission the law creating the commission States specifically that schools are a joint responsibility of local school districts and the state chairman of the commission is the Governor George Bell Tillerman Jr commission members are Dewey h Johnson W guest family LP Hollis Charles P Elliott David W Robinson J.C long and Jesse T Anderson Governor Timmerman looking to the Future in consultation with representative James a Spruill Jr had this to say South Carolina has made in a minimum of time tremendous educational progress progress revolutionizing school facilities and transportation for our boys and girls wherever they may live and regardless of varying economic circumstances the magnitude of the school program required The Cooperative effort of many individuals men like James a Spruill Jr of Cheraw Rhodes scholar former professor of Law and legislator it was his Keen mind that composed the principal draft of legislation under which an educational dream became a reality it was done despite our having the third lowest individual income in the nation and the second largest per capita School population having done so much with so little in so short of time we know we have the ability to do much more the schoolhouse alone is not enough the future of our children will depend upon the soundness of our educational system the classrooms of today are molding the character of our future in this atomic age our rapid industrial progress is unfolding opportunities which will demand intelligently educated men and women the greatest need is to provide our boys and girls with the best education that we can reasonably afford an education comparable to our modern school facilities South Carolina's revolution in school Construction should be the inspiration for a Renaissance a Renaissance in education that will constantly ensure curriculum suitable to changing needs a Renaissance in education that will provide the quality as well as the quantity of teachers that we need a Renaissance that will utilize to the fullest all of our educational resources and ingenuity working together during the years since the commission was created the educational Finance commission and the local school authorities have given South Carolina the finest system of schools in its entire history a record of which the state is justly proud from the mountains to the seashore South Carolinians are determined that this Legacy must and shall be continued for these our children [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you