'Backward Schools' Comment Irks Legislature
By Blaine King
The Kansas House education committee is expected to introduce a resolution today calling for a legislative investigation of C. O. Wright, executive director of the Kansas State Teachers' Association (KSTA). The committee voted Tuesday 11-4 to introduce the resolution.
In an interview Monday in Atlantic City, N.J., Wright charged that Kansas has one of the most backward school systems in the country, not excluding the South. He contended that Kansas farmers and the Legislature are to blame. He said farmers control both houses of the Legislature.
Legislators reacted immediately, calling Wright's charges "an extraordinary disservice to the state."
Rep. Robert Finney, R-Humboldt, said he believed that the teachers' association had gone far afield in its leadership, and that the organization no longer represented the views of the rank and file.
Gov. John Anderson said Wednesday:
"ITWOULD certainly appear that there is a need for a study by the Legislature of his (Wright's) views," Finney said.
"C. O. Wright just doesn't know what he is talking about anyway. The real test of an educational system is its product. The high school graduates of Kansas fare very well in our institutions of higher learning and those of other states." Anderson added.
IN ATLANTIC CITY, Wright said he would "welcome an opportunity to discuss the standing of Kansas educationally."
He promised full cooperation if the Legislature wants to investigate the KSTA or its activities.
Legislators indicated Tuesday that some of the association's pet bills may be in for some tough sledding the remainder of this session.
THE LEGISLATURE adopted a concurrent resolution yesterday asking the American Association of School Administrators to "set its record straight" on Wright's remarks.
The resolution said Wright's remarks were in error, and asked the Association to note in its convention records a number of facts concerning educational achievement in Kansas schools.
"HIGHWAY 81 (U.S. 81) divides the liberals from the conservatives in relation to education." Wright said. Highway 81 runs north and south through Salina.
"These elements don't see the schools serving the larger society of the nation."
He charged that in every community there are very "quiet people who stay in the background but wield tremendous influence in education."
"The power structure is not necessarily bad but unfortunately in Kansas it often tends to be against progress and change. You have more provincial thinking in Kansas than in Missouri."
SEN. LAURIN JONES, R-Dodge City, and chairman of the Senate education committee, called Wright's remarks "entirely inaccurate."
Speaking from the Senate floor, Jones said recent figures show Kansas has made significant improvements in state assistance to public schools.
JONES ALSO charged Wright with having "Hitter-like ambitions" to run Kansas education.
Jones said that state aid and state support now total more than $41 million a year, with another $8 million going to the counties in sales tax residue to assist in reducing school levies.
This is not Wright's first battle with the Kansas Legislature. In 1961, the House adopted, on a 78-19 vote, a resolution which would have directed an investigation of the KSTA. The Senate, on the last regular day of the session, failed to consent to the investigation.
THE RESOLUTION was adopted at the request of the Coldwater school board, because the KSTA had urged all teachers in the state to refuse to accept positions in the Coldwater school system.
In 1957 Wright charged the Legislature with "using little children as political pawns" because of an attempt to pass a package bill including a sales tax increase in an appropriations bill which provided half the funds for aid to elementary education.
Wright, 67, became executive secretary of KSTA, a private organization of teachers, in 1941.
Daily hansan
60th Year, No. 88
Wescoe Urges Quality Colleges
Chancellor W. Clarke Wescoe urged that education be done the best way rather than the cheapest way in his address to the Junior College Conference buffet luncheon yesterday in the Big Eight Room of the Kansas Union.
LAWRENCE. KANSAS
“'How can we do the educational job more cheaply?' is a question
Thursday, Feb. 21, 1963
I am, and you should be tired of Dr. Wescoe told administrators from 20 Kansas and western Missouri junior colleges and 34 KU representatives.
THOSE WHO SPEAK of savings from elimination of "waste, duplication and inefficiency have never been long on the firing line of the educational battle," he added.
"In some areas the need is such that duplication really means a doubling of strength," he explained.
Dr. Wescoe noted strong revival of interest in usefulness of junior colleges, particularly for sound terminal courses in technical training as well as college work for students who will transfer to senior colleges.
"INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT in Kansas depends on the quality and quantity of technical education available to our youth," he explained.
George McNelly, Assistant Director of the Division of Applied Technology at Purdue University, called for more education of engineering technicians in his speech to the conference yesterday morning in the Forum Room of the Kansas Union
"The nation simply isn't educating engineers as fast as they are going to be needed," he said. "The engineering technician could help fill this gap and could assume an important future role in our technology."
An engineering technician, McNelly said, is a highly skilled person with technical training beyond high school.
SEVERAL DEANS asked that a state junior college specialist and consultant be added to the KU staff. They said there is no present source within the state from which they can obtain the type of consultation they need.
Following Dr. Wescoe's address a general discussion of junior and senior college problems was held.
Rock Chalk Sells Quickly
All 300 Rock Chalk tickets for Saturday night were sold out this morning in the first two hours of sales, John Bumgarner, Tulsa, Okla. junior and business manager, said.
"When the booth opened at 8 a.m. there were approximately 5 cold students waiting," he said.
"People still wanting Saturday night tickets may check periodically at the information booth for returned tickets and those not used by the faculty," he said.
Five hundred tickets for the Friday night performance are still available. These include 300 seats on the main floor and first balcony, and 200 in the second balcony.
He pointed out there are usually about 30 to 50 of these seats but there is no way of knowing when they will be available.
'King Advocates Passive Policy'
Martin Luther King's weapon for the American Negro is passive resistance, a KU professor of history said last night.
King urges his followers to "defeat the evil system and gain the hearts of those who perpetrate it" by such action, said W. S. Robinson at a KU-Y discussion group on the Negro minister and leader.
PROF, ROBINSON identified King as the "number one leader of what is sometimes called the new Negro in the South."
The Negro leader's non-violence policy has been influenced greatly by India's Mahatma Ghandi and his theories of passive resistance, Prof. Robinson said.
King is familiar with Ghandi's theory, "When you are in the right you can afford to keep your temper; when you are in the the wrong you can't afford to lose it."
King urges his followers to avoid external physical violence and internal violence which would generate hate.
He attacks the issue on a moral plane, "striking more directly on the conscience of the opponents than if a race riot occurred," the speaker said.
ONE OF KING'S objectives has been "the willingness to endure suffering with no active retaliation," Prof. Robinson continued.
JFK Introduces Medicare Bill
WASHINGTON—(UPI)—President Kennedy today asked Congress for sweeping legislation to help the aged. His 36-point program for the country's 17.5 million "senior citizens" featured an expanded version of medical care.
Administration officials put a price tag of nearly $10 billion on the over-all program for its first five years.
To pay for hospital insurance for virtually all Am
KU Obtains 192-Acre Plot
The 192-acre portion of Sunflower Ordnance Works recently acquired by the University will be used for research and field trips.
Keith Lawton, vice chancellor for operations, said the area, east of Lawrence on Highway 10, also would be used by the Medical Center to house and pasture some of its research animals.
The Board of Regents approved a $39,300 expenditure Friday for improvements but Lawton said only $10,000 of this would be used at Sunflower.
Cold Wait for Rock Chalk Tickets
The University does not yet own the property outright, Lawton said, but negotiations are in the final stages.
Working in four-hour shifts since 9 p.m. last night, members of the fraternity waited for the sale of Rock Chalk tickets to begin at the information booth.
Think it was cold last night? Ask certain members of Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity and they'll tell you it was mighty chilly.
The booth opened at 8 a.m. this morning for the purpose of selling the 300 tickets remaining for the two-day variety show.
"We didn't have any other chance, we had to do this," Jerry Riffel. Hutchinson senior and spokesman for the group said this morning. "They
The fraternity drew No. 61 of 62 living groups in the drawing for seating blocks Tuesday night. The fraternity wanted its tickets for the Saturday night performance of the variety show.
didn't have any tickets left by the time they got to us. These were the only ones left."
About 20 persons were in line at the booth at 7:30 a.m., most of them were members of the fraternity.
Some were wrapped in blankets, others wore coats with parka tops and a few merely had overcoats.
"According to a radio we have here, it's been as low as six degrees and it's only seven above now." Riffel said.
"Where are our student directories?" someone joked. "We've been here since Tuesday. Where the hell are our student directories?"
A sign on the window of the information booth says, "Last Chance—Special Offer—25 cents—2nd Semester Directory."
many an Americans over the age of 65. Kennedy asked that Social Security contributions by both employers and employees be increased one-quarter of one per cent.
HE ALSO requested that the annual earnings base, from which Social Security taxes are collected, be raised to 5,200 from the present $4,800. The medical plan would start Jan. 1, 1965, and require an extra $13 contribution yearly from both employee and employer.
The President, in a 16-page message to the House and Senate, called his hospital insurance plan "our number one objective for our senior citizens," and "the most important health proposal pending before the Congress."
THE HEALTH section dominated the message. Kennedy asked for federal power to require states to provide for all persons receiving oldage assistance medical protection equivalent to care provided for those only medically indigent.
Other benefits for the over-65 section of the U.S. population proposed by the President were covered to a large extent in earlier messages to Congress. Kennedy regrouped almost every prior proposal involving older people under the single tent of today's message.
These plans included the $300 tax credit for each person over 65, establishment of the national service and federal assistance for housing developments which include special aids for the elderly such as facilities for group dining, recreation, and health services.
THE PRESIDENT called again for measures to protect the elderly from fraud in sales of "health foods," devices and nostrums. He also proposed plans to facilitate employment opportunities for older workers.
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