Educators Stress Teacher Scarcity

Alfred D. Simpson, professor of Education, joined yesterday in a call for 1,250,000 additional elementary and high school teachers in the next ten years.

Simpson, vice-president of the American Association of School Administrators, which is holding its annual regional conference in Philadelphia, said that an expected increase of 9,000,000 students in the nation threatens a critical shortage of grade school instructors.

Half at Most

He and three other noted American educators claimed that at the present rate-American teachers are being trained, less than 50 percent of the elementary teachers will be available by the end of the ten-year period.

Emergency or sub-standard teachers will, of necessity, fill many vacancies, Mabel Studebaker, president of the National Education Association, predicted. "Communities everywhere must embark on recruitment programs stressing the attractive features of the profession to young people," she said.

Jean Wilson, president of the National League of Teachers Associations, and Edgar L. Morphet, chief of the School Finance Section of the United States Office of Education, stressed the need for 450,000 additional classroom units within the next decade.

Because of the unprecedented increase in enrollment, elementary schools will need 1,000,000, extra teachers and high schools 250,000 they said. While the high school situation is "under control," conditions in elementary schools are "serious," they said.