Schoolhouse story, how Georgia is building two hundred million dollars worth of school buildings

It will take you about 18 minutes to read this booklet and look at these pictures.
. . . one among many new schools in Georgia
-new, modern, functional, colorful buildings that make going to school a more exciting adventure. . . . here in thi community, where the foothill of the Blue Ridge tart climbing toward the Great Smokie, Teddy Roosevelt's mother once lived and went to school when she was a Georgia girl named Mittie Bulloch.
Oh, to build, to build, that is the noblest art of all the arts. Lo GFELLOW in Michaelangelo

when the people had crossed the restless Atlantic, they came unto a goodly land and fair.
And Oglethorpe called it Georgia.
In this land whereunto they had come, they worked and dreamed and hoped, and started schools for their children. (
Today followed upon yesterday. The tomorrows filed past and became a part of memory and old time. The first people passed away and became only the shadowed shapes that memories are.
And behold a century passed, and another century, and a score of years beside.
And the fields grew to good harvesting, and the great machines of a new age brought new days and ways into the land. New problems arose.
But an old problem remained: how to have good schools for the children, and to build buildings wherein the new generations could learn the things needful to them for living happily and usefully their days upon the ancient earth.
Verily the inhabitants of the land considered this old problem, and found a new way to solve it, a way that had been unbeknown to them beforetim,e.
Herein is the chronicle of their doing.

this is our story
"education does not cost - it paysl"

. . . . democracy, too, had an insurance policy

DR. M. D. COLLINS
Would you like to know how Georgia is building two hundred million dollars worth of schools? This is the story.

It is a chronicle of magnificent achievement. But we have not hereby settled all our school problems - not even all our housing problem. ot yet are all our children adequately "school housed". The school enrollments are elephant-size. We figured on a 30,000 annual increase; the increase this year wa more than 50,000 We now have 925,088 pupils enrolled in Georgia's schools. ext year, we expect 30,000 more than that.
We want an adequate chool building for all of them. Then for all of them we must have well-trained, well-paid teachers, enough bu es, plenty of books, good lunchrooms and all the equipment they need for a vital, contemporary curriculum.
Educating our children is our most important job. Nothing must come before that. Education is democracy's insurance policy. No premium is too high to pay for it.
We have come a long way together. As we press on toward the mountain top of what we can and must do for our children, it is heartening to pause on the slope and look back at what has already been done. We have come a long way from where we started. We can look over Georgia, ee these many modern beautiful schoolhouses, and be proud. It i an amazing achievement.
To all who had any part in it, I am privileged to say for the girls and boys of Georgia "Thank you". I say it with all my heart.

M. D. COLLI S State Superintendent of Schools

This bulletin is published by the State Department of Education, Atlanta, <?eorgia, February, 1955

.... they listened, looked, studied, and approved plans-and it took many hours!
New Members:

Hon. W. T. Bodenhamer 2nd District

Hon. Henry Stewart
7th District

georgia's state board of education:

In the picture:

DR. M. D. COLLI S, Executive Officer

Ho . H. W. BLOU L *Ho . J. D. ROGERS, JR.

lst District 2nd District

HON. CLARKE W. Du CA

_

Ho . JAMES S. PETERS, Vice-Chairman

Ho . GEO. P. WHIT~AN, JR., Chairman

HON. HERSCHEL LOVETT

*HON. GLEN MIL ER

HON. L. E. SWEAT

Ho . IRWIN KIMZEY

3rd District Ath Di trict 5th District 6th District 7th District 8th District ~9th District

MRS. JULIUS Y. T ALMADGE

1Oth District

"Terms expired

"This story is unique. There is nothing else like it going on anywhere in this nation today. Wh~n I tell people that I meet here and there over the country about it, th~y are amazed."
-Ho ORABLE JAMES S. PETERS V ice-chairman State Board of Education

The Honorable Hermon Talmadge, who was Governor of Georgia when the building program was launched.

Governor Morvin Griffin, in whose administration the
State will carryon the building program.

Ao Ad ,ha' made
h\s,ory aod br\gh,eoed ch\\dreoI s days
. schoo\.
\0

... Ideas must work through the brains and arms of men, or they are no better than dreams.
-EMERSO

GEORGE P. WHITMAN, Chairman EUGE E COOK, Vice-Chairman
M. D. COLLI S
FRED HA D
HATTON LOVEJOY
B. E. THRASHER, JR. E. F. VICKERS
JOH SIMS, Director Room 408, 20 Ivy St., S.E.
Atlanta, Georgia

.... a new thing for Georgia,-

the state school building authority

- solved a puzzling problem

Editor's Note: John A. Sibley, whose term expired, was formerly vice-chairman.

Former Chairman Fred Hand,
author of the Bill.

Chairman George P. Whitman, Jr.

Iet's begin the story -

First we shape our buildings and then our buildings shape us.
-CHURCHILL
with the last chapter

Look - on these next ten pages - at some of Georgia's bright and beautiful modern schoolhouses that are fini hed. Boys and girls are already going to school in them.
There are many more like them that are completed and in daily use. There are others that are just being built, and still others that are in the blueprint stage. There's a long way to go yet. Plans have been approved for new schools in everyone of Georgia's 159 counties, and in the 41 systems that operate independently. Each week of 1955 will see a new contract let somewhere, and a new school completed.
It is something new in the history of Georgia. It is something unique in the nation.
How this gigantic school building program was thought of, planned, put into operation is a story that will interest you. If you are a Georgian, it is your story and you have a right to be proud.
Look first at these pictures. They will make more interesting to you the story that is behind them - the story of how these beautiful buildings came to be.

If you are driving along through Georgia - through the countryside, along
the streets of quiet little towns, or past the skylines of the cities - you will
see new schoolbuildings like these:

"Schoolhouses are never built for the past, nor even for the present. They must be planned and built for the future."
-AASA YEARBOOK

scene here and there

('
.... in town

.... in the city

That building which is fitted accurately to its purpose will turn out to be beautiful.
-MOLLER: Essay on Architectwe

.... and countryside

laboratories for living

.... scientific and imaginative planning.

.... where winds blow through South Georgia pines.

. ... on big city lots.

. . . . in Georgia's prize winning Better Home Towns.
. . . . in little counties and big ones.
As American as apple pie, the schoolhouse is a symbol of community co-operation for the welfare of its children . .. What every community needs in its schoolhouse is a structure and a setting for it, that will make it possible for the community to have the best educational program that today's wisdom can devise, and at the same time to keep the way open for the improved program that the future will develop.
SCHOOL BUILD! GS - AASA YEARBOOK
.
d

.. . part of the community

Education is not a static, but a dynamic and expanding process. The possibilities for future changes in the program are a constant challenge to educational statesmanship in planning its housing.
-AASA YEARBOOK
.... in the sun-splashed stretches of the "wiregrass country"
Below: In cities where multitudes dwell- Scarlett O'Hara's bailiwick.

... near new suburban villages
b

named for Georgia's
fl wherever the winds of Georgia run They smell of peaches long in the sun."-Benet
The real test of a school is the difference it makes to the community where it is.

.............
where democracy is nurtured and children learn good citizenship
Don't forget that the American schools were set up to perpetuate democracy.... In education lies strength greater than atomic bombs.-Former NEA President Wm. A. Early, Savannah, to National PTA Convention, 1954.
. . . . near Stone Mountain, eighth wonder of the world.
On the western side of Georgia ... near the quiet flowing of the Chattahoochee, that Sidney Lanier wrote a poem about, new schools were built.

------------------------,

here georgians learn to meet life's situations

One picture is worth a thousand words.
CHI ESE PROVERB

From along the road, you can read the names on the new chool names of countie or citie , or name honoring men and women.

... and one named for Margaret Mitchell, Georgian who wrote Gone With The Wind.

designed lor a modern, lunctional education program



three to make ready!

Federal bu iness in some parts of Georgia brought an influx of the children of government employees. Twenty-four million dollars in Government money helped build in these conge ted areas.

uncle sam's money helped build some

. . . near the world's largest infantry school

... where people come from many lands

.... where the government has business
,...,

local money goes into the building program
.... with a magnificent auditorium

- Local systems are expected to provide upward of fifty miliion.

.... in the shadows of north Georgia mountains
Altogether - local, state, federal - the funds now add up to $274,000,000 for new school facilities. Eventually - for growing needs - more.

red letter dates in georgia!

On February 21, 1951 the Georgia General Assembly - without a single dissenting vote - created the State School Building Authority.

On July 1, 1951, the Minimum Fo~mda tion Law - enacted in 1949 and financially provided for at the January 1951 legislative session - started operating in the schools, providing for the first time state funds for capital outlay.

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By May 1, 1954, the school systems of Georgia - 159 counties and 41 independent systems - had submitted their plans for the building of schools in their communities.

By December 31, 1956, there will be 1137 approved school centers for white children, and 511 for Negro children.

how were these schools built?
People are talking about Georgia s bright, modern school . Visitors ask, "How does it happen that we see all over your tate beautiful, modern chool being built? Is it true that you are pending over two hundred million dollar. to build schools? And that you are building them for $7.50 per 'square foot? It's incredible!" People who have not seen them have heard about them. The e people, meeting Georgians at national convention and el ewhere want to know about Georgia's building program. They write letters a king for more information about it. Georgians themselve , having had a part in planning the new school in their own community, like to know how things were done over the next hill, beyond the hollow, way off in another section of their state. How many new school are there? What do the others look like? Did other counties float bond? Parents say "What a difference there is between the drab, crowded choolhou e we had before, and the one we have for our children now!" Teachers say, "It's a good experience, being able to teach in the new schools, to have space for libraries and laboratories, to have enough light, and colorful walls that lift up our spirits, and a lunchroom that is a pleasant place to eat. Creative teaching becomes a challenge in these new schools." The children say, "Gee, our choolhouse i pretty! Big windows so you can look out and see the grass and the trees and the birds. Have you seen our science laboratory? Look at our new green chalkboards, and our library!" How did it happen?
cd

F
it didn't happen overnight!
obody rubbed Aladdin's lamp and suddenly produced the e beautiful, modern schoolhouses. There was no magic - except the magic that seems to operate when leaders have vision and the people work together in democratic ways to decide and do what is best for all. There is much hard work, magnificent leadership, in between the beginning of this story and its ending. There is a big difference between the ways things were and the way things are in Georgia schools.
This is the Way Things Were:
In 1951 a survey of Georgia schools revealed a bad situation. The U. S. Office of Education had made orne money available to the State Department of Education in Georgia to assist in the study of the state's schoolbuilding needs. Georgians were startled at what the 1951 survey revealed. More than a third of Georgia's boys and girls were going to school in dilapidated, unpainted, poorly lighted, one room buildings. Of the 2,900 chools in the state, more than half were one or two room size, in a bad state of repair, and without proper light or sanitation. In schools of substandard facilities, teachers had to teach on the stage or in basements. In some schools, the only library was a tack of books in an inadequate corner too dark to read in, and too small for chairs or shelves. Lunchrooms were often so crowded that it was no fun to eat. Many schools had no running water. More than half had no indoor toilets. Hundreds were without electricity. Some chool with desperate pace hortages found temporary relief with war surplus barracks. These housed 30,000 to 40,000 children. Thi relief, valuable at the time, was of course no permanent solution. The situation grew worse.

before the building program began, some georgia schools looked like this . ..

. . . as the old, grim joke went, in some schools they could have studied geology through the floor, forestry through the walls, and astronomy through the roof.

-

J

Of course, Georgia had orne fine chools, but not enough. There were also schools that looked fairly good on the outside, but they were antiquated and un afe and not suited to the modem, functional educational program of today.
Georgians wanted better chool buildings, and they wanted them for all the children in the state.

...
the birthrate was climbing higher and higher
. . . you can't argue with the stork.
Many schools were desperately crowded. In some places the school walls were fairly bulging! Birthrates went higher and then higher. War babies seemed to hurry to be six years old, and thousands were sturdily trudging toward the schoolhouse doors. New families moved into Georgia, coming in the surge of government business or with the scores of new industries that were locating in Georgia. A new compulsory school attendance law, passed by the legislature in 1945 was upping attendance rates. Visiting teachers worked with families to solve problems of attendance; fewer children were absent. Practical new courses enriched the curriculum, and more pupils stayed to graduate. The twelfth grade had been added, too. With all of it together, schoolhousing became a terrific problem.

Here's the way the enrollment had grown -like Jack's Beanstalk:

1945-46

745,892

1950-51

787,580

1951-52

806,243

1953-54

863,761

1954-55-now . . . . . . . . (Estimated) 925,088

1955-65 . . . . . . . . . . . a million and more

This year 30,000 seniors will graduate, more than ever before.
In Georgia right now, there are nearly half a million children under five years of age . . . on their way, within the next few years, to a schoolhouse door.
. . . the problem haunted the thoughtful

..
the minimum foundation program had provided the first state money for school building
- but there was a problem.
The people of Georgia, working mightily together under leaders of vision and courage, had brought to pa s the Minimum Foundation Program. It marked a new day in education. Enacted in 1949 and financed in 1951, it did many things; increased teachers' salaries, added the 12th grade (25,000 pupils), expanded rural library services, education for exceptional children, vocational rehabilitation, school lunch programs and veterans education. It increa ed the textbook supply, and provided more for operating school plants. It doubled the number of chool buses.
One new thing it did, never done before in the whole history of Georgia: allotted state funds for building cboolhouses.
The schools would get a total of fourteen and a half million each year for twenty years. But there lay the trouble: they would get it each year. The situation was such that most schools needed it right away, not year by year.
Many counties could not have raised what they needed even if they exhausted ALL their tax possibilities. The State was forbidden by its Con titution from borrowing, and few people wanted to change that.
The an wer to the problem was the creation by the Legi lature of The State School Building Authority. It was passed on a February day in 1951, without a dissenting vote, and approved by the Governor.
What was the State School Building Authority? How would it work? Some knew. Some didn't.
. . . with the setting up of the School Building Authority the picture in Georgia began to change.

what the building authory is
and how it worlcs
The State School Building Authority did not create any debt. It was a financing agency that made it possible for school systems to get immediate money to build schoolhouses.
The Minimum Foundation Program had provided that each school would get building money: $200 per teacher each year for twenty years, plus special grants according to need. The money was to come in annually. A few schools chose to build through local financing and take their money year by year. But most schools wanted their plans financed through the Building Authority, which made all the money available at once.
By taking the money year by year and building gradually, school people figured it would take seventy-five years to build enough classrooms even for those children who were in school in 1951-52, not to mention the additional children who were coming in faster than places could be found for them.
You can't say to a child, "Wait! Don't get six years old yet. Don't be ready to start to school. We haven't got anywhere for you to start". You can't say to a teen-ager, "Don't hurry toward your next birthday and high school. We aren't ready."
The children were being born in vast numbers. They were getting ready for school by hundreds, and multitudes were reaching high school age.
The money that was made available was a drop in the bucket, if it came only year by year. Honorable Fred Hand, then Speaker of the House of Representatives, introduced into the Georgia Legislature a historic bill: to create the Georgia State School Building Authority. The schools would decide their needs, plan their building programs, estimate state and local cost, have their plans processed by the State Department of Education, approved by the State Board of Education, and then the Building Authority - through bonds - would make the money available for immediate building. Plans were that state money was to be supplemented by local funds, too-half their 7% lending capacity for schools, or 3 Y2 % of local tax assessments; without this, the local school building plans would be incomplete, and auditoriums and gymnasiums were local responsibilities. The Authority's part of the plan worked like this: the School Building Authority enters into a contract with a local school system, sells the revenue 'certificates to get the money, builds the new building and rents it to the local school system. The local system pays the authority the annual rental from the money it gets from the state as its share of regular appropriations for capital improvements.
. . . . they couldn't wait 75 years.

....
what the governor said

1
. ... from far off Alaska

Former Governor Talmadge - then the state's Chief Executive - wrote this about the State School Building Authority some months ago:
" ... it has been successful beyond the greatest expectations of its most ardent exponents. It has attracted interest from several states and even from as far away as Alaska.
"The State School Building A uthority was set up carefully so as not to usurp any of the powers' of local school' authorities. ...
"Each project is completely insured and money is set aside to take care of repairs. At the end of twenty years when the indebtedness is liquidated and the Authority relinquishes title to the buildings, it will also turn over to local systems the money held for those purposes.
"The A dministrative cost so far has been less than .008 cents per dollar spent. Its policy-making personnel serve without pay. The interest rates it obtained on the first three bond issues are equal to or less than the rates obtained by the federal government on the public debt."
People from other states have written letters, phoned and come to see how Georgia is leading the way in building low cost, functional school buildings. The quality of the planning is' something they talk about. It has impressed them.
By 1972, the Authority expects its part in the plans to be completed. It will turn over to the local systems the sites and buildings that have been paid for with the capital outlay funds. Besides these, the schools will have those built by their own effort - and in some cases, with federal funds.

after the authority was set up local communities went into action

When we mean to build, We first survey the plot, then draw the model; and when we see the figure of the house, then must we rate the cost of the erection.
SHAKESPEARE, HE RY IV

Thing began to happen over the state after the State School Building Authority was set up. When the system superintendent and his board of education in a Georgia community knew what the Governor and the General A sembly had done, things began to happen. The board talked it over. "Look like we can have good schools built for our children now," they said to one another. They instructed the superintendent to call the folks together to talk things over. There was "a piece in the paper". The folks on the radio used their microphones to tell the folks in the grocery store and the kitchens and the filling tation and the banks when the meeting would be, and where. Television stations added their powerful facilitie , wherever they were, to help the program. Folk met. Most Georgians believe that all who are affected by the school program should have a share in it planning. The people talked and talked and talked. They let their superintendents and Boards know how they felt about the matter.

Forward looking boards of education recognize the fact that
the school building will stand, for many years, as a symbol of the
trust the community has placed in the integrity and educational
leadership of the board members.

. . they got help with their problems
The local people looked over their county and studied their school situation. What schools die}. they have? Which were good enough to keep? Which should be abandoned? What new ones should they build?
To decide these things they a ked for help. The Board and the superintendent invited the State Department of Education to help. The Department, which seeks to provide dynamic but non-coercive leadership, gladly re ponded.
Trained con ultant came in to talk with the people. The people talked with one another in their own county. They agreed that they all wanted good schools for their children. Sometime they didn't agree on where it should be built. It is not easy to get used to the idea of having the chool moved out of your own community down the road to the next place, or over the hill to another town. Some people did not see eye-to-eye with their neighbors.
The other questions included these: 1. What kind of educational program do we want for our children? 2. What building will it take to house this? 3. What about the cost?
U ually they were quick to realize that no matter what it co t, a good education was the best investment they could make in their children' future, in the future of Georgia and America, and the future of democracy itself.
But the problems were big; the questions were many.
on all the survey groups and on many boards, thoughtful, concerned women.

....
but the local folks did the deciding
The con ultant turned the que tion up ide down and in ide out. There wa not one an wer that wa not ba cd directly on thi : that the local folks had to decide what th y wanted for their children. Then the planning \ ould go on from there.
De ign grow out of function. When the folks decided what they wanted their children to have, then the architects knew how to plan the buildings. Each building was planned according to what would be done and taught there. It had to be a u eful place where every foot of space had some relation to children and their teacher carrying on a live, vital educational program in that building. In some counties - Twigg for instance - all buildings will be new. In arly, the new Negro school building cover two acre.
Every chool y tern in the tate met the deadline of May I, 1954, in ubmitting applications for state capital outlay equalization fund . Georgia now appropriate 14 300,000 a year for capital outlay improvements in the public chools. nder the Building Authority Act, the e fund may be anticipated over a 20 year period
286,000,000. Thi include con truction, architect' fee, intere t, and a reserve for in urance and maintenance. To secure and u e the fund immediately it was necessary to sell bond .

.... a board signs

. ... the very first one

Is there a more important enterprise in our nation today than the education of our children?
.... a superintendent ponders
.... a dream becomes brick and mortor
then the plans went up to atlanta
The boards of the school systems ubmitted their plan to the tate Board of Education. This Board approved the allotment of state money. Then the county boards contracted with the State Building Authority for the construction of tho e buildings in that system's program that could be built from the state allotment. When all of the agreements had been igned, the Building Authority included these buildings in the next bond i ue.
By the pring of 1954, $136,941,147.25 in chool construction for 900 projects had been financed by the Authority, guaranteeing adequate chool housing for 77% of the student enrolled in Georgia schools - and new plan were coming in every day.
A the architect mov d the plan from dream to blue print, they were checked by members of the State Department of Education staff, to be sure they were in line with the best educational usage, that they were safe and anitary and adaptable to good education and good living for the children and the teachers. Many of them had room that opened outside. All of them were light and bright, with big windows that brought in natural light. They had cla r.oom that were de igned as cia room hould be. There were libraries, and audio-visual facilities. (Georgia ha the world's largest 16 mm educational film library, 2900 titles, 28,000 films and recording.) There was space to move about and there were laboratorie and lunchrooms.
There is no task which the superintendent performs in which he is more challenged to demonstrate all he knows, hopes for, and believes about education than in planning the home of education

..
When the building were tini hed, they were checked. Then they were turned over to the people, ready for use.
Ceremonie were held to dedicate them. Honorable Herman Talmadge, then governor, and Governor Marvin Griffin went ometimes to speak. Sometime Chairman Fred Hand of the School Building Authority or Dr. M. D. Collins, State Superintendent of School, poke at the openings. Chairman George P. Whitman, Jr., and other board members were often honor guests. Open house and a guided tour of the new facilitie were interesting part of the program.
The keys were turned over to the people. Sometimes they were handed to the boy or girl who was president of the student body, a reminder that it wa for the boys and girls that the schools had been built. And all the people together - parents, teachers, little wide-eyed girls in the tir t grade and boys with graduation just ahead and eyes already fixed on the near bright world of careers in medicine or farming, boards of education, bu drivers, profe or from near-by coli ge , lunchroom worker, maintenance men who would have the re pon ibility of keeping the schools clean - all of them together came to rejoice and be glad at what had been done to build good schools in the community. But there were many things done between the first hard decisions and the time for rejoicing.

... from blueprints into bricks, all over the state.
said an atlanta paper may 21, 1954:
"One sees the program emerglng from blueprints into bricks all over the state. Some new facilities already are in use, and many others are under construction. Still more will be started soon. Half the new classrooms are for Negroes. "Local systems, rising to the challenge of the' state program, are spending $50,000,000 to $60,000,000 of their own. The combined total of state and local effort reaches the impressive figure of almost $240,000,000. "School needs are never static. The present program i ba ed on requirements as of the 1951-52 term. Since then, enrollments have increa ed more than anticipated. In sOme places, new classrooms already are overflowing. "But on the big job - the burdensome $240,000,000 job of catching up - Georgia has the situation well in hand. Day by day, as the school building program proceeds apace, the state's position is strengthened to meet needs and problems which arise."

-
you'll _notice how they have followed this building advice
"Don t build your chool by the cemetery", said the con ultant . Thi wa one of many ound counsels which the local planning group received from the tate can ultant who knew about cientific school planning.
There were many other things to be thought of. Many time, new ite had to be bought. The site, said the con ultant ,i an important part of the total educational program. It has a great effect on the kind of school the community build and what kind of learning goes on there.
The ewer orne of the other things the local people and the con ultants worked out together to guide them in the planning of the e chool buildings:

. . . . room for playgrounds, for play is a child's business.

.... aWay from
traffic h
aZards.

d

~ I,
.... to build the sound foundations

, .... where the most children live

the heart of Georgia

Choose a place as near as possible in the center of where the most children will be living, now and in the future. Don't choose one next to graveyard, taverns or slums. Let it be away from congested, dangerous traffic areas. Have enough space for play - and for adding to the building if that becomes neces ary. The site should be big enough so that the building can be one story, if possible.
Choose a spot where as many children as possible can waLk to chool - and walk along paths that are safe, and where possible, paved.
Avoid sites where there are objectionable things like odors, dirt, noise and smoke of factories, stockyards, railroads and mills.
See that the subsoil permits good surface drainage, and will also support the building of foundations, footing, athletic fields, and septic tanks. The topsoil should provide proper plant growth. The land should be so high that water will not stand on it, and there is no danger of flooding.
Public utilities - electric power, water, sewage, telephone, fire protection and gas service - hould be available.
A quare or a rectangle of land is best. For an elementary school, a five acre basic campus is desirable, with one more acre for each 100 children. For high school -or combination schools-a ten acre basic campus, with one more acre for each 100 children.

in the picture ... bright and dark spots
Not everything was light and brightness in the chool building story. Every story - fact or fiction - has complications. So did thi .
There was local lagging sometimes. Still is. Some systems inspired by leaders of vision - and other systems where the forward looking citizen moved as fast a their leaders - moved swiftly to do what the local folks were upposed to do, moneywise, about having a new school for their youngsters. In some places they even "went the second mile".
What the local part was supposed to be was this: each county was supposed to put into the school building fund an amount of money up to halt of its bonding capacity.
Soon the local papers were running news of school bond issues being planned. Many system superintendents and their board of education had the loyal support of the press, radio, and TV, where it existed - in their plan for progress. Citizens talked it over - pro and can, as citizens of a democracy use their right to do and went and voted.
Papers reported things like thi :
.... a bright spot.

But thi ~as not true in every county. There wa local lagging here and there. And the children of the people paid for it in decrea ed educational opportunities. And in the e lagging places, there were people who e hearts were hea y about this. They were like those people de cribed in Isaiah, "The. burden of tho e who dwell in the valley of vi ion." The e people saw the difference between what their children would have und r a limit d program (one that u ed SBA money as far a it would go and stopped) and what the boy and girl could have if only the community would do its part.
"III a time like this," one said, "we cannot economize on education. It is the best insurance we have of our democracy. Sending a young person out to cope with a world like this without all the education we could make it possible for him to get is like sending him into battle with one hand tied behind him."
p at the State Office of ducation Dr. M. D. Collin, State Superintendent of Schools wa repeating hi educational creed to all who would listen: "Education does not cost - it pays."
And till ome communitie lagged.

m

r

how one county planned new schools

For which of you, intending to build . .. sitteth not down first and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? - LUKE XIV, 28.

lhere is in south Georgia a county named Berrien.
This is what happened there when the people found that there was a new way to build better schools. Berrien has been a county ince 1856. It wa named for Judge John McPher on Berrien, who was two year old when George Washington came to the Berrien hou e up north to make his farewell addr ss to his troops. Berrien's father was on Washington's staff and his uncle was aide to Briti h General Montgomery, and died with him at Quebec. Berrien came to Georgia. He was Georgia's . S. Senator when Webster and Clay and Haynes were enator. He wa called "the Cicero of the Senate." Sometime he offended Georgians by not listening to their advice. He said trained, thoughtful public leader hould not be puppet. He had an important part in making history.
The folks in Berrien named their county for him.
A hundred years afterward, the people \..tho lived there got together to talk about how they would build new chool, through Georgia' new plan for schoo~building.
Looking over what they had, thi is what they found: In J95 J-52, the average daily attendance was 2,909 for white children, and 460 for egroes.Both races tudied their schools, the white schools at ashville, Alapaha (where a tornado had de troyed a school not so long before) Cottle, Enigma Ga kins Jordan Lois ew River, Poplar Spring and Ray City, and the egro chools at Na hille, Alapaha, and in a church building at Ray City. Once there had been other schools - at Deep Ditch, Bannockburn Flat Creek, livingston, Live Oak Pleasant Vale, New Home, Avera Mill, Griner, Vicker, Griffin, and Tygart - but these no longer ~xisted.
The Board of Education instructed the superintendent to invite the State Department of Education and other to help them survey their needs and find the best way of planning for the new schools.
Together the people and tho e who came in to h.elp them studied the ituation. What did the population trends how? How many people lived there? How many were likely to be born? How many would move away? How many would die? How many new one might move in? What did it co t to run the school they wanted? Or even to build them in the first place? How many more buses would they need? They found that there would probably be 3814 chool children in their county by 1955-56.

The American people in local communities are demonstrating every day that they do want good schools ... better buildings.
- Educational Planning of Schools,- The School Executive January, 1955
and having studied their situation, the people
of berrien county decided . . .
to plan for new schools for their children
In February, 1951 - the same month that the General Assembly created the State School Building Authority - they decided this.
This is the building program they planned: four new school centers were to be built with funds through the State School Building Authority: $886,250.00. There would be a senior high school at
ashville for white children in grades 9 through 12, a new elementary school at'Jordan for the white children from Jordan and New River; a new white elementary school at Alapaha, and a new combined elementary and high school at Nashville, for all Negro school children in Berrien county. They would have space then for 3275 white and 510 Negro children. The new schools would have 71 classrooms.
They knew it would take a long time. There was a 15 mill tax levy there for education purposes. Their bonding capacity (7 % of the tax assessment) was $342,368. Outstanding bonds amounted to $29,566. The local system's participation in the school building program (scheduled under Jaw to be one half of the local bonding capacity) would be $141,666.
When the cost of the first buildings exceeded the available state funds by $800, the Berrien board of education produced a check for that amount. Local projects, which they planned to carry out when they floated their bond issue, would provide more school buildings and improvements: additions to the Poplar Springs school, where the Gaskins children would also go; central heating at Enigma and Ray City, where Lois children would go; four more rooms at Alapaha, and two at Jordan. They hoped later to build a gymnasium and auditorium.
This planning took a while. People had to think and talk - and sometimes disagree, the way people are free to do in a free country. Everybody had his say-so if he wanted to.
Then came a time when the talk was through, and the doing begun. The Board acquired and deeded to the Building Authority sites on which to build the new schools. (In 20 years, schools and sites will become Berrien's property.)

Lawyers drew legal documents. Architect drew blueprints. Staff members in the State Department of Education looked them over, checked them, processed them for presenting to the State Board of Education. When the Board approved them, the Building Authority included Berrien in its next sale of bonds, and the money became available.
The building started. Each chool was planned as a complete unit - classrooms, library, lunchrooms and other facilities.
The Berrien county people watched their schools go up. They looked with excitement when the first earth was spaded up. They Ii tened to the sound of hammer and saw, and saw mortar spla hed on brick fla hing steel girders teadying the tructure with new strength, crystal windows put in to bring great expan es of light, and in ide the brightness of the color the psychologists say makes a difference in the way people feel and work and get along together.
Finally, they saw the first of their building finished - a "Jock and key job" for $6.50 per square foot construction co t.
Here are two of them, standing there in Berrien where the pines grow tall, and the school ground are spla hed year round with sun hine-in the county named for a man who had seen George Washington once, and who had 6fown up to be a good citizen, as Berrien people wanted their own boys and girls to do.

these are the state funds georgia school systems got to build with-

School System
Appling Atkinson Bacon Baker Baldwin Banks Barrow Bartow Ben Hill Berrien Bibb Bleckley Brantley Brooks Bryan Bulloch Burke Butts Calhoun Camden Candler Carroll Catoosa Charlton Chatham Chattahoochee Chattooga Cherokee Clarke Clay Clayton Clinch Cobb Coffee Colquitt Columbia Cook Coweta Crawford Crisp Dade Dawson Decatur DeKalb Dodge Dooly Dougherty Douglas Early Echols Effingham Elbert Emanuel Evans Fannin Fayette Floyd Forsyth Franklin Fulton Gilmer Glascock Glynn Gordon

SCHOOL BUILDING FUND ALLOTMENTS
Annual Allotment for Building-(Each Year
for 20 years
$ 89,000.00 35,600.00 60,800.00 39,500.00 86,600.00 63,400.00 16,100.00 63,000.00 20,000.00 70,900.00 155,700.00 34,600.00 34,100.00 68,900.00 26,600.00 138,900.00 123,100.00 60,400.00 52,200.00 52,300.00 44,100.00 134,100.00 80,700.00 28,900.00 313,000.00 9,400.00 70,300.00 106,600.00 29,500.00 40,600.00 50,400.00 43,400.00 123,800.00 117,800.00 129,700.00 66,900.00 79,200.00 105,700.00 39,600.00 39,800.00 46,500.00 22,700.00 111,200.00
300,400.00 103,000.00 103,500.00 100,900.00
86,900.00 111,200.00
13,200.00 67,300.00 77,100.00 125,700.00 34,900.00 75,100.00 47,700.00 120,800.00 32,200.00 82,300.00 240,400.00 57,400.00 37,600.00 44,400.00 64,300.00

Total Capitalization for New Buildings
for 20 years
$ 1,123,750.00 445,000.00 760,000.00 493,750.00
1,082,500.00 792,500.00 201,250.00 787,500.00 250,000.00 886,250.00
1,946,250.00 432,500.00 426,250.00 861,250.00 332,500.00
1,736,250.00 1,538,750.00
755,000.00 652,500.00 653,750.00 551,250.00 1,676,250.00 1,008,750.00 361,250.00 3,912,500.00 117,500.00 878,750.00 1,332,500.00 368,750.00 507,500.00 630,000.00 542,500.00 1,547,500.00 1,472,500.00 1,621,250.00 836,250.00 990,000.00 1,321,250.00 495,000.00 497,500.00 581,250.00 283,750.00 1,39Q,000.00 3,755,000.00 1,287,500.00 1,293,750.00 1,261,250.00 1,086,250.00 1,390,000.00 165,000.00 841,250.00 963,750.00 1,571,250.00 436,250.00 938,750.00 596,250.00 1,510,000.00 402,500.00 1,028,750.00 3,005,000.00 717,500.00 470,000.00 555,000.00 803,750.00



School System
Grady Greene Gwinnett Habersham Hall Hancack Haralsan Harris Hart Heard Henry Houston Irwin Jackson Jasper Jeff Davis Jefferson Jenkins Johnson Jones Lamar Lanier Laurens Lee Liberty Lincoln Long Lowndes Lumpkin Macon Madison Marion McDuffie Mcintosh Meriwether Miller Mitchell Monroe Montgomery Morgan Murray Muscogee Newton Oconee Oglethorpe Paulding Peach Pickens Pierce Pike Polk Pulaski Putnam Quitman Rabun Randolph Richmnnd Rockdale Schley Screven Seminole Spalding Stephens Stewart Sumter Talbot Taliaferro Tattnall Taylor Telfair Terrell

Annuol Allotment for Building-(Each Yeor
119,200.00 92,500.00 152,200.00 85,700.00 88,500.00 77,900.00 78,900.00 50,100.00 101,500.00 54,300.00 107,900.00 79,200.00 78,600.00 38,100.00 44,700.00 55,500.00 120,800.00 46,800.00 51,300.00 61,000.00 60,200.00 29,900.00 153,600.00 41,800.00 56,600.00 41,800.00 26,100.00 123,700.00 33,400.00 51,600.00 96,600.00 50,500.00 42,800.00 37,400.00 133,300.00 62,300.00 98,000.00 44,600.00 49,400.00 82,500.00 55,300.00 290,800.00 115,800.00 32,900.00 87,000.00 68,500.00 47,500.00 41,500.00 60,900.00 49,800.00 91,600.00 47,500.00 49,400.00
24,500.00 31,000.00 83,500.00 222,200.00 52,900.00 31,400.00 106,700.00 50,700.00 101,300.00 63,500.00 52,400.00 74,900.00 56,500.00 27,800.00 96,300.00 71,600.00 92,200.00 89,400.00

Total Capitalization for New Buildings
1,490,000.00 1,156,250.00 1,902,500.00 1,071 ,250.00 1,106,250.00
973,750.00 986,250.00 626,250.00 1,268,750.00 678,750.00 1,348,750.00 990,000.00 982,500.00 476,250.00 558,750.00 693,750.00 1,510,000.00 585,000.00 641,250.00 762,500.00 752,500.00 373,750.00 1,920,000.00 522,500.00 707,500.00 522,500.00 326,250.00 1,546,250.00 417,500.00 645,000.00 1,207,500.00 631,250.00 535,000.00 467,500.00 1,666,250.00 778,750.00 1,225,000.00 557,500.00 617,500.00 1,031,250.00 691,250.00 3,635,000.00 1,477,500.00 411,250.00 1,087,500.00 856,250.00 593,750.00 518,750.00 761,250.00 622,500.00 1,145,000.00 593,750.00 617,500.00 306,250.00 387,500.00 1,043,750.00 2,777,500.00 661,250.00 392,500.00 1,333,750.00 633,750.00 1,266,250.00 793,750.00 655,000.00 936,250.00 706,250.00 347,500.00 1,203,750.00 895,000.00 1,152,500.00 1.117,500.00

~'\~\\ SCHOOls ~~

~

~

~~~~~ C'OMtA\)~\,~~~

School System
Thomas Tift Toombs Towl)s Treutlen Troup Turner Twiggs Union Upson Walker Walton Ware Warren Washington Wayne Webster Wheeler White Whitfield Wilcox Wilkes Wilkinson Worth
CITIES
Americus Athens Atlanta Barnesville Bremen Buford Calhoun Canton Carrollton Cartersville Cedartown Chickamauga Cochran Commerce Cordele Dalton Decatur Douglas Dublin Elberton Fitzgerald Gainesville Hawkinsville Hogansville laGrange Jefferson Marietta Monroe Moultrie Newnan Pelham Quitman Rome Tallulah Falls Tallapoosa Thomaston Thomasville Tifton Toccoa Trion Valdosta Vidalia Waycross West Point Winder
TOTAL

Annual Allotment for Building-(Each Year
110,700.00 105,000.00 96,000.00 35,500.00 46,400.00 141,200.00 59,000.00 72,000.00 51,800.00
80,800.00 156,500.00 110,200.00 59,100.00 66,600.00 133,400.00 75,000.00
19,300.00 37,400.00 57,400.00 82,800.00 51,900.00 85,000.00 61,000.00 124,200.00
$ 25,200.00 128,600.00 540,240.00 2,800.00 20,900.00 25,900.00 23,600.00 4,800.00 42,500.00 35,700.00 52,400.00 3,800.00 27,000.00 20,000.00 42,300.00 46,600.00 68,900.00 15,600.00 66,700.00 16,300.00 14,200.00 62,900.00 11 ,600.00 40,100.00 40,200.00 20,500.00 28,200.00 6,600.00 37,700.00 54,500.00 63,800.00 22,800.00 83,400.00 1,600.00 4,400.00 21,000.00 59,000.00 15,100.00 27,000.00 19,500.00 86,900.00 12,700.00 69,800.00 21,400.00 40,100.00
$14,313,940.00

Totol Capitalization
for New Buildings
1,383,750.00 1,312,500.00 1,200,000.00
443,750.00 580,000.00 1,765,000.00 737,500.00 900,000.00 647,500.00 1,010,000.00 1,956,250.00 1,377,500.00 738,750.00 832,500.00 1,667,500.00 937,500.00 241,250.00 467,500.00 717,500.00 1,035,000.00 648,750.00 1,062,500.00 762,500.00 1,552,500.00
$ 315,000.00 1,607,500.00 6,753,000.00 35,000.00 261,250.00 323,750.00 295,000.00 60,000.00 531,250.00 446,250.00 655,000.00 47,500.00 337,500.00 250,000.00 528,750.00 582,500.00 861,250.00 195,000.00 833,750.00 203,750.00 177,500.00 786,250.00 145,000.00 501,250.00 502,500.00 256,250.00 352,500.00 82,500.00 471,250.00 681,250.00 797,500.00 285,000.00 1,042,500.00 20,000.00 55,000.00 262,500.00 737,500.00 188,750.00 337,500.00 243, 0.00 1,086,250.00 158,750.00 872,500.00 267,500.00 501,250.00
$178,924,250.00

..

how marion county solved a public relations problem

. . . in old school buildings, new community centers.

Buena Vista is an old Spanish name. It means "beautiful view". The most beautiful views there now are the two new Marion County school. Buena Vista is the county seat.
Marion county's school sy tem combined all its facilities in two beautiful modern schools, one for white children and one for egro children.
The white chool combined chools already exi ting in Buena Vi ta Tazewell, Brantley, Oakland, and Five Points. The egro school combined eighteen: Acorn Grove, Bethel, Brantley, Brown Chapel, Buena Vista, Cool Spring, Mahala Chapel, Mt. Carmel, Mt. Zion, ew Fellowship, Pine Level, Pineville Poplar Springs, Pond Hill, Sales Chapel, St. Mark, St. Paul and Tazewell.
When the two new schools were open, people came from far and near. About 2500 visited each school. The teachers were there to welcome them. The Board of Education, the System Superintendent, staff members, townspeople - noted for their warm Southern hospitality - welcomed Dr. M. D. Collins, tate superintendent of sch'ools, members of his staff who had worked with him in their plan, and member of the State Board of Education, who had followed with helpful interest the bl1ildin!! orogram since its beginning, and officials of the Building Authority.
With all the acclaim and oride in the new school, there was still a big, human problem: in the small communities from which the chools had been moved, there was need for some focus of community interest to take their place.
The Board of Education fostered a wi e plan: they encouraged and helped with the adapting of the old school buildings as community centers. Many agencies helped. Mostly, however, the local people did it for themselves, once the way wa pointed and the buildings made available.
. . . . buena vistas!

A picture may instantly present what a book. could set forth only in a hundred pages.
TURGENEV

features of new schools

'I hear that these new chools have many intere ting new features" you'll hear omebody say.
They have. Best way to under tand how chools have changed is to go ee for yourself. They've come a long way from the drab walls, high windows, te p stairs, dim basement, and dark blackboards you might rem mber from your own choolday.
ot all school have all the new features. But you'll be impre sed with the clean line, the rainbow color, the new pace, the lighted corridors, the many-purpo e room, and the dozen-and-one things you find.
. ... here, on a beautiful site, the building snugs into the land.

. . . . here, a room drinking fountain and cabinets for storage.

In georgIa

There is only one curriculum: life in all its manifestations.
-WHITEHEAD

Boys and girl will take you around their chools.
A boy may ay, "We like these big new windows. You can see outdoors. That's nice, especially in pring."
A girl will point out the colorful new homemaking department: "We chose green, a lovely soft shade, and we wanted yellow accents, like sunshine."
They are proud of their new schools.
So are their parents, their teachers, principal, janitors. So are board members. So are aU other Georgians.

. ... a safe approach

Q
Classroom are big and lighted - for sunshine or for rainy days. They have furniture you can move around. Green velvety chalkboards are easier on the eye than the old black one were. Tackboard make it po ible to show colorful new picture, bright de ign , eye-taking bulletins.
The housekeeping i ea ier in the new school. Their simple lines, built-in torage space open helve, hygienic floor good ventilation, better light - all point to better health and better house keeping.
For lunchrooms - where more than 400,000 Georgia children eat a hot, nouri hing lunch every day - there are gli tening new kitchens, and more room for eating.
. . . . in this county, to "Mamie's Cobin," the Eisenhowers come to vocation.

. . . . when your cor drives up -0 covered entrance.

. ... for the child, childsize furniture
'.

a
Shop - big, daylighted places - are included in most high chool building. With few exception the buildings are one story making them more convenient more quiet, and more afe. All have fire alarm system exit light, and anti-panic devices. All are non-combu tible fire proof. All have central heating plant ventilation is good, and the planning make the rna t of prevailing wind for natural ventilation. Science laboratorie are big and functional, with perimeter layouts and often with dark room for photography. Health rooms are being provided for in many of the new school . Simple materials are used in the building. The amazing low cost - $7.50 per quare foot in can truction cost - has proved that you don't have to build luxury chools to get comfort and beauty and livability.

.... beauty spots with lights and growing things.

. ... for rainy days, a covered way

... down corridors of light
features of the new schools
ometimes the classrooms have their own sanitary facilitie . The rooms often open out on the yard, or an out ide walkway so that the tudents can come and go without di turbing others. These outside corridors are e pecially plea ant in South Georgia.
oisy place - such as shop and mu ic room are often housed in separate wings.
Children of different age groups are housed in separate wing. The e usually extend from a central unit where general areas are housed.
Many schools have radiant floor panel heating so that children can play and work on the floor, when necessary, in comfort. Light colored asphalt tile in instructional areas make the rooms lighter and more attractive.
When the schools are planned, the space of 65 square feet is allowed for every elementary child, and 85 square feet for every high school child, up to 500.
All-purpo e rooms make the homemaking departments more useful. The departments are attractive and colorful, and both their beauty and the teaching here often inspire students to make their own homes more attractive and more comfortable. There are teaching and storage areas for cooking, clothing, family living courses, and other phases of this program.

... nine times around the world every day Georgia's school buses go in mileage.
with fewer schools,
more buses are needed
Having fewer and better schools means that more tudents have to ride the bus to get to the school. But when they get there, they find better equipped schools than the little communities could provide separately. And who mind riding when there i omething worth getting at journey's end? Anybody would feel lucky to be able to get a good college education free and for no more effort than a bus ride. What' different about being lucky enough to get a better high school education that' free for the taking, and just removed a little joum.ey from one' own community?
In 1953-54 336,205 children rode the big yellow school buse that roll down the roads of Georgia carrying boys and girls to school. There were 4 116 bu es. A hundred more were added this year. Some of the drivers are women. ext year half a million pupils will be riding buse .
Who rides the bus? Boys and girls who live more than a mile and a half from chool. Journey is scheduled not to take - in normal weather - more than an hour each way. Most take less.
Georgia school buses go nine times around the world every day - in mileage. Last year they drove 41,067,000 miles-1649 times around the arth. Safely too. Everything top for the school bus in Georgia. It's king of the highway. Next year 1200 more buse will increa e this mileage by about twelve million miles.

within these walls

Q
A child must learn the fundamentals - reading, writing, arithmetic, and such fundamentals as how to get along with people, make a living, be a good citizen, and use his leisure in good ways.

The e chool are being built for one purpose: that in them boy and girls may learn elfrealization, vocational competence, social adequacy and civic respon ibility.
Here, in cIa sroom and out, are Georgia students learning.
". .. here at Genoa lived Columbus."

.... a world and its problems, with which they must develop the mind and heart to cope in the days ahead.

... on Georgia's golden coast, the Wesleys once, and Oglethorpe, the doughty Scotch Highlanders and the staunch oil Salzburgers. (Mystery: what became of Salzbur~er John Treutlen, Georgia's first governor, who vanished, leaving not a trace behind?)
Remember that the job of the school is to translate the taxpayer's money into . . better men and women, better citizens, a better community, and a better country.
American School Board Journal

nature's world . .. and theirs
w careers
... science 0 Pens ne

Never have a people demanded so much of their schools as the Americans - and never have schools served a people so well.
-Commager, Our Schools Have Kept Us Free.

. .. children's faces looking up, Holding wonder like a cup. -Teasdale

.... shelves for treasures

the heart of the community

Democracy places its faith in the inquiring mind that applies intelligence to the solving of problems.

since america's beginning

.... to stay alive

.... ta understand its problems

. . . . for old once-upon-atimes, new audiences

We seek to create in schools an atmosphere of security, belongingness and success.
reading and 'riting and 'rithmetic

.... 2 and 2 make 4, and you have to learn that!

... from old books, new ideas.

Sound evidence is slo~ly (Ucumulating which points to the fact that not only are the youth in the school today learning the three R's but they are learning them better than ever.
-SCIE TIFIC MONTHLY

Education of the whole child is no academic whim. It is demanded by the findings of science.

more than half of the money . .. 54% of it ...
built schools for negroes
Georgians of both races are proud of the new egro schools. One third of the school children of Georgia are egroes.
Under the Minimum Foundation, many things had already been equalized at state level: teachers salaries according to qualification and experience; number of teachers allotted; tran portation; current operation; text-and-library books. Jeanes Supervisors work in many countie to enrich the chool program. In orne Georgia countie , there are no Negroe . From some counties where few of the race live, I gro children are carried in buses to nearby chool in other countie . Some of Georgia's mo t beautiful new chools are these schools for egroe . One of them - in southwe t Georgia - covers two acres in floor pace.

a

q

before the building program started there were 3,205-schools for negroes . . . and many were shacks and make shift

ONE TEACHER
... TWO TEACHER
.. THREE TEACHER FOUR TEACHER
FIVE OR MORE TEACHERS

"Map with the Measles"
from 3,205
NEGRO PUBLIC SCHOOLS IN GEORGIA-1941-42 ACCORDING TO SIZE

c
when the building program in finished there will be 511 schools for negroes . . . modern, approved school centers

to 511

ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
D HIGH SCHOOL
1Il COMBINATION
SCHOOL

" . .. schools of beauty and distinction."
APPROVED NEGRO SCHOOL CENTERS

&
learning for living

. . . "Things get curiouser and curiouser," said Alice in Wonderland.

... the worth and dignity of work.

. ... tending green things that grow in the good earth.

Q

.... in art, the color of ploughed fields, old mountains, and of
ai' Man River.

.... the golden music of his people.

. ... water creatures, like those Mark Twain's Jim knew by the Mississippi.

no resting on
their laurels for georgians
"We have a right to feel mighty proud of what we have done," said a cracker barrel philosophec, sitting around a stove in a little crossroads community, where he could look out the door and see the new school across there by the swamp.
"But we needn't think we can stop. There's a whole heap more needs a-doing," he went on, whittling on the piece of wood in his hand.
He's right. There is. This is what Dr. M. D. Collins, state superintendent of schools, reported to the 1955 Legislature in Georgia:
"When it is completed, the school building program will provide ... for more than one-half the children and teachers in Georgia. The cost to the state will be approximately $200,000,000 ... largely through the State School Building Authority. Local systems by means of local bond issues will provide new school facilities costing upwards of $50,000,000. Already, the Federal Government has provi~ed $24,000,000, which has been spent for new school buildings in systems having increased enrolments due to Federal activities. This is a current expenditure of $274,000,000 for new school facilities. They are designed to accommodate the number of children that were in daily attendance during the school year of 1951-52. Local school systems are expected to provide facilities for the additional pupils enrolled since 1951." And the children keep coming. Folks are moving in from the farms. Families are moving into the state from other states. More children are being born. More are remaining in school to graduate. There are 430,000 children under 5 years of age in Georgia, according to studies just completed by the Bureau of Census and the U. S. Department of Commerce. There must be schools for them. It will take thought and planning - and money.

a
Georgia has a good start. It had the foresight to plan the present immense building program. The national picture is like this: in 1954-55,35,561,000 were enrolled in classes, kindergarten through college - 21 % of the population. By 1965, there will be, 48 million children from 5 to 17 years of age in this country, an increase of 12 million over 1954. The country would need 720,000 public elementary and high school classrooms built in the next 5 years. About 50,000 a year were being built.
A national official said, "We expect an increase of a million and a quarter children each year for the next ten years. This calls for a new classroom every fifteen minutes, day and night, for 365 days a year. Thousands of children go to school day after day in unsuitable and dangerous buildings, taught by underpaid and undertrained teachers. A million children are on half-time shifts. And the end is not yet." Georgia had come a long way in the big job of providing good schoolbuildings for its children. But not every child yet has a good place to go to school. That will take a lot more work, and planning, and money. An American educator said, "The best kind of education, generally speaking, is the most costly kind. But in the long run, it is the cheapest. As a nation and a civilization we cannot afford to do without it." And in Georgia, Dr. Collins, who has worked for the schools a long time and has seen them come a long, lon~ way, went on saying what he had been saying all the time: "Education does not cost - it pays!"
TO All WHO HElPED with
- pictures and information that was valuable in the
preparation 01 this bulletin, the State Department of
Education extends its profound gratitude.
****
For further information about Georqia's buildinq program, please write the State Department of Education, Atlanta, or the State School Building Authority, 20 Ivy St., S.W., Atlanta, Georgia.

and so the story went

a typical County looks at its progress

here and there over Georgia

these doors through which they come and go
... are more than doors of wood and glass and metal. They are doors opening to a brighter future, doors to new schools where they can develop the illumined minds, the generous spirits, the intelligent goodwill, and the social respon ibility that will find them tomorrow among the people who make the world a good place to be alive in. For these door they can thank their own parents and their neighbors and friends, and others they never knew and will not see, people who cared enough to help in the gigantic building program that made it possible for Georgia to open new doors for its children.