Getting Worse

The National Education Association scanned the horizon last week and announced that 1) not enough college and normal-school students are preparing for jobs as grade-school teachers; 2) the shortage in grade-school teachers will get worse before it gets better.

Only 20,000 new teachers for primary schools can be expected from this year's crop of graduates, said N.E.A.'s Commission on Teacher Education and Professional Standards. To cover replacements and rising enrollments, the U.S. needs 100,000. If the current trend persists, the country will be 800,000 short of elementary teachers when enrollments hit their expected peak in 1960.

The commission's recommendations : boost the grade-school teacher's pay, give him job tenure, set up more attractive retirement plans, and establish the same salary scales for elementary-and high-school teachers. One likely result: some of the growing surplus of trained high-school teachers (50,000 this year) will be attracted to the lower grades.

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