The Boys from Georgia

Like most U.S. legislators, Senators Richard Russell and Herman Talmadge of Georgia are conscientious and impersonal in giving out appointments to West Point, Annapolis and the Air Academy; to weed out the applicants, the Senators first send them to examinations given by the Civil Service Commission. Last week Russell and Talmadge decided to announce the results of this year's examination. For poor old Georgia, the results were a blow.

Of Talmadge's 35 applicants, only seven passed the examinations, eleven got under 50, and none scored higher than 75. Only two of the 26 boys applying for the Air Academy passed the algebra test. Russell's applicants did even worse: only four scored over 70 on the overall exam (highest mark: 72), 15 scored under 50, and one pulled down an ignominious 25.

When the news broke back home, the Senators hastily placed full blame on "the practitioners of so-called progressive education." But some school officials doubted that Georgia should get off quite so easily. Reported De Kalb County Superintendent Jim Cherry: "Less than half the white children in Georgia are completing the present high school program. Less than 20% of the Negroes graduate. A great majority of high schools offer no chemistry and physics, and others offer it only in alternate years. Advanced algebra, trigonometry and solid geometry are not available in the great majority of Georgia high schools. Science and libraries are limited. Vocational courses such as mechanical drawing and mechanics are not available."

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