Red Teachers and Educational Freedom

Report Outline
Communist Infiltration of Schools Systems
Action to Combat Subversion in Schools
Effect of Red Hunts on Freedom of Teaching

Communist Infiltration of Schools Systems

Congressional Attention to the menace of Communist infiltration of the American educational system has spurred responsible authorities in the states to increased effort to eliminate such subversive influences as may remain in the schools. Leaders in education, while fully aware of the dangers from Communist sources, are no less concerned over dangers raised by unthinking Red hunts in the schools. Many of them hold that attacks on the schools have already reached such extremes as to defame the teaching profession, imperil teachers' freedom of utterance and inquiry, and lower the quality of schooling afforded American youth.

President Eisenhower, as head of Columbia University, defended the patriotism of American teachers and joined other educators in reasserting traditional principles of academic freedom. As a member of the Educational Policies Commission, he had a hand in drafting a 1949 statement by the commission which opposed employment of Communists as teachers, but at the same time condemned state laws prescribing special teacher loyalty oaths, and called on the schools to resist pressures that would lead to impairment of civil rights.

Continuing Investigation of Communism in Schools

The Internal Security subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee, now headed by Sen. Jenner (R., Ind.), resumed on Feb. 10 the investigation of subversive influences in the educational process initiated last year by the McCarran (D., Nev.) subcommittee. Jenner said the inquiry would be “national in scope” and would seek to determine whether there is “organized subversion” in the schools. The House Un-American Activities Committee is scheduled shortly to open a similar investigation. Chairman Velde (R., Ill.) said its first attention would be given to individual teachers suspected of disloyalty. First witnesses at the resumed Senate hearings declined to answer questions on grounds of possible self-incrimination.