Conant, Eisenhower Oppose Loyalty Laws for Teachers

President Conant, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, and 15 other members of the Educational Policies Commission have opposed state laws testing the loyalty of teachers in a statement issued Saturday night.

The Commission said: "State laws requiring special oaths for teachers, or laying down detailed prescriptions for the school curriculum, or establishing uniform tests and criteria of loyalty impair the vigor of local school autonomy and thus do harm to an important safeguard of freedom in education."

Saturday's statement was an amplification of a report issued by the Commission on June 8, "American Education and International Tensions."

The June statement urged that "members of the Communist Party of the United States should not be employed as teachers," but warned against branding as" 'Red or 'Communist'...teachers and other persons who in point of fact are not Communists, but who merely have views different from their accusers."

While the Commission on Saturday adhered to its stand on Communist teachers, it "wished also to emphasize again that citizens should be especially alert at this time to defend the essential need of their schools for freedom of teaching and learning."

At the present time more than 30 states have teachers' loyalty tests on the statute books. Massachusetts' loyalty oath dates back to 1935.