20 State Papers and Addresses

The balance of the increase is reflected in the Equalization Fund to pro-
vide for the increase in basic minimum salaries of teachers provided by law,
one extra month's salary for colored teachers made mandatory by law, ad-
ditional high-school aid, additional number of teachers resulting from increased
enrollment and ten additional special classes for the mentally handicapped.

While the total appropriation for the support of public schools of the State
for the years 1940 and 1941 represents roughly twenty-nine (29%) per cent of
the total appropriations from General Funds, it is my opinion that the amount
is needed to maintain adequately the Public School System. Maryland's Public
School System and the administration of its affairs, must be maintained in its
enviable position among the States of the Country, and it would be a definite
step backward to withdraw any support necessary to maintain it in a highly
developed and efficient state.

State Aided Institutions

Having its origin many decades ago when the State had no College or
University of its own, and when public school facilities were grossly inadequate
to meet the educational needs and demands of the youth of the State, and when
the State afforded only a very meager hospital and institutional care for its
mentally and physically afflicted, and indigent and homeless men, women and
children, the present system of so-called State aided Institutions receiving
financial assistance from the State today represents one of the State's major
problems.

Their aggregate requests for State financial assistance for the years 1940
and 1941 amount to $1, 857, 414. 00, notwithstanding the State and Federal Gov-
ernments are today spending millions of dollars annually for aid to dependent
children, aid to the blind, the deaf, the crippled, to the unemployed, in old-age
and military pensions, in free medical and clinical services, in free educational
and vocational opportunities, and in hospitalization of the mentally and
physically afflicted.

The budget which I am submitting to you will disclose that these requests,
aggregating, as I said before $1, 857, 414. 00 are from 108 institutions and as-
sociations scattered throughout the State, classified as follows:

Number

Care of Poor and Dependent...................................... 11

Care of Children:........................................................... 25

Care of Deaf, Dumb and Blind.................................. 4

Rescue Home.................................................................. 1

Semi-Public and Private Hospitals, Dispensaries
and Institutions for Mentally or Physically
Afflicted....................................................................... 46

Reform and Correctional Institutions........................ 4

Colleges, Academies and Schools................................ 11

Miscellaneous Associations, Agencies and Depart-
ments........................................................................... 6

For many years it has been the accustomed practice for the Board of State
Aid and! Charities to conduct hearings shortly prior to the meeting of the Legis-
lature, at which representatives from the many Institutions, associations and
agencies seeking financial assistance from the State for the ensuing biennium
were scheduled to appear and, within an allotted few minutes, were required