Education: The Silent Teachers

In its campaign against Reds in the city schools, New York City's Board of Education fired six schoolteachers last week for refusing to tell a Senate subcommittee whether they were, or had ever been, party members (TIME, Sept. 22). The lever used to pry the teachers (five men, one woman) loose from their jobs: section 903 of the New York City charter, which provides that if a municipal employee refuses to answer a question about official business "on the ground that his answer would tend to incriminate him, [his] employment shall terminate." A few days later, the Board of Higher Education dismissed three municipal college professors who had clammed up before another session of the same Senate subcommittee.

The dismissal of the six brought to 75 the number of full-time teachers with known or suspected Communist ties who have left New York City's schools within the past 3½ years. Eight teachers were dismissed last year, 61 retired or resigned after city officials began sniffing for Reds in the school system.