January 26, 1961 Mr. Thomas D. Bailey State Superintendent of Public Instruction State Department of Education Tallahassee, Florida Dear Tom: The story in the Miami Herald which is attached prompts me to write this note. You probably are not aware of the pressures which are being applied to the Vocational and Adult Educational Programs in the Southern part of the state. Hundreds of our citizens want to take courses in conversational Spanish for business and travel. In Broward County we had 33 sections in our January schedule and many of these sections had to be doubled to accommodate adult students. Obviously finding well-qualified and trained instructors for so many Spanish classes is a difficult job. In our midst are dozens of skillful teachers, supervisors, and administrators from the public and private school systems of Cuba. In Fort Lauderdale, for example, we have the supervisor of the English program for the Havana public school system. The Minister of Education is working as a bus boy in a Miami Hotel. Prior to the severance of diplomatic relations we could employ these skillful people and get teaching certificates for them. Now this can no longer be done since the Teacher Certification Office has invoked the citizenship provision which appears on page 10 of the Certification Requirements. This states that the applicant be “a citizen of a nation not antagonistic to democratic forms of government”. This is slamming a door in the faces of the people who could help us during this emergency and who, by their very actions, have indicated that they are not antagonistic to a democratic form of government. These people, at tremendous personal, professional, and financial risk and loss, have sought refuge in Florida. As you are quoted by the Herald, they are “high class people, they don’t need handouts, they want jobs.” It seems incredible that these people could be certificated and employed as teachers as long as their application was processed prior to December. Nothing about these people has changed. Their