Theodore R. Sizer, dean of the School of Education, has called for government support of private prepatory schools.

Unless these "independent" schools, even well-endowed ones like Exeter and Andover, can get some public money, he warned last week, there will probably be a steady decline in the quality of their teachers and facilities--or a steady rise in their tuition rate.

Speaking at the annual meeting of the National Association of Independent Schools in New York, Sizer said as good a case can be made for government support of private schools like Exeter as it can for government support of private schools like Exeter as it can for government support of private universities like Harvard.

"Public education needs competition, the pace setting and grading which strong independent schools might provide," he said. "We need not have a large private school system, but a varied and imaginative one."

Trustees of the "independent" schools shouldn't be any more frightened of public funds than university trustees, Sizer argued. "Arrogantly autonomous Harvard derives over 40 per cent of its budget from the federal government," he pointed out, "and while constant battle is waged to retain old Dame Cambridge's virginity I think it's yet intact."

Narrowing Salary Gap

The "independent" schools' main problem, Sizer said, is that the salaries of public school teachers are rapidly increasing:

"I think it is fair to say that in salaries the average independent school is barely holding its own--in fact--with the average public school system. This is probably the single most frightening fact for the future of independent school education in the United States."

Harvard proposed instead that the schools set up "a distinct hierachy among teachers" in which a few top men -- like senior professors -- would earn the highest salary (perhaps $15,000). They would be responsible for training younger teachers, a job in which schools of education should have only a secondary role, he said. Sizer also briefly attacked much of what is taught in "independent" schools (and in others) as "irrelevant." The time spent in such traditional subjects as English instruction should be slashed to make way for new ones, such as Far Eastern history, he urged.

At the conference, it was announced that a major study of financing, curriculum and teacher training in "independent" schools will begin in September, financed by a $170,000 grant from the Danforth Foundation of St. Louis.