of such district would interpose the Department between the State and local school officials and the Federal District Court in a manner not contemplated in the orders of the Supreme Court." FEDERAL FINANCIAL AID TO ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY SCHOOLS AND ADULT PROGRAMS ADMINISTERED BY AGREEMENT WITH A STATE AGENCY The principal Federal educational programs carried out by agreement with an authorized State agent (usually the State Board of Education) are: vocational education, school lunch and those for strengthening science, mathematics, modern foreign language, area vocational education and guidance, counseling and testing, all included under the National Defense Education Act of 1958. Vocational education The regulations issued by the Office of Education of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, with respect to the expenditure of Federal funds and the administration of Federally aided programs of vocational education (prior to the National Defense Education Act) declare that there shall be no discrimination because of race, creed, or color.15 The Department of Health, Education, and Welfare has advised the Commission as follows with regard to this program: Federal grant funds for vocational education that are made available under provisions of the several vocational education acts are allotted to the States on population ratios. These funds are administered in the several States by the State board of vocational education designated or created by the legislative authority. It is this board that determines in what schools programs of vocational education are organized and operated. The school communities enroll students, employ teachers, and provide the instruction. There are some statutory limitations on enrollment such as age and employment. States follow a principle that courses and enrollments should have a relation to employment opportunities, and a regulation of the Office of Education (45 C.F.R. 102.18) does require that educational opportunities be available without "discrimination because of race, creed or color." The Office does not have comprehensive information relative to opportunities for enrollment in segregated school systems." School lunch The school lunch program and its administration are clearly explained by the Secretary of Agriculture in his reply to the Commission's questionnaire: The National School Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 1751-1760) authorizes the operation of the National School Lunch Program on a permanent basis and provides a specific method for apportioning program funds, as well as detailed provisions 14 Department of Health, Education and Welfare, reply dated July 1, 1959, to Commission questionnaire. 15 45 C.F.R. 102.18 (1948). 10 Op. cit. supra note 14. for regarding eligibility of schools and the use of funds. School lunch funds are apportioned among the States according to a formula contained in Section 4 of the Act on the basis of (1) the number of school children in the State, and (2) the per capita income in the State as it relates to the per capita income of the United States. State educational agencies enter into agreements with this Department covering the operation of the National School Lunch Program in the respective States. In States where the State educational agency is prohibited by State law from disbursing funds to private, including parochial, schools, such schools, if otherwise eligible, may enter into school lunch agreements directly with this Department. To insure equal treatment, a proportionate share of the school lunch funds apportioned to the State is withheld for the reimbursement of lunches served to children in participating private schools. The division of funds is made at the beginning of each year and is based on the total number of children in each category of schools (public or private) in accordance with figures supplied to the Department by the U.S. Office of Education (Section 10). Under Section 8 of the Act, State educational agencies are required to select schools for participation strictly on the basis of need and attendance. There is also a specific prohibition against racial discrimination in Section 11 of the Act which provides that if a State maintains separate schools for minority and for majority races, no funds made available pursuant to the Act are to be paid or disbursed to it unless a just and equitable distribution is made within the State, for the benefit of such minority races, of funds paid to it under the Act. The foregoing provisions are reflected in the School Lunch Regulations which are incorporated by reference into the Agreement Governing the Operation of the National School Lunch Program. Specifically, the provisions of Section 11 of the Act are included in Section 210.17 (b) of the Regulations, 23 C.F.R. 3091, published May 9, 1958. Compliance by the State educational agencies with the fiscal provisions of their agreements and the Regulations is determined by annual audits of the State agencies performed by the Internal Audit Division of AMS and all the nonfiscal phases of State agency program administration are reviewed at least annually in a comprehensive administrative analysis of the program operations performed by representatives of the Department. Since the inception of the National School Lunch Program in 1946, neither the audits nor administrative analyses of State educational agencies have disclosed that any State is not complying with the nondiscriminatory provisions of the Act and the Regulations, either in the selection of schools for participation, the reimbursement rates paid to them, or the supervisory assistance rendered to them. Neither have any complaints concerning discrimination of any type, been received from any schools operated for minority racial groups.17 National Defense Education Act programs The National Defense Education Act of 1958 includes programs for (1) elementary and secondary schools and (2) higher, and (3) adult education. At the first and third levels, plans meeting statutory requirements are submitted to the Federal agency in charge of the program, Health, Education, and Welfare, by the State agent, designated by the State Legislature, for expanding, adding to or initiating a new program for implementation by local school districts in the areas 17 Commission Questionnaire. specified in the law, mentioned above. After the fiscal year 1959 all funds except for statistical information at the State level are on a matching basis. There is no provision in the statute nor in any regulation found requiring that the programs of States or the operation of schools benefiting by the program be nondiscriminatory. Adult programs Two important educational programs for adults, in addition to that provided by the National Defense Education Act, are vocational rehabilitation and public library services. Vocational rehabilitation The Department of Health, Education and Welfare has reported to the Commission that its policy is that vocational rehabilitation services should be available to all disabled persons, regardless of color. A study was submitted to the Commission of the white and nonwhite persons rehabilitated under this program and comparable ratios for the total civilian population. Nationwide the ratio of nonwhite to white persons rehabilitated has been running eight to ten percent higher in favor of the nonwhite population than the comparable ratio in the civilian population. In only four areas— Arizona, Louisiana, Mississippi and Puerto Rico-is there a consistent pattern in recent years of rehabilitating proportionately fewer nonwhites than might be expected on the basis of the racial composition of their population. The Department comments on this fact as follows: It is possible that the lowness of the ratio in these 4 areas may be due to differences in the need for service rather than to any problem of discrimination. However, we have no reliable information on the relative extent of need for vocational rehabilitation services among nonwhites and whites either nationally or in these areas. Nor do we have racial information on the total case load of persons receiving services (as compared with the number rehabilitated).19 The total cost of this program in 1956-57 was $34,847,954.19 Public library services for rural areas In 1956 Congress adopted the Library Services Act authorizing an appropriation of $7,500,000 annually for five years for grants to States for the extension and improvement of public library services in places having a population of 10,000 or less. Funds are allotted to States on the basis of their rural population and must be matched by the State, 20 19 Op. cit. supra note 14. 19 Ibid. 20 Ibid. DIRECT AID TO PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER EDUCATION The only Federal aid disbursed directly to designated public institutions of higher education by authority of statute seems to be LandGrant Colleges and Universities under the Morrill-Nelson and Bankhead-Jones Acts.21 The statute authorizing financial assistance to such institutions provides that No money shall be paid out under Sections 321-328 of this title to any State or Territory for the support or maintenance of a college where a distinction of race or color is made in the admission of students, but the establishment and maintenance of such colleges separately for white and colored students shall be held to be a compliance with the provisions of said section if the funds received in such State or Territory are equitably divided as hereinafter set forth: ." [Italic supplied.] The Commission directed a questionnaire to the Department of Health, Education and Welfare specifically with regard to its policy and practice in the distribution of funds to land-grant colleges and universities that maintain separate institutions for white and colored students. The Department has notified the Commission that under the authority of the statute, 17 States established and maintained separate land-grant colleges and universities for white and Negro students. "Today, 16 of the original 17 States continue the distribution of funds between the separate institutions, although some have opened their former all-white institutions to Negroes in some degree." 23 The general policy of the Department applicable to grant programs in the field of education is summarized as follows: (1) Under the Supreme Court decision on segregation in reference to public elementary and secondary education, it is the Federal judiciary, and not the executive branch of the Federal government, which is to determine how compliance with the Supreme Court mandate is to be brought about and what constitutes compliance in good faith; (2) Judicial implementation of the Supreme Court decision, in the manner charted by the Court in its decree, and the meeting of the urgent, over-all educational needs of our country, can go forward at the same time; (3) For the executive branch to exercise the power, on the basis of its own determinations as to the requirements of the Supreme Court mandate to reserve or withhold funds necessary to progress in meeting educational needs, might interfere with such progress and would in the long run interfere with the responsibilities of the Federal judiciary.2 24 17 U.S.C. 321-328. 22 Id. at sec. 323. "Department of Health, Education and Welfare reply dated July 1, 1959, to Commission Questionnaire, p. 12. The Department informed the Commission that the State of West Virginia has withdrawn designation of a separate Negro college and now has only one land-grant college. TABLE 20a.-Disbursements to land-grant colleges maintaining separate colleges 1 Department of Health, Education and Welfare, Office of Education, Federal Funds for Education, 1956-57 and 1957-58, p. 38. 2 June 1959-only one land-grant college. FEDERAL FINANCIAL AID TO HIGHER EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS Several Federal agencies implement particular educational programs, training of specialists in fields of importance to national defense and research vital to national security by agreement with higher educational institutions, both public and private. A few have been selected for brief description to illustrate the various types of programs. National defense education graduate fellowships 124 public and private institutions in 48 States (including the District of Columbia and Hawaii) have been approved for participation in 1959-60. Initial appropriations total $5.3 million and cover one thousand fellowships which include an individual stipend and payment to the institution of $2,500 per fellow. The institution submits nominations to the Commissioner of Education.25 All fellowships are for three years and a total of 5,500 are authorized for a four-year period beginning 1959-60. This program is administered by the Department of Health, Education and Welfare. National Science Foundation summer institutes Re-training programs were held by 126 public and private institutions for about 6,000 high school and 400 college teachers of science and mathematics in the summer of 1958. The government pays a stipend to the individual and tuition. The total cost of this program in the summer of 1958 was $6,800,000. Some 348 institutes are sched uled for the summer of 1959, with 18,800 teachers expected.26 "Department of Health, Education and Welfare release of June 4, 1959. Op. cit. supra note 1, at 193, and information supplied by National Science Foundation. |