Changes Under Title III

In extending Public Law 815 the Congress eliminated from Title III the concept of "entitlement" and substituted in its place a "maximum payment," which was the amount computed for a school district under the formulas or the cost of constructing minimum school facilities for "unhoused" children, whichever was smaller. Under this concept reimbursement for facilities already constructed was eliminated and grants were limited to an amount sufficient to provide facilities only for unhoused children. These changes together with restrictions on the counting of children and a reduction in the Federal amount per child in some categories substantially reduced the amount due each district and the total cost of the program in comparison with the original act.

year

A total of $140,000,000 was appropriated for the program authorized by the extension of Public Law 815, $70 million for the first fiscal and $70 million for the second. On the basis of data presently available it appears that this amount is sufficient to meet all requirements under the act. By June 30, 1954, the final date for receipt of applications, a total of 675 school districts had applied for assistance under Section 305. Of these, probably 500 will be eligible to receive allotments of approximately $110,000,000 for 600 projects. This amount together with local funds, will provide school housing for approximately 140,000 "unhoused" children.

Under this extension of the act, seven projects have been approved in the amount of $1,286,400 to construct temporary school facilities for 1,890 children. Projects to provide for 3,712 children who live on Federal property have also been approved. A number of these are additions to buildings constructed under the original act. Their estimated cost is $2,400,000.

Title IV

Public Law 815 originally provided that a school district could not count for entitlement more children than the increase in school enrollment over a specified year. This was to insure that a district would obtain construction funds only for children who had come into the community because of Federal activities and to prevent the payment of entitlement for children whose families lived in the area before the impact occurred.

This concept was well adapted to the impact pattern caused by defense and related activities. It did not, however, meet those relatively few situations where large numbers of school children lived on nontaxable Federal land but where there had been little or no growth in school attendance during the period specified. Such situations were mostly in districts containing Indian reser

vations on which school children lived. They could not meet the eligibility requirements for growth and very few of them received any benefits under the original act.

To meet this specific problem the 83d Congress added Title IV, which based eligibility only on "unhoused" children living on nontaxable, federally owned land and on the lack of financial resources for necessary school facilities. This provision was the first overall authorization of Federal grants to school districts for school facilities primarily for children on Indian reservations.

By July 31, 1954, 55 school districts had applied for assistance under Title IV, of which 33 were eligible. As of this date, funds totaling $6,860,512 had been allotted to 29 school projects in this category to construct school facilities for approximately 6,000 children.

Districts have until December 31, 1954, to file applications under this title. When this program is completed it appears that school

facilities will have been provided for 18,000 Indian children in 100 school districts at a cost of $20,000,000. Most but not all of these projects are located in 3 StatesArizona, Montana, and New Mexico. Further Extension of Public Law 815

Just prior to the end of the congressional session last August, the Congress again amended and extended Title III of Public Law 815 for an additional 2-year period, until June 30, 1956. The need for an extension was made necessary primarily by a number of new or expanded Air Force bases, new and expanded Atomic Energy Commission projects, construction of additional housing projects on military bases, and a few new nondefense projects.

The amendment simply extended Title III of the law for two additional years. Districts can submit new applications and count the increase in federally connected children for two more years to June 30, 1956. The eligibility requirements and formula provisions in Title III, Public Law 246, were preserved in the new act. An additional amount will be sought for the 1955 fiscal year when the 84th Congress convenes in January 1955.

Summary of Accomplishments

In summary, the program authorized by Public Law 815 and its amendment, P. L. 246, when completed, will provide 22,000 equipped classrooms and related facilities containing approximately 47,400,000 square feet of floor space and housing 668,000 pupils. Thus projects aided by Federal funds will provide school housing for three out of every four children reported as eligible for payment of part of the cost to build needed school facilities. The estimated total cost is $730,000,000, of which $533,800,000 is from Federal funds, the remainder is from State and local

resources.

The amount shown as the local share of the cost of constructing school facilities$200,000,000 or 30 percent of the total cost of federally aided local projects-does not reveal the full extent of local effort put forth in these impacted areas to build school facilities. The State and local contributions shown are simply the amount added to Federal funds for projects approved under the Federal programs. Most federally impacted districts have voted bonds and constructed facilities throughout the entire (Continued on p. 30)

objects. In the exhibit there are also 51 textbooks used in Japanese schools today.

Recently photographs were made of the project by the United States Information Agency for use in Japanese newspapers. Some of the pictures are reproduced here. They show what is happening in a school in the United States where the exhibit is being used successfully by pupils, parents, and teachers.

Exhibit Prompts Questions

The display is effectively set up in the school's library by the librarian with the assistance of the art teacher and pupils. Here it is readily accessible to the whole. school and to the community. Furthermore, reference books and books dealing with travel, folklore, art, and stories of children in Japan are close at hand to answer some of the questions asked.

The artistic effect of the exhibit is heightened by vases of flowers arranged in the Japanese style by a mother who lived in Tokyo for more than 2 years. This mother has also come to the school several times to answer the flood of questions about life in Japan that the exhibit continues to prompt. One day she gave the children a lesson on how to eat with chopsticks. Another mother brought her 7-year-old daughter dressed in a kimono and helped other little girls dress in Japanese costume for a tea party. She also sent a handsome low table for the party. The table had been presented to her in Japan as a gift by some of her Japanese friends.

Knowledge Leads to Understanding

The principal of the school has taken an active part in the various projects stimulated by the exhibit. Her reaction is summed up in the statement, "It seems to me that one of the best ways to promote world friendship and understanding is through the efforts of teachers, children, and parents—just as it is being fostered by the Japanese collection."

Certainly in the eyes of the teacher and in those of many other participants, this exhibit has proved a provocative stimulus for bringing the school and community together in an enjoyable and worthwhile learning experience.

U. S. Education

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attained. According to the 1930 United States Census, 4,173,951, or 14.3 percent of the 29,066,072 children 6 to 17 years of age were not attending school. Of the number not attending school, 1,658,965, or 39.7 percent, were of elementary school age (6 to 13, inclusive) and 2,514,986, or 60.3 percent, were of high school age (14 to 17, inclusive)."

It is true that statistics over a great many years may not be wholly comparable, but

What types of questions do educational leaders of other countries ask about education in the United States? The following questions were asked at the 17th International Conference on Public Education at Geneva, Switzerland, this year:

POLAND

What is being done about adult education? What about your problem of illiteracy, especially Negro and Indian?

Is elementary, secondary, higher education free?

What proportion finish secondary school?
GERMANY

Is TV used in or by schools?

Can it raise the activity of children in school, or does it reduce it? CANADA

What are the functions and responsibilities of the U. S. Office of Education?

INDIA

Is it true that at the higher levels of education there is much wastage?

UKRAINIAN S. S. R.

What is the explanation of why so many leave the secondary schools? In what level of society are they? Why do you pay such insufficient attention to the teaching of physics and mathematics, and to the behavior of children?

U. S. S. R.

What about the discrimination against Negro children?

UNITED KINGDOM Will the Supreme Court decision on segregation be effective, or will the States defy it? What success has there been in teaching languages in the primary schools?

perhaps one comparison made in a recent bulletin of the Office of Education most concisely reveals progress on this vital problem "of having all the children of elementary and secondary school age (16 to 17, inclusive) attend school."

That comparison concerns the “average number of days attended by each pupil enrolled in public elementary and secondary schools of the United States." It shows that the "average number of days attended by each child 5 to 17 years of age (inclusive)" for the school year 1929-30, was 116.3; for the school year, 1949-50 (latest year for these complete figures), the average number of days had climbed to 128.8.

Many factors have entered into school enrollment and school attendance progress in the United States. No longer are distances from school such difficult factors, for public school funds in the respective States. provide transportation. More than 130,000 vehicles transport more than 8,000,000 children to and from school daily throughout the Nation. When necessary, public funds can also be used for boarding children near schools. Consolidation of school districts, more suitable buildings, more adequate equipment, increased preparation of teachers, greatly improved roads, closer enforcement of school attendance laws, public interest in the schools-all these and others have been and are constructive influences toward the goal of educating all of our children.

Every State compulsory school law in the United States applies equally to boys and girls; and elementary and secondary education in the public schools has always been, and is today, free to all children who enroll. The long-range result of such laws would seem to be reflected in the facts that during the past decade "about half of the young people in the United States have completed a full high school education, whereas a generation earlier about half of the young people had not advanced beyond elementary school," according to the Bureau of the Census. At the higher education level there was an increase in "the number of college graduates living in the United States" from approximately 4.7 million in 1947, to 6.7 million in 1952, according to census reports. Again, many factors have played their part in this heartening educational progress.

Referring once more to the school attendance laws and their effective enforcement, it should be mentioned that they are highly

supported by public opinion of citizens throughout the Nation. In this relation it would seem appropriate to recall that in the United States, education is a direct responsibility of the respective States; fundamentally, of local communities and the people.

The Federal Government, however, along with the States and local communities, reflects the spirit of that early International Conference's "Recommendation No. 1" through its ever increasing interest in assuring "to each child adequate physical, intellectual and moral development."

The President of the United States recently said in these words:

"Our schools-all our schools-must have a continuing priority in our concern for community and national welfare."

An Overall View of Progress

The total soaring school enrollment of the United States has been roughly estimated at about 37,000,000 in 1954. Some have ventured to estimate that by 1960 the figure will go as high as 45,000,000; others say even that figure is conservative.

The facts are that increasing numbers of 5-, 6-, and 7-year-old children are entering school; increasing numbers of 16-, 17-, and 18-year-olds are remaining in school; and increasing numbers of young people are attending colleges and universities. All of these factors together with our "burgeoning birthrate" show us that the United States faces a long-range development program in education-one of the greatest challenges to educators, and to all citizens, in our Nation's history.

Parts of such a challenge are: the bringing home to people in all the States, in all the communities, facts about education, facts about their schools; and their own personal responsibility toward the whole of education in the United States. Educators are increasingly emphasizing to the people of their respective States the need for them to consider thoroughly the kind, the quality, and the amount of schooling our communities and States are to give their children; the need to plan for the wisest possible use of the resources they have; and to develop programs to secure necessary facilities.

The importance of such development of citizen understanding of the whole gamut of educational problems is recognized more fully when one stops to think that in the United States only the citizens can see to it that there are adequate taxes for the support

of education; and only the citizens can give the adequate moral support essential to all educational progress.

Preliminary plans have been laid this year for increasing and continuing wide ef forts toward bringing the schools and the people even nearer to each other. The manifest interest of American citizens in their schools and in trying to help solve educational problems in their local communities is one of the brightest and most encouraging signs of our times.

In his State of the Union Message to the Congress of the United States this year, the President of the United States made the following comments related to such plans for bringing the schools and the people nearer each other in their understanding:

"To the extent that the educational system provides our citizens with the opportunity for study and learning, the wiser will their decisions be, and the more they can contribute to our way of life."

The President has already announced that it is his intention "to call a National conference on education, composed of educa tors and interested citizens, to be held after

preparatory conferences in the States. This conference will study the facts about the Nation's educational problems and recommend sensible solutions. We can then proceed with confidence on a constructive and effective long-range program."

Current progress of citizen interest in the schools throughout the United States is evidenced by such reports as the following which are typical of many groups both large and small:

Parent-teacher associations are said to have doubled their membership since 1946, and participation continues to increase. The evidence of public interest in education displayed by the press, in the magazines, on television and radio, and related channels is proof of how important education is considered to be by millions of citizens today.

There were fewer than 1,000 lay citizen education groups which we knew of in 1950. Today, there are citizen committees working on educational problems with local school boards in at least 8,000 communities which we know of throughout the United States.

It is also true that in communities where there have been active citizen groups devoted to the best interests of the schools, the results have often included approval of school building programs and their financing; better salary schedules for teachers;

improvements in school curriculums more truly reflecting community needs and interests; and other related achievements.

In this overall view of educational progress, it would seem appropriate to indicate that the United States Office of Education is now an agency in the Federal Government's new Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. Through congressional action in 1953, this department was organized and the functions of the former overall organization, the Federal Security Agency, of which the Office of Education had been a part for several years, were transferred to the new department. The head of the Department is a member of the President's Cabinet; and the Office of Education, with "Education" in the department's name, has thus gained further recognition for the place of education in the Federal Government's structure. This in turn should reflect constructively on education throughout the Nation.

The Office of Education's wide research services fill a clearinghouse function. This year, as in all years, its findings have been made available to the people of all the States so that they may direct, improve, and govern their own schools in accordance with the best known practices throughout. the States, and in line with our traditional emphasis on local and State responsibility for education to which we are dedicated. The Office during the past year has informed educators and citizens through scores of major publications; through conferences and workshops not only in the Nation's Capital but over the country; and by means of answers to more than half a million inquiries received during the year.

In addition to its research and clearinghouse activities, the Office at present administers roughly $136.500.000 annually-a sum appropriated by the Congress for payments to school districts-for the construction and operation of schools in areas which re affected by Federal activities. It administers about $26,000,000 annually for vocational education in local communities of the respective States throughout the country; and it disburses more than $5,000,000 to the land-grant colleges of agriculture and mechanic arts.

Enumeration after enumeration could be made showing educational progress during the current school year in elementary and secondary schools, in vocational education, in higher education, in adult education, in