Dwight D. Eisenhower photo

Special Message to the Congress on Education.

January 12, 1956

To the Congress of the United States:

For several years now, our educational system has been the object of intensified appraisal.

Signs of heartening progress have come to light. Among these are: classroom construction at a higher rate than ever before; teachers' salaries increased in many communities; the number of small, uneconomical school districts reduced; substantially more young people preparing for the teaching profession; private gifts to higher education at new heights; support of education at all levels greater than ever before.

Encouraging as these advances are, they are not enough to meet our expanding educational needs. Action on a broader scale and at a more rapid rate is dearly imperative.

We still do not have enough good classrooms for our children. There is insufficient emphasis on both short-range and long-term research into the core of educational problems. We need examination and study, from a broad view-point, of the increasing needs of higher education. These lacks are magnified by an everincreasing stream of student enrollment and the increasing complexity of modern society.

THE WHITE HOUSE CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION

Two years ago, the Congress approved my recommendation of a program to direct nation-wide attention and action to our educational problems and opportunities. As a consequence, more than 4,000 State and local conferences were held throughout 1955. The White House Conference on Education, the first such Conference in our history, was held last November. The work of the conferences has aroused the Nation. The final report of the White House Conference Committee should receive wide and serious attention.

Benefits already are apparent. About half a million people across the Nation, representing all segments of life, came to grips with the problems of education. The status of American education-where it is; the future of American education--where it should and can go--have been illuminated as perhaps never before. Most important of all, there has been a reawakening of broad public interest in our schools. The conferences helped to erase the corroding notion that schools were the other person's responsibility.

In our society no firmer foundation for action can be laid than common understanding of a problem; no more potent force can be devised for assailing a problem than the common will to do the job. For the improvement of our educational system, the people themselves have laid the foundation in understanding and willingness.

THE NEED FOR FEDERAL AID IN MEETING THE CLASSROOM

SHORTAGE

The responsibility for public education rests with the States and the local communities. Federal action which infringes upon this principle is alien to our system. But our history has demonstrated that the Federal Government, in the interest of the whole people, can and should help with certain problems of nation-wide scope and concern when States and communities--acting independently-cannot solve the full problem or solve it rapidly enough.

Clearly, this is the kind of situation we face today in considering the school classroom shortage. In the war and postwar periods, school construction was drastically curtailed by shortages of materials. And then schools were filled to overflowing by the largest, most rapid enrollment increase in history. Today, hundreds of thousands of children study under overcrowded conditions, in half-day or doubled-up school sessions, or in makeshift buildings not designed as schools. Further, many classrooms in use today are obsolete, inadequate--and each year more rooms become so. School enrollments will continue to increase rapidly over the years ahead--and this will require still more classrooms.

Against this backdrop of needs, States and communities are substantially increasing their classroom construction. But many communities simply do not have available locally the resources needed to cope both with the legacy of shortages from past years and with future needs. Unless these communities get help, they simply cannot provide enough good schools. The best estimates indicate that, on a nation-wide basis, the current rate of construction only a little more than meets each year's new enrollment and replacement needs. This rate barely dents the large accumulation of needs from past years.

The rate of classroom construction must be further increased, as the White House Conference on Education asked, by a greater combined effort of local and State governments. And the Conference concluded that Federal assistance also is necessary. The facts support this conclusion.

THE ADMINISTRATION'S PROPOSALS

A year ago, I proposed a Federal program designed to aid the States and communities in overcoming the classroom shortage. The Congress has not yet enacted legislation. In the light of a full year of further experience and study, in the light of Congressional hearings and the White House Conference on Education, I now submit a revised and broadened program to meet our pressing classroom needs. I propose:

A program of Federal grants amounting to $1,250,000,000, at a rate of $250,000,000 annually for five years, matched with State funds, to supplement local construction efforts in the neediest school districts.

A program to authorize $750 million over five years for Federal purchase of local school construction bonds when school districts cannot sell them in private markets at reasonable interest rates.

A five-year program of advances to help provide reserves for bonds issued by State school financing agencies. These bonds would finance local construction of schools to be rented and eventually owned by the local school systems.

A five-year, $20 million program of matching grants to States for planning to help communities and States overcome obstacles to their financing of school construction.

If speedily and fully utilized, this Federal program--added to the increased basic efforts of States and communities--should overcome the Nation's critical classroom shortage within five years. Once this shortage is overcome, the Federal grant program can and must terminate. The States and localities should then go forward, without Federal funds, to meet their current and future needs. Present construction levels indicate their ability to do this.

I am confident the Federal Government with this program can help construct schools without in any way weakening the American tradition that control of education must be kept close to the local communities. Any legislation enacted should embody this principle.

ESSENTIAL PRINCIPLES IN FEDERAL GRANTS

I strongly urge the Congress, in providing grants for school construction, to follow certain principles, which are indispensable if Federal aid is to serve the cause of American education most effectively.

The first broad principle is that Federal grants must not reduce the incentive for State and local efforts--but rather should stimulate an increase in such efforts. If Federal funds are used merely to replace funds which otherwise would or could be provided at State and local levels, there is no net gain of schools for our children. I propose, therefore, that Federal grants be matched by State appropriations. Because many of the State legislatures will not have a session this year, I recommend, in order to speed the program at the outset, that during the first year of the five year period the matching of Federal funds may be by either the States or by local school districts. The requirement for State matching will result in a larger total program of school construction, and will assure active participation of the States in improving laws relating to financing of school construction, as well as sound administration of the program.

Furthermore, I propose a formula to reduce the proportion of Federal funds for those few States which are noticeably lagging, behind their ability, to support their public schools. This feature should act as an incentive for the lagging States to increase their effort.

Another fundamental principle is that Federal funds, under this type of program, should be distributed according to relative need. We must recognize that some States have more financial resources than others. We must recognize that a weakness in education anywhere is a weakness in the Nation as a whole. Federal appropriations will most quickly accomplish the most good if a relatively larger share of Federal funds is distributed where local and State resources are least adequate to meet classroom needs.

I propose that this principle be fulfilled in three ways. First, in distributing Federal funds, larger amounts per school-age child should be allotted to States with lower income per child. Second, in fixing matching requirements, States with lower income should not be required to put up as large a proportion of funds as higher income States. For the Nation as a whole, the total of State matching funds would approximately equal the total of Federal funds. Third, as the States distribute these funds, the highest priority should be given to school districts with the least economic ability to meet their needs.

CREDIT SUPPORT FOR SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION

Some school districts find difficulty in marketing bonds to finance needed school construction. To meet this situation, I again recommend that the Congress authorize Federal purchase of local school construction bonds unmarketable except at excessive interest rates.

Some school districts, however, are unable to raise capital funds needed for school construction because of bonding limits. To encourage school construction in these districts, as well as in' districts where construction would be speeded by the leasepurchase method, I propose again that Congress authorize advances to the States as a reserve for bonds of State school financing agencies.

Several States have made marked progress in building schools through State agencies which issue long-term bonds to finance school construction in the districts. The school district leases the new building. Revenue from rents is used by the agencies to retire their bonds. After the bonds have been paid, title to the school is transferred to the local district. The program of Federal support is aimed at helping more States start such school financing agencies, and thus at helping local districts overcome barriers to building more schools.

The credit support for bonds of communities and State agencies, taken together with the planning grants, should help the States and communities continue their present annual rate of substantial increase in school construction over the next five years. The partnership program of Federal grants, matched by the States, should complete the task of building the classrooms that are critically needed.

AID TO FEDERALLY AFFECTED AREAS

In considering the school construction problem, there is a special, related area which should have the attention of the Congress at this time. The Congress has for some years recognized the responsibility of the Federal Government to aid communities where Federal activities result in excessive burdens on the local school system. Authority to provide Federal funds for school construction in Federally affected school districts will expire next June and should be extended.

EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH

Basic to all endeavors in improving education is a vigorous and far-sighted program of educational research. This has been a sorely neglected field.

Such a program should be comprehensive in its approach, planned on a broad scale and executed thoroughly. In this way, educational research can, among other things, point the way to advances in making life more meaningful to more people and in the more efficient use of manpower and funds for education.

To increase the effectiveness of education, national leadership could well be directed to research in such areas as: ways of educating more people to their fullest capacity; staffing and housing the Nation's schools and colleges; educating the retarded child to help him lead a more normal life, and educating the child of special abilities so that he may utilize these abilities more fully; the relationship of schools to juvenile delinquency; educational effects of population mobility; educational needs of low income families. These studies would be conducted through the Office of Education in cooperation with the Nation's colleges, universities, and State departments of education, thus encouraging and strengthening existing research efforts.

It is imperative that we now give renewed attention and support to this arm of education--to the end that the country may have a sound, factual basis for identifying and analyzing problems and finding solutions. For these research purposes, and also to expand and improve other services, I urge the Congress to provide a major increase in funds for the Office of Education.

EDUCATION BEYOND HIGH SCHOOL

Our vision would be limited if we failed at this time to give special thought to education beyond the high school. Certain problems exist now in this field, and already we can foresee other needs and problems shaping up in the future.

Shortages now exist in medicine, teaching, nursing, science, engineering, and in other fields of knowledge which require. education beyond the level of the secondary school. Changing times and conditions create new opportunities and challenges. There are new possibilities for older persons--properly trained-to lead more productive and rewarding lives. The tide of in-, creasing school enrollment will soon reach higher educational institutions. Within ten years we may expect three students in our colleges and universities for every two who are there now.

Higher education is and must remain the responsibility of the States, localities, and private groups and institutions. But to lay before us all the problems of education beyond high school, and to encourage active and systematic attack on them, I shall appoint a distinguished group of educators and citizens to develop this year, through studies and conferences, proposals in this educational field. Through the leadership and counsel of this group, beneficial results can be expected to flow to education and to the Nation, in the years ahead.

TEACHING

In all our efforts for education--in providing adequate schools, research and study--we must never lose sight of the very heart of education; good teaching itself.

Good teachers do not just happen. They are the product of the highest personal motivation, encouraged and helped in their work by adequate salaries and the respect, support, goodwill of their neighbors. The quality of American teaching has never been better. But the rewards for too many teachers are not commensurate with their work and their role in American life.

It is my earnest hope that, along with progress in other aspects of education, the States and communities will give increasing attention to this taproot of all education--good teachers, and hence good teaching.

CONCLUSION

These several proposals are designed, not only to correct current problems, but to build for the future. For today's decisions will influence tomorrow's education--and, hence, the welfare of the Nation.

The actions here proposed, I believe, constitute a sound and realistic approach to those educational problems on which the Federal Government should now act. They have a primary reliance on the private initiative which wells from the free spirit of a free people.

With this program, we can lay the basis for better education in America in the years ahead. In this way we keep faith with our children.

DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER

Dwight D. Eisenhower, Special Message to the Congress on Education. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/233085

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