Statement by the President Upon Accepting Report of the Committee on Public Higher Education in the District of Columbia.
THE recommendations in this report should have the immediate attention of the Congress. Less than a month ago I said that if our society is to move higher, higher education must be made a universal opportunity for all young people. There is no more urgent need today than to provide the educational opportunities which will permit every young person to develop to his maximum potential. The report shows that this opportunity is not now available to many District high school graduates. The Nation's Capital, which should set an example for the Nation, has instead lagged behind.
I am asking the District Commissioners to prepare a draft of appropriate legislation for submission to the Congress. In the meantime, I commend the report for study by all interested groups.
Note: The President's statement was made public as part of a White House release summarizing "A Report to the President, Public Higher Education in the District of Columbia," dated June 1964 (44 pp., Government Printing Office).
The President's Committee on Public Higher Education in the District of Columbia, of which Dr. Francis S. Chase, Dean, Graduate School of Education, University of Chicago, served as chairman, was appointed by President Kennedy on September 23, 1963.
The Committee's recommendations are summarized in the report as follows:
1. The immediate creation of a comprehensive community (or junior) college, publicly supported, that will put within reach of all high school graduates opportunities for technical and vocational training and for general education leading both to greater personal and civic effectiveness and to further study in a 4-year college or university for those who qualify and seek it.
2. The immediate creation of a college of liberal arts and sciences, also publicly supported, authorized to confer both baccalaureate and the master's degrees, with a special concern with teacher education (a function it should assume from the D.C. Teachers College) and prepared to offer specialized courses of study as need and feasibility are established.
3. The prompt establishment of a system of noncompetitive scholarships, publicly supported, enabling qualified District students who wish, after 2 years' work in the community college, to pursue special courses of study not offered at the outset by the proposed public college of liberal arts and sciences at an institution where such curriculums are available.
4. The early development in the District of a center or centers for high-level graduate and postdoctoral studies, with a Presidential review undertaken within 3 to 5 years to make specific recommendations, if desirable, with respect to ways in which the Federal Government might be helpful in the attainment of this goal.
Lyndon B. Johnson, Statement by the President Upon Accepting Report of the Committee on Public Higher Education in the District of Columbia. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/238986