of private and governmental organizations in the teaching and recruitment of scientists and teachers of science, including mathematics. A list of nongovernmental organizations whose activities of this nature are described in the report follows: 14 (1) American Association for the Advancement of Science; (2) American Association of Physics Teachers; (3) American Chemical Society; (4) American Institute of Biological Sciences; (5) American Physiological Society; (6) Committee on Regional Development of Mathematics; (7) Council for Basic Information; (8) Engineers Joint Council; (9) Joint Board on Science Education; (10) Manufacturing Chemists Association; (11) Mathematical Association of America; (12) National Association for Research in Science Teaching; (13) National Association of Secondary School Principals; (14) National Council of Teachers of Mathematics; (15) National Science Teachers Association; (16) Scientific Manpower Commission; (17) United States Chamber of Commerce. J. PROPOSED ACTIVITIES FOR NONGOVERNMENTAL In a recent article, Mr. L. P. Whorton, director of production research, Atlantic Refining Co., discussed what industrial concerns, technical societies, and the colleges should do for the production of more and better technical personnel. Some of the ideas advanced by Mr. Whorton with respect to organizational activities are: 15 The primary need is for quality, not quantity. Colleges should weed out inferior prospects to make room for those able to meet today's exacting demands. There is need for better high-school preparation for college work in technical subjects, and for better counseling to interest secondaryschool students in scientific careers. Technical societies can provide much of the additional counseling needed. With financial aid from industrial concerns, colleges can help by offering summer sessions for high-school science teachers. Industrial organizations should: (1) encourage their technical personnel to participate in community activities aimed at helping the focal high-school teachers and pupils-such as counseling, promoting the attractiveness of teaching as a career, and helping to provide stimulating instruction in science; (2) encourage their technical personnel to participate in the activities of scientific societies; (3) employ high-school teachers for summer work in technical surroundings; (4) increase their support to higher education through grantsin-aid to institutions, and financing scholarships and fellowships; (5) maintain a proper difference in pay between professional and nonprofessional personnel. 14 American Association for the Advancement of Science. Interagency News Letter, October 15, 1956. Compiled by I. E. Wallen, 50 pp. The Oil and Gas Journal, 15 Whorton, L. P. More-and Better-Engineers Needed. Jan. 30, 1956, pp. 120-121. CHAPTER XI RELEVANT LAWS AND PROPOSALS, 84TH CONGRESS A. INTRODUCTION AND ANALYTIC SUMMARY The scope and variety of considerations given to education in the 84th Congress have reflected a growing national concern with problems in this field. A review of the wide range of relevant bills enacted, proposals introduced, discussion in committee hearings, statements in reports from committees, formal speeches, casual remarks on the floor, and insertion of articles and excerpts in the Congressional Record supports this conclusion. A study of all this material reveals a recurrent congressional recognition of the Nation's need for the development of scientific, engineering, and other professional manpower. The 84th Congress enacted a number of laws which may affect the development of such manpower. Laws enacted by the 84th Congress bearing on this subject are concerned with (a) Federal encouragement of nationwide discussion of all the problems of education beyond the high school; (b) Federal promotion of the training of professional personnel in the fields of public health, commercial fishing, and water pollution; (c) provision of equipment for institutions providing training in specified scientific fields; (d) extension of veterans' educational benefits, which largely include professional training; (e) expansion of the college housing loan program; and (f) other matters. In addition, enactments such as those providing for flight instruction during ROTC programs, raising the status of the Merchant Marine Academy, and establishing a National Library of Medicine, importantly relate to the development of professional manpower in the affected fields. Outstanding among fiscal 1957 appropriations directly or indirectly affecting this problem or some phase of it are the following: Office of Education, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, salaries and expenses... Land-grant colleges and universities... Veterans' education and rehabilitation............. $5, 270, 000 5,051, 000 31, 442, 000 40, 000, 000 733, 510, 000 A number of other appropriations bearing on the immediate or long-range development of professional manpower are mentioned in this chapter. Relevant bills introduced in the 84th Congress, but not enacted, vary widely in the nature of their relationships to the subject of this study. Such bills contain proposals for (a) a broad program of national scholarships, (b) Federal scholarships in specified fields, (c) Federal loans to students, (d) Federal funds for facili ties for professional training in certain fields, (e) income-tax deduction for educational expenditures, (f) further extension of veterans' educational benefits, and (g) other measures described in this chapter. A thoughtful consideration of all of this enacted and proposed legislation leads to the conclusion that it represents significant actual and potential Federal contributions to the development of the Nation's professional manpower. However, there are important counterbalancing considerations. None of the legislation deals with the problem as a whole. Nevertheless, some of the laws and bills do contain policy statements recognizing the shortage of professional manpower in general or in specific fields, implying that there is a Federal responsibility for action toward alleviating the shortage. For example, the National Scholarship Act of 1956 declared that The Congress hereby finds that there is a serious shortage of teachers and scientists in the United States at the present time, and that such shortage represents an increasing threat to the general welfare and the national defense and security of the United States. (This bill was not enacted.) The whole consideration of bills of this kind, both inside and out of Congress, is undoubtedly affected by the absence of overall, clearcut constitutional or other statutory provision governing what the Federal Government should or should not do in educational matters. Proposals for broad Federal action dealing with educational problems are often advanced with hesitation, or not at all, because of their involvment with highly controversial questions concerning Federal and State responsibilities in education, and particularly with the perennial controversy over the possibility of Federal control over education. As a whole, the laws and bills emphasize development in certain specified (mainly scientific) fields. Prior Federal legislation also emphasized education in these and/or closely associated fields. This observation leads to the conclusion that the national interest calls for congressional consideration of the total effects of such legislation upon education in the United States, and raises questions such as the following concerning enacted and proposed bills: 1. Will legislation of this kind lead to overemphasis of certain subjects in American education? 2. Does the proposal under consideration offer piecemeal or a comprehensive solution of the problem? 3. Has it the backing of a particular pressure group? If so, what is this group, and what are its motives? 4. What policies are desirable or undesirable in Federal promotion of education? 5. Is the existing Federal legislation adequate and appropriate to meet the national need? 6. Will the proposal accomplish its objective, or merely lead to a substitution of Federal money for available private or State funds? 7. If this is not a sound proposal, what kind of substitute or additional legislation, if any, should be enacted? These are questions before the 85th Congress. The purpose of the following digest and discussion of laws and bills is to provide a part of the basic information which the Congress needs in order intelligently to consider the answers. B. LAWS ENACTED BY THE 84TH CONGRESS A number of measures enacted by the 84th Congress relate fairly closely to the general subject to this study or some part of it. Such laws include the following. 1. Committee on Education Beyond the High School H. R. 12237 (Public Law 813), introduced by Representative Carl Elliott of Alabama, was approved July 26, 1956. This act established a statutory basis for the work of the President's Committee on Education Beyond the High School, which had been appointed by President Eisenhower on April 19, 1956. In a special message to Congress concerning "our educational system" on January 12, 1956, President Eisenhower had said that the work of this committee would be to lay before us all the problems of education beyond high school, and to encourage active and systematic attack upon them. On May 15, in requesting an appropriation for the work of the committee, the President had said that of Among the problems to be studied by the committee will be those * meeting shortages of scientists, engineers, and other professions; and of insuring that students with talent continue their education until they develop to the fullness of their capacities. The close relationship of Public Law 813 to the subject of this report is shown in the preamble to the law, which reads as follows: The Congress hereby finds and declares that the impending great increases in enrollment in higher education institutions, the great national need for increased numbers of scientists, engineers, teachers, technicians, nurses, and other trained personnel, the rapid changes in conditions which necessitate additional education for many adults, and the dependence of the national security on the research and advanced preparation provided by educational institutions, and the impact of the military services on youth, combine to make it imperative that immediate stimulus be given to planning and action throughout the Nation which will meet adequately the needs for education beyond the high school. The act authorizes an appropriation of $650,000 to encourage and assist the States to provide committees on education beyond the high school. The committees are to be composed of educators and other interested citizens to consider educational problems beyond the high school and to make recommendations for appropriate action to be taken by public and private agencies at local, State, regional, and Federal levels, including the possibility of coordinating compulsory military service with established programs of institutions of higher education. The Federal funds shall be allotted to the States on the basis of their respective populations except that each participating State shall have a minimum allotment of $7,500. The act also authorizes the appropriation of such sums as the Congress may determine for the administration of the act and the expenses of the President's Committee on Education beyond the High School. It requires that the committee insofar as practicable shall be composed of educators and educational administrators fairly representative of the large and small universities and colleges and geographically representative of the Nation. It requires that the final report of the President's committee be submitted in writing to the President and the Congress not later than December 31, 1957. 2. Training of public health personnel The Health Amendments Act of 1956 (S. 3958), introduced by Senator Lister Hill, of Alabama, and others, was approved on August 2, 1956, and became Public Law 911, 84th Congress. The act provides additional means of stimulating the training of more professional public-health personnel. Title I authorizes the appropriation of such sums as the Congress may determine for a 2-year Federal program of traineeships for advanced training for physicians, engineers, nurses, and other professional health personnel. The Surgeon General may award these scholarships either directly or through grants to training institutions. The funds appropriated for traineeship may be used only to defray the educational expenses of the individuals awarded the traineeships. The law provides for a special conference to appraise the program and make recommendations which the Surgeon General would transmit to Congress not later than January 1, 1959. Title II provides for grants by the Surgeon General to public and nonprofit institutions training nurses, for the awarding of traineeships to individuals selected by these institutions to receive training in nursing. The funds may be used for tuition and fees and a stipend and allowances for travel and subsistence expenses. The law provides for a conference after the second year to consider modifications of the program. Title III extends with new emphasis the existing Federal-State program of vocational education (under the George-Barden Act). The title provides for a 5-year program of categorical grants to States for the extension and improvement of practical nurse training. For the first 2 years of this program the act requires State expenditure of at least one State dollar for every three Federal grant dollars, and thereafter dollar for dollar matching. Appropriations for such grants are limited to $5 million annually. 3. Professional personnel in the fishing industry S. 2379 (Public Law 1027), introduced by Senator Frederick G. Payne, of Maine, and others, was approved August 8, 1956. It authorizes the Secretary of the Interior to make grants to public and nonprofit private universities and colleges in the several States and Territories for such purposes as are necessary to promote the production of professionally trained personnel (including technicians and teachers) needed in the field of commercial fishing. For these purposes it authorizes an appropriation of $550,000 annually. The act requires that the Secretary of the Interior in distributing the grants shall take into account the extent of the fishing industry within each State as compared with the total fishing industry of the United States, and other factors. The law also amends the Vocational Education Act of 1946 (the George-Barden Act) by authorizing $375,000 in grants to the several |