informative publication of the Public Health Service, prepared in cooperation with the Children's Bureau, detailing the geographic location and numbers of migrant agricultural employees county by county in the United States. Copies of this material have been furnished to members of the committee.

Mr. BAILEY. Permit the Chair to interrupt. Would you leave, for the information of the committee, a copy of that publication.

Mr. FLYNT. I believe it is a very valuable publication. It is the only one of its kind, Mr. Chairman. I shall be glad to furnish a copy for the record.

Mr. BAILEY. Apparently we have copies of it. I had not noticed it. Proceed.

Mr. FLYNT. Each year for a number of years, the Office of the Secretary has prepared a comprehensive analysis of the activities of our Department, and of each of its constituent agencies, in the field of migrant labor. I have the latest of these publications with me and, with your permission, Mr. Chairman, would like to have it inserted in the record at the conclusion of my testimony.

Mr. BAILEY. Without objection, your request will be granted. Mr. FLYNT. Mr. Chairman, as I have indicated, we believe that State action is the key to improving educational opportunities for children of migrant agricultural workers. A number of States have acted to establish educational programs including summer school programs for these children; and other States have initiated planning toward this end. Among the States with active programs or plans are New Jersey, New York, Texas, Oregon, Ohio, Wisconsin, California, Colorado, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. At present 28 States have committees on migratory labor which are concerned with programs affecting every aspect of conditions common to migratory workers and their families. In addition to State action, there is growing concern and action on the part of local governments and private organizations.

The Office of Education is deeply interested in helping to provide leadership in meeting the educational needs of migrant workers and their families. We conceive of the Federal role as one of professional leadership and encouragement of State, local, and private programs. In making this role effective, it may well be that present activities should be expanded. We do not believe, however, that Federal assumption of the financial burden of providing education for these persons is a desirable approach to this problem. We are particularly opposed to direct Federal involvement in local educational organization and financing, as proposed in the bills before the committee. Except where the Federal Government acts as a local taxpayer-as in the federally impacted areas programs-we are convinced that the proper Federal relationship in education is with the States.

This concludes my prepared statement, Mr. Chairman. We will attempt to answer any questions the committee may have with respect to the problem before it.

Mr. BAILEY. My first question is in regard to an explanation of your last statement about excepting the federally affected areas. What are you doing for those migrant farmworkers in those federally affected districts, some 3,300 of them?

Mr. FLYNT. I think we are referring to the principle of Federal relationships. We are raising a question concerning this. With the exception of those cases where the Federal Government is, in essence, a local taxpayer, such as in the case of Public Law 875 and 874, we think our relationships should be directly with the States rather than with the local community, as provided in these two bills.

Mr. BAILEY. There was no evidence of any Federal activity or State activity in the situation I described at Bakersfield, Calif. Nobody seemed to be interested in that weed patch situation. It was unsanitary and unsatisfactory. Water had to be transported to the residents. Mr. FLYNT. The purport of the statement is not to indicate we believe there is any special concern with the migrant workers in the federally impacted area program, but dealing directly with the local school district in those areas is based on the fact that the Federal Government is, in effect, a local taxpayer.

We in the Office of Education believe-and I believe our colleagues in the Public Health Service share this view-that such activities as we conduct should be related to State leadership, which has the responsibility in this area.

Mr. BAILEY. Would it occur to the good doctor that maybe the Department has changed the basic objectives of Public Law 875 and 874, that when originated 10 years ago they were not supposed to be payments in lieu of taxes? Were they?

Mr. FLYNT. In recent years it has been the view of the administration, I believe, sir, that the Federal Government is, in essence, occupying the position of

Mr. BAILEY. That apparently seems to be the approach to it today, but at that time it was considered as reimbursement by the Federal Government for impacting the district. I guess you could draw the conclusion there that the Government was in a quasi-position of being a taxpayer at least.

There is another question or two that occurs to me in your testimony. What would be the attitude of the Department if the grants were made to the States so that your Department would not have to deal with the individual school districts throughout the Nation?

Mr. FLYNT. I cannot answer that conclusively, Mr. Chairman. I am sure it is a very important consideration here. I daresay that we would be obliged to say here, as we have in other present proposals for legislation, that we would not put as high a priority on this particular proposal as we do on our proposals for school construction and for construction of college facilities, which are our highest objectives at this time.

Mr. BAILEY. Would you give us the benefit of your information on these five demonstration centers that you mentioned, three of which have been completed. Just what is the nature of that program? Did that program grow out of this meeting such as the one you described in Phoenix, Ariz.?

Mr. FLYNT. No, sir; these programs grow out of our research program under Public Law 531, the Cooperative Research and Demonstration Act. These represent projects which have been going on for some years.

Mr. BAILEY. Would you mind giving us the information as to where they are located and some of the basic material?

Mr. FLYNT. Yes, sir. I will be glad to do so.

The first project which is listed in our program as project No. 042, is entitled "Educational Problems of Migrant Children." This project has been carried out under contract with Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Mich. It was designed to determine how many years of education migrant children have had, the number of schools attended each year, the regularity of attendance, the periods of withdrawal from school, the educational achievements of the children, and the attitudes toward education. This is one of the three projects which has been completed.

The next project is entitled "The Improvement of School Organization and Administration To Meet the Needs of Children of Migrant Farmworkers." That is project No. 307. It has been conducted under contract with the State department of education, Denver, Colo., which is one of the States which has done a great deal in this area.

In this project we are trying to find out five things; first, to identify existing obstacles in the education of migrant children; second, to identify the best methods of teaching such children; third, to find ways to integrate the educational program for migrant children with the total educational program; fourth, to establish better ways of recordkeeping in relation to these children; fifth, to investigate needed inservice training programs for teachers of migrant children.

Item No. 4 in this project represents one of the most difficult of all the problems faced in trying to tackle the education of these children, the inability to maintain a consistent record. They begin in Florida or in Texas and move northward. Unfortunately, people who live on the road have few archives, and recordkeeping for them is very difficult.

It has been very difficult to bring a child into a new system with any sort of basic record with him. It has been necessary frequently to test him orally or in writing to ascertain where he should be fitted into the scheme of things. This has taken a great deal of time.

One of the things we have worked very hard at is to get a kind of dossier that will follow the pupil and which can be either transported by the parents of the pupil or sent forward by mail, the latter method being preferable.

We have two projects with Florida State University, one of the States which is the home State of large numbers of migrant workers. The first of these is entitled "Late School Entrance and Children's Adjustment." The second is "Late School Entrance, Social Acceptance, and Children's School Achievement."

The major objectives of this project are:

First, to determine the effect of late school entrance, December to February 15, on the total social structure of the classroom and social status of the late entrants.

Second, to investigate the effect of teachers' attitudes on the personal-social adjustment of late entrants.

Third, to investigate the effects of late school entrance on the academic achievement and social acceptance of elementary school children. These projects have been completed and summarized.

The next project is one in connection with the University of Wisconsin at Madison, a study to determine an effective educational program for children of agricultural migratory workers in the State of

Wisconsin. The major objective of this program is to develop predictive procedures for the arrival of specific children in specific areas at specific times with enough degree of accuracy so that programs of education can be planned for them and await them upon their arrival.

Mr. BAILEY. I do not believe the folks up in Wisconsin agree with the position of the Department. I have a lengthy communication here from the State university wherein they speak very favorably of this legislation.

I expect to put it in the record of the hearings later on.

Before we leave this question of responsibility, what about the activities of the Department of Agriculture in the field of migratory labor?

When the Congress passes, at the suggestion of the Department of Agriculture, legislation affecting, let us say, migratory workers coming in from Mexico, we often refer to them as "wetbacks."

Do you think that situation impacts your school districts and there is a Government responsibility connected with that type of legislation? Mr. FLYNT. I think we feel, sir, there is no question about the impact.

Mr. BAILEY. Whose responsibility is it? Is it the responsibility

of the Government?

Mr. FLYNT. We do have an ongoing State and local system of education which is intended to take care of the children who are residents of the districts in which they live, permanently or otherwise.

I feel, as we have said in our testimony, that we ought to look to the States to take the first step in providing education for these children. We do feel that the Federal Government has an important responsibility.

Mr. BAILEY. What do you mean by the "first step"? You say in your presentation here this morning that you are basically opposed

to it.

Mr. FLYNT. I believe, Mr. Chairman, we stated that we thought the responsibility was that of the States and local communities, and such assistance rendered by the Federal Government should be in the form of professional leadership and establishment of patterns, but all actions should best be initiated by the States.

Mr. BAILEY. Would you be opposed to legislation which would provide grants to the States, to be passed on by your Department to the States for use in this field?

I am just asking you that question to find out what your basic reasoning was-whether it was the question of a balanced budget about which we hear a lot.

Mr. FLYNT. Well, as we have stated in the testimony, we believe there are some very important things that can be done with our present authority, which we are proceeding to do.

We have expended considerable money in our program of cooperative research.

As I have indicated, the Public Health Service of the Department has established a special unit to be concerned with the health of migrant workers. I cannot say in advance of a request that we would take a favorable posture concerning a proposal to make grants to the States.

I do feel, however, sir, that at this time we have two major pieces of legislation which would assist the school systems within the States and the higher institutions and that we feel they have highest priority and that anything which supports the entire program of education within the form of this

Mr. BAILEY. Let me say to you, Doctor, I am interested in some of the legislation you are talking about personally, particularly when you get into the field of classroom construction.

I notice the bill that Mrs. Green has introduced is different from the one that I tossed in the hopper, in that she would provide fellowships for the training of people to handle this problem.

Is there any thought on your part that, perhaps, our efforts at the present time should be more in the nature of material assistance rather than the idea of taking several years to train special teachers to handle these problems? That could not be done overnight, I am sure.

If you are talking about, as her bill provides, granting fellowships in that particular field, it is going to require some time before the people you are training would be available.

Now, would you suggest, just for the information of the other members of the subcommittee and the full committee, whether or not this legislation should be considered? What do you think of that plan? It came up in discussion before another subcommittee a few days ago on juvenile delinquency.

Mr. FLYNT. I think there is no question, Mr. Chairman, but that special educational, psychological, and sociological problems exist in relation to this group in the population. Also, special administrative problems exist. The flow of these people from their winter headquarters, frequently in Florida or in Texas, northward is very complex and a succeeding series of residences in differing types of communities makes a very serious impact on both the adults and the children.

It is true that it will take several years for a program aimed to prepare such leadership to take effect. On the other hand, there is no question that special studies need to be made of the psychological, educational, and health problems of these workers. I do not think that the States should await the findings of such studies, but it is very obvious we are up against a problem here that we have not yet been able to solve. These people group and regroup themselves as they move, and the children remain a few days or 2 weeks in one group and then the group splits and goes in a dozen different directions and the children are then exposed to another community. The attitude of the community and the teachers and the other schoolchildren, as I indicated in the wording of some of these research projects, is of very great importance.

In seven or eight States they have worked very hard to tackle the problem of bringing about a change of attitude on the part of the local population and the faculty and the schoolchildren.

There are undoubtedly some very long range problems here. There are also some very difficult administrative problems. The need to make some special studies, to conduct testing programs, I can say, sir, is obviously very important.

I think when we say that there are some things that we could do by expanding our own program, this is what we mean, such as for