It is significant to note that in 1962, when 1,412 students of the District entered 4-year colleges, the 7 high schools serving the poverty areas sent only 33 percent of their graduating classes to college, whereas 4 high schools in a more affluent portion of the District sent 64 percent of theirs. It is clear that this imbalance of percentages is a reflection of an imbalance of opportunity.

The eagerness of both students and parents from the lowest income bracket for a higher education has been revealed in the Upward Bound, or precollege program, in the District. This program, which we recently funded at Howard University with moneys from the Office of Economic Opportunity, is designed to introduce senior high school students from deprived backgrounds to a college experience.

As of February 18, this year, more than 500 applications had been received at Howard for their spring precollege program. The applicants were screened to meet the poverty-line criterion. Parents of young people who were rejected because they were a few dollars over the line have been exerting great pressure to have their sons and daughters in the program.

One hundred and twenty-seven students out of 165 enrolled in the precollege program at Howard University last summer are now in college. These students were selected for the program on the basis of meeting the poverty criterion and for noted potential rather than past performance. There surely is sufficient evidence of a desire on the part of the poor for a higher education if it is available at a reasonable cost.

We also believe that there are good employment opportunities for those with the right education. From a report of the U.S. Department of Labor of 1963, we learn that the openings for Negroes are expanding and improving in the District. I quote:

As a result of the changes which have already occurred and have absorbed previously existing reservoirs of unused skills among Negroes, and as a result of changes now taking place, it seems evident that young Negroes now entering high school or college and planning to enter the labor market in 3 or 4 years need not limit their aspirations because of past discriminatory practices. They may plan for a skilled job market in the area of about the same breadth and depth as may the young white students.

In discussions with school counselors and directors of the Neighborhood Youth Corps, it appears that a 2-year community college would meet a real need at the present time both as a terminal point in formal education for many, and as a steppingstone for others into a regular college program.

It is also believed that such a college should have some vocational departments to attract those who wish to gain vocational skills but are not interested in mere book learning.

Senator MORSE. I want to interrupt you a moment to stress that the point has been made, but one phase or facet of the community college program in most places is the vocational education division of the college. I have visited many of them and the whole trend is to see to it that the community college provides work training programs in the various crafts and skills so that the student graduating from the community college really has been fitted or job trained to take up his place in the community in one of the skilled trades, or as a technician, or as a dental aid or as various types of technicians have now been needed in a good many of our medical programs in the country connected with

health institutes and the like, to say nothing about the technicians that are needed to help the professionals in the profession of engineering and electronics.

Many people are missing this point, the relationship of the community college training program to professional training. I am glad you mentioned it.

Mr. LEE. Yes, Mr. Chairman. I think it is very important.

I heard much of the testimony here and I have not heard it stressed, but I do think that looking at it from our point of view in the war on poverty, this is an extremely important part of the curriculum available to students in the college.

Senator MORSE. I went to a community college in Coos Bay, Oreg., within the last 6 weeks. That is down in one of the heaviest lumbering areas of the State. I went through the vocational training part of the college and I was surprised but very pleased to see the cooperation that the college is receiving from the lumber interests of the State, including not only management but labor, in the development of a training program in preparing for the development of skilled technicians. in modern lumbering and the skills in the training of the most modern type of new equipment in the lumber industry.

Of course, it was just remarkable what is taking place in that industry, as has taken place, for example, in road-building engineering, when we think of the great difference in the skills required for roadbuilding today compared with when you and I were young men.

This is the type of vocational training that community colleges can serve, depending upon the economic needs of the general area in which they are located, and they vary from State to State.

Mr. LEE. Yes, sir.

In closing, Mr. Chairman, I wish to quote from the February NEA Journal a few words from Mr. Carl T. Rowan, an outstanding citizen of Washington, D.C. He wrote:

* * * it has become economically evident that higher education is the most fundamental investment, and that the only appropriate economic approach to it is not the question: Isn't the expense too much? But rather the salutary doubt: Is the investment really enough?

We subscribed to this statement and believe that public higher education will enable young people of good native intelligence to acquire technical and professional skills that will break the cycle of poverty by correcting the imbalance of opportunity in the District of Columbia. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

Senator MORSE. Thank you.

(The statement follows:)

STATEMENT OF FREDERICK B. LEE, PRESIDENT AND CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD, UNITED PLANNING ORGANIZATION

Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, the United Planning Organization is the coordinating agency for antipoverty and antijuvenile delinquency efforts in the District of Columbia.

One of the basic tenets of the war on poverty is a belief that if people are given the tools with which to improve their lives and shown the way to use these tools, we will have begun to win the battle. The United Planning Organization gives top priority to education in its programing to attack poverty in the Washington metropolitan area. The proposed legislation before you today which would establish a public community college and a public college of arts and sciences is an important part of the opportunity structure which must 60-755-66-20

be built if we are to overcome the problems of poverty which prevade the Nation's Capital.

It is important to remember in discussing the need for higher public education in the District that 90 percent of the enrollment in the public schools of the District of Columbia is Negro. A large percentage of these young people come from economically deprived homes and must struggle against the barrier of racial discrimination and of a limited education in the labor market. This puts two strikes against them. It is a wonder that so many succeed.

It is our belief that school dropouts and the unemployed or underemployed, produce the "social dynamite" that could blow up at any time. Conversely, we believe that equipping these same young people with the tools of as much education as they are capable of achieving will lead to better jobs, more settled homelife and a better society. It is for this reason that we wish to support any bill that would provide a public college in the District of Columbia.

There are nearly 4,000 graduates each year from the District of Columbia public secondary schools. Many of them will never get the education they need or want because they cannot afford it. In a survey conducted by the public schools among 2,800 seniors in 1962, over a third of those interviewed responded that they desired to go on to college, but would not be able to do so because of lack of finance.

The Committee appointed by President Kennedy to survey the need for a public system of higher education in the District of Columbia, discovered on a sampling of the class of 1964 that about 1,400 District secondary school graduates each year who are "college able" could be served by a public college.

The Office of Education predicts that there will be a 71-percent increase in students obtaining bachelors degrees 10 years hence. The projection of student enrollment in the District indicated that there will be 5,800 students graduating from high school in 1975. This numerical increase plus the growing pressure for higher education will conceivably give call for the placing of over 4,500 students in institutions of higher education by 1975.

It is significant to note that in 1962 when 1,412 students of the District entered 4-year colleges, the 7 high schools serving the poverty areas sent only 33 percent of their graduating classes to college. Whereas four high schools in a more affluent portion of the District sent 64 percent of theirs. It is clear that this imbalance of percentages is a reflection of an imbalance of opportunity.

The eagerness of both students and parents from the lowest income bracket for a higher education has been revealed in the upward bound, or precollege program, in the District. This program, which we recently funded at Howard University, with moneys from the Office of Economic Opportunity, is designed to introduce senior high school students from deprived backgrounds to a college experience. As of February 18, more than 500 applications had been received at Howard for their spring precollege program. The applicants were screened to meet the poverty line criterion. Parents of young people who were rejected because they were a few dollars over the line have been exerting considerable pressure to have their sons and daughters in the program.

One hundred twenty-seven students out of one hundred sixty-five enrolled in the precollege program at Howard University last summer are now in college. These students were selected for the program on the basis of meeting the poverty criterion and for noted potential, rather than past performance. There is surely sufficient evidence of a desire on the part of the poor for a higher education if it is available at a reasonable cost.

We also believe that there are good employment opportunities for those with the right education. From the report entitled "Employment in Metropolitan Washington," U.S. Department of Labor, 1963, we learn that openings for Negroes are expanding and improving in the District.

I quote:

"As a result of the changes which have already occurred and have absorbed previously existing reservoirs of unused skills among Negroes, and as a result of changes now taking place, it seems evident that young Negroes now entering high school or college and planning to enter the labor market in 3 or 4 years need not limit their aspirations because of past discriminatory practices. They may plan for a skilled job market in the area of about the same breadth and depth as may the young white students."

The five universities in the District and the District of Columbia Teachers College cannot or should not take care of this population. They are inadequate for dealing with the total demand for higher education for the following reasons: 1. The District of Columbia Teachers College has a program limited to those who express a desire to teach. They accept only 185 to 200 students from the area each year.

2. With exception of Howard University, the five universities in the District have practically no indigent students. This was evidenced in the work-study program sponsored under title 1-C of the Higher Education Act. There were only 77 students employed under this program in 1965–66, outside of Howard. On the Howard campus, 306 were found who qualified. However, 66 percent of these were from outside of the District.

Although we would desire the fuller use of the facilities of these universities in serving the need of the community, we believe that both the cost and the initial high academic achievement level demanded to compete in these universities will limit the number of economically deprived students to a token group. 3. All of the universities, including Howard University, consider themselves to be serving as national or international institutions. It would be unfair to any of them to involve them in an expansion program that would obligate them to take an overwhelming proportion of the local students, and to structure a program to meet their needs.

I would like to submit for the record statistical tables which show the population and fees of institutions of higher learning in the Washington area. These figures clearly indicate that only a small number of graduates of the District of Columbia school system now are attending colleges and universities in the area. The statistics also indicate the high tuition costs which are steadily increasing. In discussions with school counselors and directors of the Neighborhood Youth Corps, it appears that a 2-year community college would meet a real need at the present time both as a terminal point in formal education for many, and as a steppingstone for others into a regular college program. It is also believed that such a college should have some vocational departments to attract those who wish to gain vocational skills but are not interested in mere “book learning." The expressed desire for such a college immediately does not lessen the need for a 4-year college of arts and sciences. We wish to give our full support to the creation of such a liberal arts institution which might utilize some of the facilities of the District of Columbia Teachers College.

Both S. 293 and S. 1612 contain excellent provisions for the establishment of public colleges in the District of Columbia. However, in their procedures for selecting the Board of Higher Education, both point out the continuing problem of nonrepresentative government in the District of Columbia. Both bills provide for selection of the Board by those who are not responsible to the people of the city. Therefore, in the absence of home rule, we would suggest that this Board be elected by the people of the city rather than be appointed by anyone. If an elected Board of Higher Education is not possible, we would prefer the appointment procedure going through the District of Columbia Commissioners who at least have some direct relationship to the community.

In closing, I wish to quote from the February NEA Journal a few words from Carl T. Rowan, an outstanding citizen of Washington, D.C. He wrote:

“*** it has become economically evident that higher education is the most fundamental and necessary capital investment, and that the only appropriate economic approach to it is not the question: 'Isn't the expense too much? but rather the salutary doubt: 'Is the investment really enough?"

We subscribe to this statement and believe that public higher education will enable many young people of good native intelligence to acquire technical and professional skills that will break the cycle of poverty by correcting the imbalance of opportunity in the District of Columbia.

Population and fees of the District of Columbia institutions of higher learning

1 The estimates have been provided by the admissions offices where exact counts were not available. 2 There are several reasons for the difference in figures between columns 4 and 5.

3 Not available.

4 1967.

NOTE. (1) The two columns are freshmen classes of different years, (2) column 4 includes parochial and other private school students, (3) some of those counted in column 4 may have transferred into the District and given District address.

Senator MORSE. Mr. Rugh, do you have something to add?

Mr. RUGH. I just would like to add that a study has been made in the District on vocational educational needs by a private company and submitted to the District and it is available, which gives evidence of not only the need but opportunities that could be developed if they did have such a vocational unit.

Senator MORSE. Could we have a copy of that supplied for the record?

Mr. RUGH. I don't know, but we could bring one in.

Senator MORSE. Counsel, will you look into it? I don't know how large it is.

How voluminous is it?

Mr. RUGH. It is a book.

Senator MORSE. How voluminous?

Mr. LEE. It is about three-quarters of an inch thick, but we would be glad to supply it for the committee records.

Senator MORSE. We will have it as an appendix to the record. It will not be printed in the hearing. I do think it would be a good idea, though, to insert in the hearings as we identify the exhibit in the minutes of the hearing a brief summary of its conclusions and recommendations.

Mr. LEE. We would be glad to supply that to the committee. (Information requested is as follows:)

ABSTRACTIONS FROM EDUCATIONAL SPECIFICATIONS FOR THE VOCATIONAL-TECHNICAL-OCCUPATIONAL CENTER, WASHINGTON, D.C.

(Final Report 1965, Educational Planning Consultants, Odell MacConnell Associates, Palo Alto, Calif.)

PRESENT AND FUTURE ADEQUACY

The adequacy with which the vocational high schools are doing the job required of them gives some hint as to what steps are indicated to provide for