development of a less expensive and more efficient treatment for kidney failure; and isolation of viruses causing respiratory infections and production of vaccines to immunize against them. My fiscal 1967 budget provides increased funds for health research. If research makes major new breakthroughs in lifesaving discoveries, I will submit requests for necessary additional funds. My overall budget provides for this contingency. VI. TO MEET SPECIAL HEALTH PROBLEMS 1. Mental retardation We have begun to ease the tragic burden of the mentally retarded and their families. By construction of research and service facilities, and by support of State programs, the Federal Government helps combat this dread handicap. We shall continue our increasing attack on this problem. It deserves the concern and attention of our most able specialists. Therefore, I intend to appoint a Committee on Mental Retardation to assess our progress, to seek out new and better ways to cope with this terrible disability, and to recommend a long-range and comprehensive plan of action. 2. Nutrition for the needy It is hard to teach a hungry child. This fact, known to parents and teachers alike, underlies the school lunch program throughout the Nation. This year 18 million schoolchildren will enjoy lunches prepared and served in their schools under this program. Yet too many children still fail to get a good lunch even though the cost is low. Some cannot afford the 25- to 35-cent lunch charge. Others in low-income districts go to schools which lack lunch facilities. Demonstration programs conducted in poverty areas in Colorado and North Carolina provided lunches this year at sharply reduced rates. The results were amazing. Virtually all the children purchased the school lunch-less than one-third had done so before. The children were more alert and interested in learning. The absentee rate fell by as much as 37 percent. School dropouts were reduced. Too little of the Federal assistance in the school lunch program has been directed toward children who need it most. Too much of our subsidy, particularly in the special milk program, goes to children who already get a federally supported school lunch, including milk, and whose parents can afford to pay for additional milk. I am submitting to the Congress the Child Nutrition Act of 1966 to redirect our efforts to provide food to those who need it most. The act will extend the school lunch program to more needy children and give greater flexibility in providing low cost or no cost meals; assist schools serving low-income districts to acquire kitchen and lunchroom facilities; provide pilot school breakfast programs for those children who start the day hungry; direct the special milk program to those schools without food service, to schools serving children from low-income families, and to needy schoolchildren at whatever school they attend; start demonstration summer programs to provide food service for needy children at child-care centers and playgrounds; and help State educational agencies strengthen their staffs to improve child nutrition programs. I am requesting $50 million from the Congress for programs designed to provide adequate nutrition for disadvantaged children. This money is an addition to the $329 million in cash and commodities already included in the budget for school nutrition programs. The total Federal program of $379 million is a major redirection of our child nutrition efforts to children who otherwise would grow up hungry, suffer the diseases that come from being ill nourished, and lack the energy so essential to learning. No child in an affluent America should be without an adequate diet. The new program will move us far toward that goal. But it will not do the job alone. I am directing the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, in cooperation with the Secretary of Agriculture and the Director of the Office of Economic Opportunity, to examine means by which the benefits of sound nutrition can be extended to every child who needs our help. We now know that among elderly Americans, a poor diet is a root cause of poor health. It adds to the burden of our hospitals and health manpower. It contributes unnecessary misery to the burdens of old age. I have directed the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare to initiate a special food service program at multipurpose centers authorized by the Older Americans Act of 1965. Local organizations will be able to offer balanced, nutritious meals to the elderly-without charge or at reduced prices to those who are in need. 3. Alcoholism The alcoholic suffers from a disease which will yield eventually to scientific research and adequate treatment. Even with the present limited state of our knowledge, much can be done to reduce the untold suffering and uncounted waste caused by this affliction. I have instructed the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare to appoint an Advisory Committee on Alcoholism; establish in the Public Health Service a center for research on the cause, prevention, control, and treatment of alcoholism; develop an education program in order to foster public understanding based on scientific fact; and work with public and private agencies on the State and local level to include this disease in comprehensive health programs. 4. Family planning We have a growing concern to foster the integrity of the family, and the opportunity for each child. It is essential that all families have access to information and services that will allow freedom to choose the number and spacing of their children within the dictates of individual conscience. In the fiscal 1967 budget, I have requested a sizable increase in funds available for research, training, and services in this field. The National Institute for Child Health and Human Development will expand its own research and its grant program to study human reproduction. The Children's Bureau and the Office of Economic Opportunity will support family planning to the maternal and infant care programs in local communities when requested. State agencies will be aided by Federal welfare funds to provide family planning services to mothers. EDUCATION I have proposed a total Federal investment in education and training during the coming year in excess of $10 billion-a threefold increase since 1961. Our education programs must be administered wisely and well. Shortly after passage of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, I directed that the Office of Education be reorganized to carry out its expanded responsibilities more effectively and efficiently. This reorganization has now been completed. In addition, we established the new post of Assistant Secretary for Education in the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare to strengthen program coordination throughout the Government. The Congress has already put this Nation on the path toward the achievement of goals to 1. extend special educational help to 12 million disadvantaged and handicapped children; 2. eliminate illiteracy within a decade; 3. bring public library services to 15 million more Americans; 4. reduce by half the rate of high school dropouts over the next 5 years; 5. guarantee the opportunity for education beyond high school on the basis of ability to learn, rather than ability to pay; and 6. provide college building and facilities to meet the needs of 9 million students expected by 1975. Full educational opportunity for every citizen requires that we build on the beginnings we have already made. I recommend measures to expand the Head Start program for preschool children; to strengthen the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965; to expand Federal assistance to higher education; and I. TO EXPAND THE HEAD START PROGRAM FOR PRESCHOOL CHILDREN Few programs have had the visible success of Operation Head Start. The disadvantaged children who have benefited from this program are already entering first grade-with new confidence in themselves and greater eagerness to learn. I have requested funds almost to double the Head Start program during the coming year to insure full year programs for 210,000 children; and summer programs for 500,000 children." This marks a significant step in providing greatly expanded preschool assistance for 5-year-olds from disadvantaged homes, and summer nursery programs for 3- and 4-year-olds. II. TO STRENGTHEN THE ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION ACT OF 1965 Though funded only 4 months ago, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 has already begun to bring its benefits to the Nation: Special help is being provided the disadvantaged-remedial teaching, health and food services, augmented teaching, and counseling staffs. More books-interesting and up to date-have begun to appear on school library shelves. New approaches to old problems are being tried; instruction for the student extends beyond the classroom-to museums, hospitals, factories. Regional education laboratories are being developed to stimulate new techniques of teaching and learning in our schools. State educational agencies are strengthening their staffs and assuming greater responsibilities. Educational deprivation cannot be overcome in a year. And quality cannot be achieved overnight. I propose that the Elementary and Secondary Education Act be extended for 4 years. My budget includes increased funds for each title of the act. to raise from $2,000 to $3,000 the family income formula for allocating aid for education of the disadvantaged commencing in fiscal 1968; and to earmark additional funds for child of American Indians and migrant workers. Careful study of the "incentive grant" provision of title I shows that payments would be made to many districts unrelated to need. I therefore recommend repeal of the "incentive grant" provisions of title I in order to focus Federal aid on basic grants to more than 20,000 local school districts. Too many schools in urban and rural slums are ancient and in disrepair. Obsolete schools aggravate the problem of eliminating de facto segregation in our northern communities, thus depriving children of full educational opportunities. There is a pressing need for long-range, community-wide planning to bring innovation and imagination in school construction. I propose that $5 million be added to title III to help communities in planning school construction to encourage innovation and to deal with obsolescence, overcrowding, and special problems such as de facto segregation. A recently completed study of the federally impacted area program, requested by Congress, has concluded that certain provisions should be revised. I recommend revision of the existing law to require school districts to absorb a uniform and fair share of the burden of educating children in federally affected districts; to base payments on school expenditures in local districts rather than on National or State average per-pupil cost; and to eliminate eligibility for Federal impacted area assistance in those cases where Government property is leased to private enterprises that pay local taxes. III. HIGHER EDUCATION Today, young people are seeking advanced learning in greater numbers than ever before; 1,430,000 new students will enter our colleges next September-more than the total enrollment only 20 years ago. Our colleges and universities must keep pace with this growing influx of young Americans. And the Federal Government must be prepared to continue its assistance. I recommend extension of the Higher Education Facilities Act for 3 more years, with authorization of $458 million for construction grants for fiscal 1967. In a society that is growing more complex, advanced training is essential; 640,000 students will enroll in universities and institutions across the Nation at the postgraduate level next fall. This number will grow by another quarter million in the next 5 years. I recommend that the grant program for graduate facilities be continued, and I propose that $200 million be made available for loans to build both undergraduate and graduate facilities. In addition, I will soon send to Congress legislation to permit more effective use of Federal resources in certain loan programs by applying credit from private financial institutions. This will make possible an additional $100 million for academic facility loans in fiscal 1967. One out of every four of our institutions of higher learning is not good enough to get accreditation. Congress recognized this need last year by providing assistance to developing colleges. I recommend that title III of the Higher Education Act of 1965 be continued for 2 years, with its authorization increased from $5 million to $80 million next year. By June, 890,000 students at 1,700 institutions will have borrowed $800 million to invest in college education under the student loan program of the National Defense Education Act. Last year, Congress expanded the opportunity for student loans by establishing a subsidized program through the Nation's private banking system. Together with opportunity grants and the work-study programs, there now exists a wide range of student-assistance programs to help finance higher education. To increase loan funds available to students who want college educations, I recommend the conversion of the direct loan program to a program in which loans will be made from funds provided by the private capital market, with the Government subsidizing these loans. The teacher "forgiveness" features for students eligible under the national defense education program will be retained. I am proposing an orderly transition to the new student loan program so that no eligible student will be deprived of the needed financial assistance, and I will ask for the necessary funds to accomplish this purpose. I also recommend that the "forgiveness" provision be extended to medical personnel who will settle in rural areas where the doctor shortage is most critical. There are more than 12,000 unfilled vacancies for qualified social workers, at a time when we need their skills more than ever before. These workers are important to the success of our poverty, health, and education programs. |