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 five years;

5. Guarantee the opportunity for education beyond high school on the basis of ability to learn, rather than ability to pay;

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

to improve the nation's libraries.

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 ensure:

full year programs for 210,000 children

summer programs for 500,000 children.

This marks a significant step in providing greatly expanded preschool assistance for five 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 four 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 four years.

My budget includes increased funds for each title of the Act.

In addition, I propose that coverage of the Act be enlarged—

to raise from $2000 to $3000 the family income formula for allocating aid for education of the disadvantaged commencing in fiscal 1968.

to earmark additional funds for children 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” provision 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;

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 twenty 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 three 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 post graduate level next fall. This number will grow by another quarter million in the next five 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 two years, with its authorization increased from $5 million to $30 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.

A Task Force on Social Work Manpower and Education has just completed an extensive study of the problem. I have asked the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare to consult with educational leaders and other specialists and to submit recommendations to me to overcome this shortage in the ranks of our social workers.

IV. TO IMPROVE THE NATION'S LIBRARIES

Those who do not read are not much better off than those who cannot read. More than 100 million Americans have inadequate public library services. More than 15 million have none at all.

A library must be a living institution with trained staff and funds to obtain new books, periodicals, films, records and other material. As the boundaries of learning are pushed back, our need for store

houses of knowledge grows greater. They offer man his link with the past and his vision of the future.

Most public libraries in the United States are poorly equipped to perform this vital role.

I recommend that Congress extend the Library Services and Construction Act for five more years, authorizing $57.5 million for Fiscal

1967.

DEPARTMENT OF THE PEOPLE

Through the programs entrusted to its care, the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare exercises continuing concern for the social well-being of all our people. Already, as I have indicated in this message, it has become possible to set ambitious goals for the future.

To improve our ability to chart our progress, I have asked the Secretary to establish within his office the resources to develop the necessary social statistics and indicators to supplement those prepared by the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Council of Economic Advisers. With these yardsticks, we can better measure the distance we have come and plan for the way ahead.

In health and education, we build with a double purpose: to meet today's needs, and to match tomorrow's hopes.

We look toward the time when every disease which need not happen will not happen.

when every citizen can confidently expect care-competent, convenient care-if he is ill or injured.

when every American receives the education and training he wants to enrich his life and fulfill his hopes.

With pain and ignorance no longer such fearsome enemies, our people will find a new freedom. Our society will be great as never before.

It is too early for self-congratulations. We must continue to plan and act. We march in a campaign which can have no retreats, no truce, no end: only new victories.

The President's Remarks Upon Signing the "Cold War GI Bill.” March 3, 1966

Members of the Cabinet, distinguished Members of the Congress, invited guests, ladies and gentleman:

During World War II when President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the first Veterans' Readjustment Act, he stated on the occasion of that signing, "This law gives emphatic notice to the men and women of our Armed Forces that the American people never intend to let them down."

That first GI bill, and later the Korean GI bill, brought, out of the hardship of war, hope for all of our American service people. They returned home to find not just gratitude, but concrete help in getting a fresh start with educational assistance, with medical care, with guarantees that permitted them to buy homes to live in.

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They found opportunity which they used to enrich themselves and to enrich the Nation.

As we meet here today in this historic East Room and look around and see our friends gathered, we see the results of that first legislation. One hundred and sixteen Members of the House of Representatives, in our Congress, received training under the GI bills, as did 11 United States Senators, 12 of the Governors of our States, 3 members of the President's Cabinet, 1 Justice of the Supreme Court, 6 of our astronauts, and 5 of the President's Special Assistants here in the White House.

The first two GI bills cost $21 billion. Our economists now estimate they resulted in a return of some $60 billion in Federal taxes for that $21 billion invested.

The educational level of World War II and Korean war veterans averages about 2 years above the level of nonveterans. This difference exists primarily because of what the GI bills were able to do.

We made the most promising investment that a nation can make, an investment in the talent and the ambition of our citizens. The return on that investment has doubled and has redoubled ever since.

Today we come here in a time of new testing. Today, by signing a new Veterans' Readjustment Act, that was authored in the Senate by my colleague and friend of many years, Senator Yarborough, and reported in the House by Chairman Teague, with the unanimous support of his committee, we are reaffirming President Roosevelt's pledge of 22 years ago. We are saying to the brave Americans who serve us in uniform, in camps and bases, in villages and jungles, that your country is behind you; that we support you; that you serve us in time of danger.

To say this does not mean that all Americans agree on everything that is done or on every policy or on every commitment. But it does mean that once that policy is established, once that commitment is made, once that pledge is given, we support fully the young men who are the spearhead of that policy.

The Congress has passed this legislation. It passed it without a single dissenting vote. In doing so, it said: We will support these men who are defending our freedom to debate, who are joining in a most historic protest for their country-a protest against tyranny, a protest against aggression, and a protest against misery.

The budget I sent to Congress this year resulted from a very careful study of the Nation's resources. My Cabinet officers brought to my home in Texas, where I was recuperating from an operation, budget requests that they had gone over very carefully that amounted to $130 billion. They felt that they could not reduce beyond this amount. It was my sad duty to bring those requests in line with what I thought our resources were and what I thought the Congress would approve. We reduced them down to a little under $113 billion.

Of that $113 billion, over $10 billion $10.2 billion to be exact-will go this year to education and training. When I became President in fiscal year 1964, we were spending $4,750 million. Although I have been in the Presidency a little over 2 years, we have more than doubled the amount that we are spending for education and training, from $4.75 billion to $10.2 billion, from fiscal 1964 to fiscal 1967.