Our proposals, therefore, are developed from the basic premise that American education is, and must remain, primarily a local, State, and private responsibility.

The Federal role is to encourage and assist-not to control or supplant-local and private effort. It is a role of leadership in pointing to critical national needs and in offering incentives for greater local, State, and private efforts to meet these needs. In this way we serve both the interests of the people as a whole, and the interests of the people as individuals and as citizens in their local communities.

HISTORICAL PRECEDENTS

I would like to emphasize that this is not a new role for the Federal Government in education. The current proposals simply continue a policy which has been manifest throughout our history-Federal action in the national interest to help meet specific national needs in education.

For example, as early as 1787 the Continental Congress made provisions for setting aside millions of acres of land to foster the development of education and expressed the national interest in education with this historic declaration:

* knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the maintenance of education shall be forever encouraged. The beginning of Federal aid to land-grant colleges nearly a century ago, under the leadership of Abraham Lincoln, and the inauguration of the vocational education program some 40 years ago, were classic expressions of an active and continuing Federal interest in education.

FEDERAL CONTROL AN IMAGINARY DANGER

One other point is crystal clear. In the land-grant college program, in vocational education, in aid to veterans' education, and in other programs, too, it has been demonstrated repeatedly that the Federal Government can respond to specific national needs in education without Federal control or domination.

Any fear that the administration's current proposals would lead to Federal control of education is a groundless fear of an imaginary danger. In every feasible way these proposals are designed to strengthen, not to weaken, State and local responsibility.

Surely the imaginary danger of Federal control should not stifle effective action to help our schools and colleges meet a real danger to the freedom of all of us. For it is no exaggeration to say that the security of this country in the years ahead may well depend upon action now to strengthen American education.

The administration's proposals, therefore, are designed to serve as a stimulus in helping State and local school systems and independent institutions meet certain national security needs more quickly and more fully.

The Federal funds proposed here, coupled with a related expansion in educational activities of the National Science Foundation, would amount to about $225 million the first year and more than $1 billion over the next 4 years.

These programs deal with focal areas in education and high priority needs of our times; while they would yield far-reaching benefits, they would, of course, be a relatively small part of total public and private expenditures for education, now running well over $16 billion annually.

LONG-TERM BYPRODUCTS

While these proposals are designed to meet certain specific and immediate needs, the long-term byproducts may well be even more important than these immediate benefits. Perhaps the greatest need in American education today is a new emphasis on the pursuit of learning, a new esteem for academic teaching and academic accomplish

ment.

These intangible but fundamental objectives cannot be obtained, of course, by Federal decree-or, for that matter, by State and local decrees. I believe, however, that the legislation proposed here, through which the Federal Government would give recognition and support to basic scholastic achievement, would help develop in this country new incentives and encouragement, and new prestige, for intellectual attainments.

I believe they would help develop a better environment and atmosphere for more emphasis on fundamental academic subjects and higher academic standards.

The program deals specifically with five important problems.

1. WASTE OF TALENT

The failure of large numbers of our ablest youth to pursue their educational opportunities is a shortcoming in American education which critically affects the national interest and national security.

Various studies have shown repeatedly that, each year, many young people with great potential ability either drop out of high school before graduation or, after graduation, do not go on to college.

Estimates are that each year some 200,000 or so young people with high ranking in their classes-in the upper 25 or 30 percent are lost to advanced education in this way.

The need for highly trained manpower, not just to advance scientific research, but to man our commerce and industry, to staff our schools, and to fill our public offices, grows greater with each step forward into the complex world of tomorrow.

This is a national need. It is a problem which requires a national perspective and a nationwide effort. It would be unrealistic to expect each local school district in America to act to meet this national need as fully and as promptly as today's circumstances require.

It is, in our view, a responsibility of the Federal Government to direct vigorous attention to such national problems, and to provide incentives to meet the challenge they present. Our proposals would reduce the waste of needed talent by encouraging earlier and better identification of potential abilities and improved counseling in the development of these abilities, and by providing Federal scholarships as a further incentive to the ablest students who need financial help.

A. EARLY IDENTIFICATION OF ABILITIES

Our program would provide 50-50 matching funds to the States to encourage improved and more systematic testing to identify the abilities and aptitudes of students at an earlier stage in their education.

The testing devices to be used, and the precise manner and time of testing, would be determined by the responsible State and local authorities. This would preserve and strengthen that autonomy which is the key to long-term educational vitality. It would encourage practices best suited to local needs.

A number of studies have shown that testing for aptitudes and potential abilities, in addition to the regular measurement of achievement in the classroom through grades alone, can be very valuable in guiding students into the educational activities best suited to the full development of their capacities. And yet such testing systems are now spotty and inadequate in many areas.

The proposed Federal grants also could be used to help States and local school systems maintain better cumulative records on their students. Such records also are very important in the identification of potential abilities.

B. IMPROVED COUNSELING

Early identification of potential talents yields full benefits to the student and to society only when this information is put to use in assisting the student in selecting courses of study best suited to his real interests and abilities.

It has been demonstrated that skilled counseling services can help students develop their capacities more fully. Through these services able students can be encouraged to remain in school, to work harder in basic academic courses, and to prepare for college.

An experimental study in New York State showed that 27 percent of the students who had the benefit of counseling services made honor grades, while only 10 percent made honor grades in a selected similar group which received no organized counseling.

Further, 53 percent of the students with counseling services went on to college, while only 35.6 percent of those without counseling services sought a higher education.

Despite the obvious benefits of good counseling, today there is a serious shortage of skilled counselors. Our colleges are graduating only about half as many counselors as local schools are requesting. And only about one-third of the counselors now employed meet the professional standards that most States have established. Many regular classroom teachers could also benefit from training in counseling and guidance.

The administration's proposals, therefore, provide funds to the States on a 50-50 matching basis, for the strengthening and improvement of State and local school guidance programs, according to general plans worked out by each State.

These funds could be used to help employ additional counselors, to give training in skilled counseling, and related purposes.

STATE ADMINISTRATION OF COUNSELING SERVICE

Senator SMITH. Mr. Secretary, I would like to ask you this: Do you intend to leave to the States the working out of the counseling system? You have not indicated what the role of the Federal Government would be in this.

Secretary FOLSOM. They can work it out with the State and local districts.

We believe that this program for the early identification and more effective counseling of able youth will do much to reduce the Nation's appalling waste of human talent. We recognize, however, that even though these proposals go straight to the heart of the dropout problem, they must be accompanied by a further provision. Many of the able youth now being lost to education, and who would be identified and encouraged to further education under this program, will face a serious financial obstacle to higher education.

10,000 NEW FEDERAL SCHOLARSHIPS ANNUALLY

Therefore, to encourage these youngsters to make the most of themselves, we have recommended the provision of some 10,000 new Federal scholarships a year for 4 years, to help get able students past this basic obstacle to their higher education.

The scholarships would be awarded on the basis of need nad merit by State scholarship commissions. In making the awards, preference would be given to students with good high school preparation in, or aptitude for, science and mathematics.

Students would be free to choose their own course of study and their own higher educational institution.

The recipients of scholarships, and other high school graduates who excel in scholastic achievement but do not need financial help to go to college, would be awarded appropriate certificates by the Commissioner of Education in recognition of their academic achievement. In determining the proposed level of Federal funds for scholarships, we have given careful consideration to two factors.

We believe it is important to provide enough scholarships so that the ablest students who need help will feel that they have a real chance to get it; but we believe it is also important that the number of Federal scholarships should not be so large as to discourage increased assistance from State, local, and private sources.

The Federal program, in fact, should serve as a stimulus-the testing and counseling phases would help identify deserving students and demonstrate the need for expanded local and private aid.

The Federal program should not be regarded as simply an effort to get more students in college generally.

Rather, it is designed to meet the most urgent priority needs, to provide incentives and assistance, to prevent the loss or waste of talent that results when very able students stop their education tragically early.

2. MORE AND BETTER TEACHING OF SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS

The second major problem to which the administration's proposals are directed is the need to expand and improve the teaching of science and mathematics in the Nation's public schools.

This is a compelling requirement of national security today.

In many ways the need for action in these fields now is similar to the need for action to provide a stimulus to training in trades, industry, and agriculture 40 years ago.

The enactment of the Vocation Education Act during World War I, in response to that need, sets the pattern for the proposed action

now.

RUSSIAN SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS

The Chairman of the President's Committee on Scientists and Engineers, in transmitting the Committee's second interim report to the President, recently summarized our situation in these words:

Today, Russia has more scientists, engineers, and technicians than the United States, and is graduating more than twice as many each year. Competent American observers report that in certain fields, Russian scientific work is comparable in quality to that done here. Certainly the manpower and effort devoted to research and to the education of future scientists exceeds our own. The rate of Russian progress in most scientific fields is so rapid that, unless we broaden and strengthen our own efforts, there is little question of Soviet superiority 5 or 10 years from now.

Discussing the same problem, President Eisenhower said in his historic speech at Oklahoma City last November:

* according to my scientific advisers this is for the American people the most critical problem of all.

My scientific advisers place this problem above all other immediate tasks of producing missiles, of developing new techniques in the armed services. We need scientists in the 10 years ahead. They say we need them by thousands more than we are now presently planning to have.

The Federal Government can deal with only part of this difficulty, but it must and will do its part ***

(See full text of the President's speech, p. 1357 of the Appendix.) The interest of the Nation in science and its essential base, mathematics, has, of course, been greatly stimulated in recent months by reports of technological and scientific progress in the Soviet Union, as well as by reports of the strong emphasis given to science and mathematics in Soviet schools.

The Russians report that graduates of their 10-year school systemand they report 111⁄2 million graduates in 1956-had 5 to 6 times the hours of required instruction in math and science as are generally required in many American schools.

Our efforts in the teaching of science and mathematics, however, should be governed by our own needs and not by an effort to imitate the U.S. S. R.

While some schools offer good instruction in these fields, it is clear that on the whole we are failing to keep pace, not only with the need for more professional scientists and engineers, but with the increasing importance of science and technology to our whole society.

Basic high-school courses in science are more and more essential to a well-rounded education for today's world, regardless of the career pursued.

EXAMPLES OF UNITED STATES NEGLECT

Let me cite a few indications of our neglect:

There is a serious shortage of science and mathematic teachers. A study of teachers in three states indicated that only about one-third of those teaching science and mathematics had majored in those subjects in college.