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next man's. But today, lack of formal education is likely to mean low wages, frequent unemployment, and a home in an urban or rural slum. Poverty has many roots but the taproot is ignorance:

Poverty is the lot of two-thirds of the families in which the family head has had 8 years or less of schooling.

Twenty percent of the youth aged 18 to 24 with an eighth-grade education or less are unemployed-four times the national average. Just as ignorance breeds poverty, poverty all to often breeds ignorance in the next generation:

Nearly half the youths rejected by Selective Service for educational deficiency have fathers who are unemployed or else working in unskilled and low-income jobs.

Fathers of more than one-half of the draft rejectees did not complete the eighth grade.

The burden on the Nation's schools is not evenly distributed. Lowincome families are heavily concentrated in particular urban neighborhoods or rural areas. Faced with the largest educational needs, many of these school districts have inadequate financial resources. This imbalance has been increased by the movement of high income families from the center of cities to the suburbs and their replacement by low-income families from rural areas:

The five States with the lowest incomes spend only an average of $276 per pupil, less than half the average of the five highest income States.

Despite a massive effort, our big cities generally spend only about two-thirds as much per pupil as their adjacent suburbs.

In our 15 larger cities, 60 percent of the 10th-grade students from poverty neighborhoods drop out before finishing high school. This is a national problem. Federal action is needed to assist the States and localities in bringing the full benefits of education to children of low-income families.

Assistance will be provided

on the basis of census data showing the distribution of low income families among the counties or school districts within States.

through payments made to States for distribution to school districts.

With the assurance that the funds will be used for improving the quality of education in schools serving low income areas.

On the condition that Federal funds will not be used to reduce State and local fiscal efforts.

For the benefit of all children within the area served, including those who participate in shared services or other special educational projects.

B. SCHOOL LIBRARY RESOURCES AND INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS

I recommend legislation to authorize Federal grants to States to assist in the purchase of books for school libraries and for student use, to be made available to children in public and private nonprofit elementary and secondary schools.

Thomas Carlyle once said:

All that mankind has done, thought, gained, or been: it is lying as in magic preservation in the pages of books.

Yet our school libraries are limping along:

Almost 70 percent of the public elementary schools have no libraries. Eighty-four percent lack librarians to teach children the value of learning through good books.

Many schools have an average of less than one-half book per child.

To meet the accepted standards for library materials would require a fourfold increase in current expenditures in our major cities.

The explosion of knowledge and the rapid revision of curriculums in the schools has created new demands for school textbooks. The obsolete text can suffocate the learning process. Yet the cost of purchasing textbooks at increasing prices puts a major obstacle in the path of education, an obstacle that can and must be eliminated.

C. SUPPLEMENTARY EDUCATIONAL CENTERS AND SERVICES

I recommend a program of Federal grants for supplementary education centers and services within the community.

We think of schools as places where youth learns, but our schools also need to learn.

The educational gap we face is one of quality as well as quantity. Exciting experiments in education are underway, supported by the National Science Foundation, by the Office of Education and other Government agencies, and by private philanthropic foundations. Many of our children have studied the new math. There are highly effective ways of teaching high school physics, biology, chemistry, and foreign languages.

We need to take full advantage of these and other innovations. Specialists can spark the interest of disadvantaged students. Remedial reading courses open up new vistas for slow learners. Gifted students can be brought along at a faster pace.

Yet such special educational services are not available in many communities. A limited local tax base cannot stand the expense. Most individual schools are not large enough to justify the services. The supplementary center can provide such services as

special courses in science, foreign languages, literature, music, and art.

programs for the physically handicapped and mentally retarded.

instruction in the sciences and humanities during the summer for economically and culturally deprived children.

special assistance after regular school hours.

common facilities that can be maintained more efficiently for a group of schools than for a single school; laboratories, libraries, auditoriums, and theaters.

a system by which gifted persons can teach part-time to provide scarce talents.

a means of introducing into the school system new courses, instructional materials, and teaching practices.

a way of tapping the community's extracurricular resources for the benefit of students; museums, concert and lecture programs, and industrial laboratories.

Within each community, public and private nonprofit schools and agencies will cooperate to devise the plan and administer the program for these supplementary centers. Their services should be adapted to meet the pressing needs of each locality.

D. REGIONAL EDUCATION LABORATORIES

I recommend the establishment under the Cooperative Research Act of regional educational laboratories which will undertake research, train teachers, and implement tested research findings.

I further recommend amendments to the act to

broaden the types of research organizations now eligible for educational projects.

train educational research personnel.

provide grants for research, development of new curriculums, dissemination of information, and implementation of educational innovations.

support construction of research facilities and the purchase of research equipment.

Under auspices of the National Science Foundation, educators have worked with scientists, including Nobel laureates, to develop courses which capture the excitement of contemporary science. They have prepared totally new instructional materials-laboratory equipment, text books, teachers' guides, films, supplementary reading, and examinations. After testing, they are made available to public and private schools.

We need to extend our research and development-to history, literature, and economics; to art and music; to reading, writing, and speaking; to occupational, vocational, and technical education. We need to extend it to all stages of learning-preschool, elementary and secondary schools, college and graduate training.

Regional laboratories for education offer great promise. They draw equally upon educators and the practitioners in all fields of learning— mathematicians, scientists, social scientists, linguists, musicians, artists, and writers. They help both to improve curriculums and to train teachers.

E. STRENGTHENING STATE EDUCATIONAL AGENCIES

I recommend a program of grants to State educational agencies. State leadership becomes increasingly important as we seek to improve the quality of elementary and secondary education.

We should assist the States by strengthening State departments of education in their efforts to

provide consultative and technical assistance for local school districts and local school leadership.

formulate long-range plans.

expand educational research and development.

improve local and State information about education.

identify emerging educational problems.

provide for the training of State and local education personnel.

conduct periodic evaluation of educational programs.
promote teacher improvement courses.

These new programs will substantially augment community resources in the war against proverty. As provided by sections 611 and 612 of the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, I will see that the new efforts are kept in step with our other antiproverty efforts.

In those localities where the community has undertaken a community action program under the Economic Opportunity Act, the community agency should participate in the planning of these new educational programs and in their coordination with ongoing and developing antipoverty efforts.

Enactment of these proposals for elementary and secondary education is of utmost urgency. I urge early and favorable consideration by the Congress.

III. HIGHER EDUCATION

Higher education is no longer a luxury, but a necessity.

Programs enacted by Congress in the past have contributed greatly to strengthening our colleges and universities. These will be carried forward under my 1966 budget, which includes

An additional $179 million to assist construction of college classrooms, libraries, and laboratories.

An additional $25 million for 4,500 more graduate fellowships to overcome college teaching shortages.

An additional $110 million to further basic research in the universities; to provide science fellowships and to promote science education.

But we need to do more:

To extend the opportunity for higher education more broadly among lower and middle income families.

To help small and less well developed colleges improve their programs.

To enrich the library resources of colleges and universities.

To draw upon the unique and invaluable resources of our great universities to deal with national problems of poverty and community development.

1. Scholarships.

A. ASSISTANCE TO STUDENTS

I recommend a program of scholarships for needy and qualified high school graduates to enable them to enter and to continue in college.

Loans authorized by the National Defense Education Act currently assist nearly 300,000 college students. Still the following conditions exist:

Each year an estimated 100,000 young people of demonstrated ability fail to go on to college because of lack of money. Many thousands more from low-income families must borrow heavily to meet college costs.

Only one out of three young people from low-income families. attend college compared with four out of five from high-income families.

For many young people from poor families loans are not enough to open the way to higher education.

Under this program, a special effort will be made to identify needy students of promise early in their high school careers. The scholarship will serve as a building block, to be augmented by work-study and other support, so that the needy student can chart his own course in higher studies.

My 1966 budget provides sufficient funds for grants to help up to 140,000 students in the first year.

2. Expansion of Work-Study Opportunity and Guaranteed Low

Interest Loans.

I recommend

That the existing college work-study program be made available to more students and that authority for the program be transferred to the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.

That a part of the cost of interest payments on guaranteed private loans to college students be paid by the Federal Govern

ment.

Going to college is increasingly expensive. A student must pay nearly $2,400 a year in a private college and about $1,600 in a public college. These costs may rise by one-third over the next decade.

Two aids should be extended to meet the heavy costs of college education. First, the existing work-study program should be expanded for students from low-income families and extended to students from middle-income families. Under this program the Federal Government pays 90 percent of the wages earned by students on useful projects. This will enable a student to earn on the average of $450 during a school year, and up to $500 more during the summer.

Second, many families cannot cover all of college expenses on an out-of-pocket basis. We should assure greater availability of private credit on reasonable terms and conditions. This can best be done by paying part of interest cost of guaranteed loans made by private lenders a more effective, fairer, and far less costly way of providing assistance than the various tax credit devices which have been proposed.

B. AID TO SMALLER COLLEGES

I recommend that legislation be enacted to strengthen less developed colleges.

Many of our smaller colleges are battling for survival. About 10 percent lack proper accreditation, and others face constantly the threat of losing accreditation. Many are isolated from the main currents of academic life.

Private sources and States alone cannot carry the whole burden of doing what must be done for these important units in our total educational systems. Federal aid is essential.

Universities should be encouraged to enter into cooperative relationships to help less developed colleges, including such assistance asA program of faculty exchanges.

Special programs to enable faculty members of small colleges to renew and extend knowledge of their fields.

A national fellowship program to encourage highly qualified young graduate students and instructors in large universities to augment the teaching resources of small colleges.

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