The entire impacted areas program is currently being reviewed in the light of a recent study completed at the request of Congress, and in the light of the relationship between this program and other recently enacted Federal education legislation. This is but one aspect of this administration's firm commitment to be responsive to the need for constructive and comprehensive changes in existing legislation and to eliminate unnecessary expenditures.

This legislation also makes certain adjustments resulting from the base closing announcement of November 19, 1964. Some school districts had made plans for school construction under the impacted areas education legislation (Public Law 81-815) and had gone forward with their plans on the basis of their expectations that they would remain eligible for aid. This bill restores their eligibility because the facilities will shortly be required for new residents in these areas.

Finally, this legislation takes a further step in improving the educational resources of the Nation by providing more funds for our State educational agencies. I want especially to congratulate Senator Mansfield and Senator Metcalf for sponsoring this provision which gives each State department of education no less than $75,000 for administering programs for disadvantaged children under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965.

I also would like to congratulate Congressman William Ford who, as a freshman Member of the House of Representatives, was the original sponsor of H.R. 9022.

MM. MEMORANDUM TO HEADS OF DEPARTMENTS AND AGENCIES,

NOVEMBER 1, 1965
(Excerpts)

The task of government is to serve the public. It has been my deep and continuing concern to assure that each American receives from his government the fastest, most efficient and most courteous service. As our society grows more complex and our population expands we must explore every path in our quest to provide the best possible service for our individual citizens.

To build further on the steps we have already taken, I am requesting:

Third, that your agency take full advantage of the new and special training courses developed by the Civil Service Commission to improve standards of service to open up more lines of communication to the public.

NN. STATEMENT ON SIGNING THE FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ACT OF

1965, NOVEMBER 4, 1965

(Excerpt)

*

The Food and Agriculture Act of 1965 is a major step toward correcting those deficiencies. It takes its place proudly with expanded aid to education, immigration reforms, medical care for the aged and other health care legislation, and voting rights for all Americans, as a milestone of the most productive and constructive legislative session in our history.

*

OO. REMARKS UPON SIGNING THE HIGHER EDUCATION ACT OF 1965, NOVEMBER 8, 1965

In a very few moments, I will put my signature on the Higher Education Act of 1965. The President's signature upon this legislation passed by this Congress will swing open a new door for the young people of America. For them, and for this entire land of ours, it is the most important door that will ever open-the door to education.

This legislation is the key which unlocks it.

To thousands of young men and women, this act means the path of knowledge is open to all that have the determination to walk it. It means a way to deeper personal fulfillment, greater personal productivity, and increased personal reward. This bill, which I will make law, is an incentive to stay in school.

It means that a high school senior in this great land of ours can apply to any college or any university in any of the 50 States and not be turned away because his family is poor.

This bill is only one of more than two dozen education measures enacted by the 1st session of the 89th Congress. And history will forever record that this session-the first session of the 89th Congress-did more for the wonderful cause of education in America than all the previous 176 regular sessions of Congress did, put together.

I doubt that any future Congress will ever erect a prouder monument for future generations.

Last May, 2,700,000 boys and girls graduated from all the high schools in America-2,700,000; 1,400,000-about half of them-went on to college. But almost as many-1,300,000-never started college. This bill, which I will shortly sign into law, would provide scholarships and loans and work opportunities to 1 million of that 1.3 million that did not get to go on to college. In the first year, we will be able to take care of 1 million of that 1.3 million through this legislation, and we are hopeful that the State and the local governments, and the local employers and the local loan funds, can somehow take care of the other 300,000.

So to thousands of young people education will be available, and it is a truism that education is no longer a luxury. Education in this day and age is a necessity.

We can now make available scholarships up to $1,000 a year, awarded on the basis of need alone to an individual.

We can award part-time jobs so one student can earn as much as $500 a year.

We can provide loans free of interest and free of payments until after graduation to worthy, deserving, capable students.

In my judgment, this Nation can never make a wiser or a more profitable investment anywhere.

In the next school year alone, 140,000 young men and women will be enrolled in college who, but for the provisions of this bill, would have never gone past high school. We will reap the rewards of their wiser citizenship and their greater productivity for decades to come. This bill that I am signing will help our colleges and our universities add grasp to their reach for new knowledge and enlighten

ment.

From this act will also come a new partnership between campus and community, turning ivory towers of learning into the allies of a better life in our cities.

It insures that college and university libraries will no longer be the anemic stepchildren of Federal assistance.

And this act makes major new thrusts in a good many other directions: in assisting smaller, undernourished colleges obtain better teachers; in adding first-class equipment in order to have first-class classrooms; in establishing a new National Teacher Corps to help our local communities receive extra help in the training of our neglected children, whom our teachers have been unable to reach. When Congress convenes again in January, I intend to immediately ask again for the money to take the Teacher Corps off the drawing boards and put it in the classrooms.

I consider the Higher Education Act-with its companion, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, which we signed back in the spring of this year-to be the keystones of the great, fabulous 89th Congress.

This Congress did more to uplift education, more to attack disease in this country and around the world, and more to conquer poverty than any other session in all America's history, and what more worthy achievement could any person want to have? For it was the Congress that was more true than any other Congress to Thomas Jefferson's belief that: "The care of human life and happiness is the first and only legitimate objective of good Government."

Too many people, for too many years, argued that education and health and human welfare were not the Government's concern. And while they spoke, our schools fell behind, our sick people went unattended, and our poor fell deeper into despair.

But now, at last, in this year of our Lord, 1965, we have quit talking and started acting. The roots of change and reform are spreading, not just throughout Washington, but throughout every community in every State of this great Nation.

On my way here this morning, I visited the Job Corps Center, and I looked into the faces of boys who all their lives had been denied opportunity because they came from large families and poor families, but who today are now receiving that opportunity.

They are learning how to be mechanics and welders and operators of heavy machinery, and they will have jobs that are so much more enduring and more profitable than some of you that go out to lead in our classrooms.

One fellow told me that he had been offered-when he completed his course in underwater welding-more per day than Dr. Donohue paid me per month in 1928.

I have seen other signs of progress and new determination. I have seen it throughout the States of this Nation. I saw it this past week, I am proud to say, in our own great Lone Star State of Texas. The people of Texas went to the polls and they approved constitutional amendments which leave no doubt that the people of this State want decent treatment for their aged. They want decent treatment for the handicapped and the unfortunate children. They want an education system that fits the need of the 20th century. And they expect the Federal and the State Governments both of whom are the servants of all the people-to join shoulder-to-shoulder and work together to get this job done.

I want to make it clear once and for all, here and now, so that all that can see can witness and all who can hear can hear, that the Federal Government--as long as I am President-intends to be a partner and not a boss in meeting our responsibilities to all the people. The Federal Government has neither the wish nor the power to dictate education.

We can point the way.

We can offer help.

We can contribute in providing the necessary and needed tools. But the final decision, the last responsibility, the ultimate control, must, and will, always rest with the local communities.

Today, then, we embark on a new adventure in learning. For me, it has a very special meaning.

This is a proud moment in my life. I am proud to have a part in the beginning that this bill provides, because here a great deal began for me some 38 years ago on this campus.

It was here in these surroundings that I first understood the deeper meaning of the Bible's promise that: "Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free."

Here the seeds were planted from which grew my firm conviction that for the individual, education is the path to achievement and fulfillment; for the Nation, it is a path to a society that is not only free but civilized; and for the world, it is the path to peace-for it is education that places reason over force.

gym

As a student, I lived in a tiny room above Dr. Evans' garage. lived there 3 years before the business manager knew I occupied those quarters and submitted me a bill. I shaved and showered in the nasium that was down the road. I worked at a dozen different jobs, from sweeping the floors to selling real silk socks. I sometimes wondered what the next day would bring that could exceed the hardship of the day before.

But with all of that, I was one of the lucky ones-and I knew it even then.

I left this campus to become a teacher under one of the great teachers that I have known. I want him to stand because he meant much in my life. Dr. Donohue, please stand. [At this point Dr. Donohue stood up.]

He came here and looked over my credentials and somehow or other offered me a job at $125 a month to teach a Mexican school at Cotulla when I was a sophomore, and it was necessary that I leave that year to teach.

I shall never forget the faces of the boys and girls in that classroom at that Mexican school, and I remember even yet the pain of realizing and knowing then that college was closed to practically every one of those children because they were too poor.

And I think it was then that I made up my mind that this Nation could never rest while the door to knowledge remained closed to any American.

So here, today, back on the campus of my youth, that door is swinging open far wider than it ever did before.

The rest is up to you. The rest is up to the teachers and the citizens and the educational leaders of tomorrow. I want to say this to each of you. You are witnessing an historic moment. You should carry the memory and the meaning of this moment with you throughout your life.

And when you look into the faces of your students and your children and your grandchildren, tell them that you were there when it began. Tell them that a promise has been made to them. Tell them that the leadership of your country believed it is the obligation of your Nation to provide and permit and assist every child born in this borders to receive all the education that he can take.

I looked over some editorials that I wrote when I was editor of the college paper here last night. Some I wasn't too proud of. But in one I urged our people to know no North and no South, and no East and no West, to strive to be no sectionalist, only an American.

And I pointed out to the 1,357 students then enrolled at this college what I thought vision required of each of us. Some of that vision has been supplied to this student body that has grown from 1,300 to 5,500.

So, when we leave here this morning, I want you to go back and say to your children and to your grandchildren, and to those who come after you and follow you, that we have made a promise to them. Tell them that the truth is here for them to seek. And tell them that we have opened the road and we have pulled the gates down and the way is open, and we expect them to travel.

And when we meet back here again a few years from now, there will be many more than the 5,500 that will be here seeking and receiving the knowledge that is an absolute necessity if we are to maintain our freedom in a highly competitive world.

All you have to do is look at the morning paper this morning to see the rockets that were paraded down the avenues in the Soviet Union yesterday or the day before, and realize that until we banish ignorance, until we drive disease from our midst, until we win the war on poverty, we cannot expect to continue to be the leaders not only of a great people but the leaders of all civilization.

Thank you very much.