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I am requesting appropriations to launch a "Follow-Through" program during the first school grades for children in areas of acute poverty. The present achievements of Head Start serve as a measure of the distance we must still go:

-Three out of four Head Start children participate only in a summer program. The summer months are far too brief to close the gap separating the disadvantaged child from his more fortunate classmate.

-Only a small number of three-year-olds are now being reached. The impact of Head Start will be far more beneficial if it is extended to the earlier years.

-Head Start has dramatically exposed the nutritional needs of poverty's children. More than 1.5 million preschoolers are not getting the nourishing food vital to strong and healthy bodies. To build on the experience already gained through Head Start: I am requesting funds from the Congress and I am directing the Director of the Office of Economic Opportunity to:

1. Strengthen the full year Head Start program.

2. Enlarge the number of three-year-olds who participate in Head Start.

3. Explore, through pilot programs, the effectiveness of this program on even younger children.

-I am recommending legislation to authorize a pilot program to provide school lunch benefits to needy preschoolers through Head Start and similar programs.

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MENTAL RETARDATION

Each year more than 125,000 infants are born mentally retarded. This dread disability strikes rich families and poor. The tragedy of mental retardation affects the child, the parents and the entire community.

In 1958, the late Congressman from Rhode Island, John E. Fogarty, introduced legislation which launched our attack on mental retardation.

For the past 3 years we have intensified that attack on all frontsin prevention, treatment, rehabilitation, employment, recreation services.

But today, America still lacks trained workers and community facilities to carry on the fight.

I recommend legislation to:

-Provide, for the first time, Federal support to assist the staffing of community mental retardation centers.

-Extend Federal support for the construction of university and community centers for the mentally retarded.

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THE JUVENILE DELINQUENCY PREVENTION ACT OF 1967

Youth can mean high spirits, great ambitions, wide intellectual interests, constructive group activities and the exciting tests of physical and mental power.

But too often it means failure in school, drop-outs, the emptiness of unplanned days, joblessness, flights from a broken home, and trouble with the police.

The rapid urbanization of our nation and the sharply growing numbers of young people can mean new vigor and opportunity for our society-or new crime problems and more wasted lives.

This Nation has already committed itself to enrich the lives of our young people and to free the disadvantaged from the waste and boredom that would otherwise characterize their lives:

-The Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 and the Higher Education Act of 1965 are greatly expanding educational opportunities.

-The Upward Bound Program is preparing disadvantated boys and girls for entry into college.

Work-study programs, grants, loans and scholarships are helping to provide an education for young people unable to afford it.

-The Manpower Training and Development Act, the Job Corps and the Neighborhood Youth Corps are providing needed job skills.

Despite these achievements, much remains to be done to fulfill our commitment to young Americans. In later Messages, I will propose additional measures that will assist young Americans-in education, in health, and in special employment programs.

But today, I propose to deal with the young American who is delinquent or a potential delinquent. Too many schools and agencies close their doors and minds to a young person with serious behavioral problems, and then pass him on to sterner but frequently less effective authorities. Most youth who commit delinquent acts ultimately grow into responsible adults. But if a youth behaves badly enough or is unlucky enough to enter the courts and correctional institutions he is more likely to continue in criminal activy as an adult.

The past five years of experience under the Juvenile Delinquency Act and the report of the National Crime Commission have shown the need for new approaches for dealing with delinquent and potentially delinquent youth:

-Special community-based diagnostic and treatment services for youth in trouble.

-The strengthening of ties between the community and the correction and probation system.

-The construction of modern correctional facilities employing the most advanced methods of rehabilitation.

We must pursue a course designed not merely to reduce the number of delinquents. We must increase the chances for such young people to lead productive lives.

For the delinquent and potentially delinquent youth, we must offer a New Start. We must insure that the special resources and skills essential for their treatment and rehabilitation are available. Because many of these young men and women live in broken families, burdened with financial and psychological problems a successful rehabilitation program must include family counseling, vocational guidance, education and health services. It must strengthen the family and the

schools. It must offer courts an alternative to placing young delinquents in penal institutions.

I recommend the Juvenile Delinquency Prevention Act of 1967.

This Act would be administered by the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare. It would provide:

-90% Federal matching grants to assist states and local communities to develop plans to improve their juvenile courts and correction systems.

-50% Federal matching grants for the construction of short-term detention and treatment facilities for youthful offenders in or near their communities.

-Flexible Federal matching grants to assist local communities to operate special diagnostic and treatment programs for juvenile delinquents and potential delinquents.

-Federal support for research and experimental projects in juvenile delinquency.

The problems of troubled youth do not yield to easy solution. They must be pursued on a broad front. Thus, states and communities must be encouraged to develop comprehensive strategies for coping with these problems.

The facilities they build should be modern and innovative, like the "half-way" houses already proven successful in practice. These facilities should provide a wide range of community-based treatment and rehabilitation services for youthful offenders.

New methods of rehabilitation-establishing new ties between the correctional institution, the job market, and the supporting services a delinquent youth needs when he returns to the community-should be tested.

Local agencies, public and private, should be assisted in providing special diagnostic and treatment services for youth with serious behavioral problems. Other Federal programs for medical care, education, and manpower training should be supplemented to provide the intensive services needed to assist delinquent and potentially delinquent youth to become productive citizens. These efforts must first be concentrated in poor neighborhoods where the risk of delinquency is highest.

These steps must be taken now. But at the same time we must continue and expand our research effort. We must learn why so many young people get into trouble and how best to help them avoid it. To do this, we will look to universities and individuals, state and local agencies, and other institutions capable of adding to our knowledge and improving our methods and practices in this vital area.

SUMMER PROGRAMS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS

Last year, summer took on a new and brighter meaning for millions of needy young citizens:

Head Start served 570,000 preschoolers.

-The Elementary and Secondary Education Act provided funds to bring remedial courses and day camps to two and a half million children.

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-Upward Bound enabled 25,000 high school students to live on college campuses and gain new learning experiences.

-The Youth Opportunity Campaign found more than a million jobs for 16-to-21-year olds.

-The Neighborhood Youth Corps offered summer work to 210,000 young people.

-Community Action and other OEO programs, such as Operation Champ, offered recreation to nearly one million children. This summer we can do more.

We can enable additional schools and playgrounds to remain open when vacation comes.

We can, with the help of public-spirited local organizations, bring fresh air and cool streams to the slum child who has known only a sweltering tenement and who must sleep on a crowded fire escape to get relief from the heat.

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FOREIGN AID

The President's Message to the Congress Recommending on Updating of Our Approach to Our Foreign Assistance Programs. February 9, 1967

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4. Agriculture, Health and Education

The fundamentals of a decent life are sufficient food, freedom from disease, and an opportunity to absorb as much knowledge as individual capacities permit.

These are the first goals of all societies. They must be the first objects of our aid.

I propose that the Act establish agriculture, health and education as our primary concerns and that investment in these areas be substantially expanded.

I propose that our investment in:

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agriculture rise from $504 million last year to $668 million in

-education rise from $166 million to $228 million.
-health rise from $192 million to $202 million.

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NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS

The President's Message to the Congress Transmitting the First Annual Report. February 15, 1967

To the Congress of the United States:

I am pleased to transmit the First Annual Report of the National Endowment for the Arts.

During its first year, the Endowment sponsored a great variety of projects to assist the arts in assuming their deserved place in American life.

It created new opportunities for novelists, poets, painters, sculptors, composers, and students in the arts.

It assisted fifty States in developing cultural resources, programs and facilities. Thirty-three State agencies for the arts have been established. New methods of bringing the arts to rural communities have been explored.

Plans have also been made for programs which will permit

-greater assistance to a wide variety of artistic endeavor;

increased artistic exchanges between Latin America and the United States, particularly in the field of creative writing;

-nationwide tours of the American Ballet Theatre and other artistic groups which will foster greater appreciation of the arts; -the development of educational programs to heighten understanding of the arts among disadvantaged children.

Much of the early success of the Endowment can be traced to bipartisan support for its authorizing legislation, and to the wisdom. of the Congress in requiring State and private participation in its programs.

We cannot expect massive Federal support to create great art, any more than massive defense programs can be expected to create individual courage. On signing the Arts and Humanities Bill in 1965, I reminded its supporters that "to produce true and lasting results, our States and municipalities, our schools and great private foundations, must join forces with us. It is in the neighborhoods of each community that a nation's art is born. In countless American towns there live thousands of obscure and unknown talents. What this bill does is to bring active support to this great national asset, to make fresher the winds of art in this great land of ours."

What the Arts Endowment has sought to do, in its first year, is to improve the climate in which creative talent works, and to extend and inform its audience.

This report is evidence that it has begun to achieve that goal. Those who believe that the quality and appreciation of art is one test of a nation's maturity and greatness will take heart from this report. It is with pleasure that I commend it to your attention.

LYNDON B. JOHNSON.

THE WHITE HOUSE,

February 15, 1967

NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES

The President's Message to the Congress Transmitting the First Annual Report. February 15, 1967

To the Congress of the United States:

I am pleased to transmit the First Annual Report of the National Endowment for the Humanities. This report, together with the annual report of the National Endowment for the Arts, are truly significant documents. They record a pioneering Federal effort to enrich the cultural and human quality of American life.

The National Endowment for the Humanities was established to support exploration into the nature of man and his culture and to deepen understanding of the goals of human activity. The first year's activities have been devoted to developing plans to strengthen

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