According to the New Mathematics-the base 11 system--the next important birthday of the Office of Education should occur in 1988. I think it would be good if we started asking ourselves what kind of a celebration are we going to have in 1988? Will those who join that birthday party feel as much hope as we do? Will they claim that America is continuing to meet its education goals? Will school children be finally free from the scars of racial discrimination in our land? Will your country's classrooms be open to new ideas and new instruments of education? Will our best college graduates be attracted to the teaching profession? Will the partnership for education between Federal, State, and local government continue to grow stronger? In large measure, the answers to these questions will be supplied by many of you who are in this audience today. Because of the men who lead you-John Gardner and Harold Howe-I have great faith and confidence in the answers you will give. You cannot work with these two men without catching some of their enthusiasm, some of their passion for education, and some of their dedication to making this a better land in which to live. This is a happy moment for an ex-schoolteacher from Cotulla, Texas. Even though I have not mastered the New Mathematics, I understand the basic equation of education: As we give in this generation, so will we receive in the next. Those who serve our Nation's schools are helping shape our Nation's destiny. I wish the Office of Education many, many more happy birthdays. The President's Message to the Congress Transmitting Report. March 6, 1967 To the Congress of the United States: Once again we have evidence that public assistance is best achieved when we help the poor to help themselves. This is documented by the report I transmit today on the Community Work and Training Program authorized by the Public Welfare Amendments of 1962. These amendments gave new opportunities for community work and training to thousands of unemployed parents of dependent children. Title V of the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 gave further impetus to this program. It reinforced the original Act by providing the counseling, education, health, job placement and other services necessary to give the individual a new start in life. Experience under these programs has shown that many people— now unemployed and living in poverty-can help themselves. Threefourths of the 133,000 welfare recipients who have enrolled in these programs since 1964 have been helped: -22,100 have already found jobs. --70,200 are in training for productive employment. -3,500 are taking advance vocational instruction. -6,700 now have the training and marketable skills that should enable them to find jobs soon. In short, 102,500 Americans and their families have been given hope where hope did not exist before. This is an impressive record. But no statistics can measure the gain in self-respect to these parents. These programs substitute a productive job for a life on welfare or in poverty. They provide the opportunity to break the vicious cycle of welfare dependency and poverty which burdens our society. I urge the Congress to extend and make permanent this program to bring help to unemployed parents and through them hope to our most disadvantaged children. I urge the States to study the lessons we have learned and to avail themselves fully of the promise which these programs hold. The President's Remarks at the Dedication of Columbia State Governor, I don't know whether that is just the enthusiasm of the crowd or whether they all want to warm up a little bit. Governor Ellington, Secretary Gardner, Dr. Clark, Reverend Allen, my dear friend, Mrs. Albert Gore, Congressman and Mrs. Anderson, and my friends of Tennessee: First of all, I learned that Mrs. Johnson was coming here to dedicate this community college in Tennessee, and I just could not resist coming along to congratulate all of you myself and to tell the people of Tennessee how proud I am of the great advancement that they are making: the great achievements that we see in this State every day, the fine quality of public servants, your Senators, your Governor, your Members of Congress. Congressman Anderson here is doing a wonderful job; Governor Ellington has been there helping us all through the years; Senator Gore and your delegation that brought into existence the great TVA which is a model for all the world to emulate. · David Lilienthal is going with me to Guam Saturday night. We are flying for 18 straight hours to meet with the leaders of South Vietnam to put in a plan for South Vietnam that was first born here in the Tennessee Valley. I know it is cold out there and you don't want to listen to a very long speech, but I do want to tell you that what you are doing here at Columbia is closer to my heart than any other thing I deal with in the whole range of America's national policy. You are building a new school-and a school is about the most important public building in America. You are going to provide in an attractive, modern environment the education that early Americans like Andrew Jackson and James Polk here in Tennessee sought by fire-light. You are becoming a part of the revolution in American education, a revolution of quality as well as quantity. More Americans are receiving more education today than ever before in our history. About 3 out of every 10 Americans are now enrolled in our schools and our colleges. Twice as many young people are being graduated from our high schools and twice as many are in college as there were only 10 years ago. This is not only because of our rising population but it is because America in the 1960's has made a historic commitment and that commitment is first to education. This commitment is difficult to achieve, but it is very simple to state. We want every American boy and girl to have all the education that he or she can take. We want this so that each child may become all he is capable of becoming. Nothing more-nothing less. Education cannot be only for a few, any more than health can be only for those who can afford it, or national parks only for those that can travel great distances to reach them. Education, health, conservation-these are only magnificent abstractions, until we translate them into better, healthier, happier people. They are only possibilities until we turn them into opportunities. Columbia offers a fine example of how your Federal Government and your State government can work with your local government to enlarge educational opportunities. This will be a school for all the people. It can be a place such as Woodrow Wilson dreamed of-where the important issues of the day can be discussed, in what Wilson called "The Parliament of the People." It can serve as a center of excellence in the arts, a home for voluntary service projects, and a meeting ground for the community and regional planners. It is not hard for me to talk at length about education and what it means, for it meant everything to me at a time when my future hung in the balance. I hope some way, somehow, some day I can repay the debt that I owe in the time that is allotted me. I shall try. I am so happy that you good people of Tennessee are trying, too. I am so happy that you are providing for these young men and these young women because they will be the leaders of Tennessee today, and the leaders of this Nation tomorrow. Thank you. * THE QUALITY OF AMERICAN GOVERNMENT The President's Message to the Congress. March 17, 1967 To the Congress of the United States: This legislation has a single clear goal: to increase the number of qualified students who choose careers in government. The measure would authorize the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare to provide fellowships for young men and women who want to embark on the adventure of government service. It would provide support to universities seeking to enrich and strengthen their public service education programs. This financial assistance can be used to support a broad range of activity including: Research into new methods of education for government service; -Experimental programs, such as study combined with parttime public service; -Plans to improve and expand programs for students preparing for government careers; -Training facilities, establishing centers for study at the graduate or professional level, conducting institutes for advanced study in public affairs and administration. 2. The Intergovernmental Manpower Act of 1967 This legislation is designed specifically to deal with the varied manpower needs of State and local governments. It would authorize the Civil Service Commission to: -Provide fellowships to State and local government employees. -Make grants of up to 75% to help State and local governments develop and carry out comprehensive training plans and strengthen their personnel administration systems. It would allow federal agencies to admit State and local employees to federal training programs, and to provide additional assistance for those employees who administer federal grant-in-aid programs. Across America, many men and women of skill and vision work in State houses and city halls. Their knowledge and experience can help us. And we are prepared to bring the special experience of federal employees to the local level. The Intergovernmental Manpower Act would allow federal workers to take assignments in State and local governments for periods up to 2 years, with full protection of job rights and benefits. In addition, the federal agencies would be able to accept State and local employees for assignments of equivalent periods. This proposal, I believe, fills a vital need. The mutual interchange of ideas and perspectives will benefit all echelons of government. Proclamation 3772. March 24, 1967 By the President of the United States of America a Proclamation The future of this nation, and perhaps of the world, rests on the integrity and commitment of young Americans who make up almost half of our population. If we neglect the formation of their character, we betray a human trust that transcends the interest of any individual. Out of a false sophistication, some find it embarrassing to speak of the simple virtues of character that are the mainstays of any great nation or civilization of duty, sacrifice, fidelity, of sound minds in healthy bodies, of a sense of human brotherhood, love of country, sanctity of the home, purity of ideals. Yet on these virtues the peace, prosperity, and quality of our society depend. The condition of our nation today is historically unique. Never has any society come so close to defeating the ancient enemies of poverty, ignorance and ill health. Our social problems loom large in our consciousness, but in the perspective of history, ours is an unprecedented affluence-both in its extent and in its distribution. And that affluence represents both opportunity and temptation. If it lulls us into complacency, if it dims our moral perception, if it tranquilizes our concern for the suffering of the less fortunate, if it encourages self-indulgence and moral indolence, then it is no blessing but a curse. If our children are to be enriched and not despoiled by the abundance of our material life, we must search our own hearts and minds, our own values and priorities, to be sure that moral and spiritual qualities are not submerged or blunted in the selfish quest for personal security, comfort and luxury. We must accept material abundance gratefully, as a condition which liberates our spirits and frees our minds for the great and beneficent conquests of human sorrow, suffering and weakness. Human experience illustrates that liberty and discipline are not in opposition; that, in fact, liberty finds its roots in discipline. For the wider goals, the larger dreams, the nobler hopes belong to those who have learned to discipline their impulses and desires, to direct them toward the constructive purpose and the creative challenge. During this week, set aside as Youth Temperance Education Week, let us consider how we may help our youngsters develop the moral and spiritual strength proudly to accept the challenge to build a better future for all mankind. To alert young people to the dangers of intemperance and to assist them in the development of moral strength, physical fitness, and civic responsibility, the Congress, by a joint resolution approved May 4, 1966, has requested the President to issue a proclamation designating the week beginning April 23, 1967, as Youth Temperance Education Week. To this end: NOW, THEREFORE, I, LYNDON B. JOHNSON, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim the week beginning April 23, 1967 as Youth Temperance Education Week; and I invite the Governors of the States, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and officials of other areas subject to the jurisdiction of the United States to issue similar proclamations. IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States of America to be affixed. DONE at the City of Washington this twenty-fourth day of March, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and sixty-seven, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and ninety-first. [SEAL] By the President: LYNDON B. JOHNSON. |