EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITY GRANTS Statement by the President Upon Announcing Allocations of Funds to Institutions of Higher Education for Grants to Students. April 5, 1967 President Johnson announced today that some 217,000 students, who could not otherwise afford to attend college, will receive Federal grants for the school year starting next September. The President announced approval of $108 million for distribution under the educational opportunity grants program, administered by the U.S. Office of Education. The money will go to 1,518 institutions of higher education, which will make grants directly to qualified undergraduate students. Last year, the first year of the program's operation, $58 million in educational opportunity grants was awarded to 1,400 institutions to help 134,000 students. The program was authorized by the Higher Education Act of 1965. "The investment which makes a college education possible for these young people is a deeply satisfying one," President Johnson said. "This investment will be returned many times over when they take their places as highly trained and contributing members of our society." "Students helped by grants last year have varied backgrounds, talents and aspirations; they come from all sections of the country," the President said. He cited these examples: In Louisiana, a student whose father is a laborer and whose mother works as a food server, had won high school honors in mathematics and chemistry. The oldest of eight children, he is now a pre-med student. In Texas, a daughter of migrant farmworkers, who has herself worked in the fields most of her life, achieved excellent college grades. A Missouri student, deserted by his father and helped through high school by welfare programs, is following his major interestscreative writing and art. A Kansas student whose mother, the sole support of the family, had to stop work because of illness, is doing well as an architecture major. A student in Pennsylvania, who had planned to work in a factory or enter the Armed Forces, is now making good grades in college. A Wyoming student whose savings were spent as a freshman is able to continue his education in agronomy. Educational opportunity grants, ranging from $200 to $800 a year, can be no more than one-half of the total aid furnished the student by the school. Other aid includes loans under the national defense student loan program, scholarships, tuition waivers, or earnings from employment. The average grant was $432 in the first year of the program. A student who receives an initial-year award is eligible for a grant for 3 additional years, providing he maintains good standing and continues to need financial aid. To be eligible for grants, beginning full-time students must be in extreme financial need and must have been accepted by a college participating in the program. Students attending an institution must be in good standing. Nearly 54,000 of the students who received grants last year will merit an additional award of $200 for attaining grades in the top half of their class. This is the first year of these additional awards, based on the student's previous year's achievements. A sample of 72 institutions and 5,125 students shows that of the 1966-67 group: 56 percent of the recipients were freshmen, 21 percent sophomores, 14 percent juniors, and 9 percent seniors. Of this group, 60 percent reported no assets. Only 7 percent reported a father's occupation which can be classified as professional or technical. [NOTE.-A list of allocations to States was also released, with the following explanatory note: Appropriations are allocated to participating institutions for the forthcoming fiscal year. For example: The FY 1967 appropriation is being allocated for grants in the 1967-68 academic year for use during FY 1968, which begins July 1, 1967.] NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION The President's Message to the Congress Transmitting the Foundation's Sixteenth Annual Report. April 6, 1967 To the Congress of the United States: I am pleased to submit to the Congress the 16th Annual Report of the National Science Foundation. This Fiscal 1966 Report tells a proud story of continuing progress on many scientific frontiers-of bold and creative men and women pitting their skill and imagination against the challenges and opportunities posed by Nature. Scientific research is the key with which we can unlock the doors of the future. As a nation we have learned this only recently. Not long ago our scientists usually had to go abroad to learn of the newest discoveries but now the world often comes here to learn. In our universities, our government and our industrial laboratories, the quality of our scientific research is second to none. We intend to maintain this high standard. The task we have set ourselves is to wrest from Nature the intellectual treasures with which we will build the world of tomorrow. Scientific research has given us new insights and provided tools for practical progress: -New metals which can stand up to the fierce heat of rocket engines make our space flights possible. -New ultra-miniature electronic devices, born of basic discoveries made only two decades ago, guide our spacecraft in orbit and our aircraft in Vietnam. -The frontiers of the known universe have been pushed back in the last decade and shown to contain energy sources of unprecedented magnitude, thanks to developments in astronomy, and especially in the new use of radiotelescopes. -Experiments with the atomic nucleus have led us to power reactors which will make electricity more abundant and cheaper throughout the world. The already visible horizons of the future are even more exciting. -Our scientists are increasingly confident that we will be able to modify the weather significantly and perhaps even to do away with drought and flood. -Computers are already revolutionizing our ways of thinking and our ways of doing things, and we have only just begun to sense the impact they will have on our industry, our education, and the abundance of our society. -Desalting the waters of the seas and the brackish ground. waters which underlie great parts of our own and other countries will help meet the needs of parched and thirsty lands. New fuels, new plastics, synthetic materials of a thousand kinds, will make life better for our citizens. -New technologies will give us better ways to eliminate the pollution of our air and water. -The work of our researchers who probe the chemistry of life itself, and unravel the marvelous molecular codes which hold the secrets of heredity, will also teach us to avert or to cure disease, and perhaps one day may delay the effects of inevitable aging which afflict us all. We know that we can continue this flow of benefits to mankind only if we have a large and constantly replenished pool of basic knowledge and understanding to draw upon. For the path between basic discovery and its application can be both long and uncertain. We intend to maintain such a pool with all our talents and resources, so that we can apply it to our needs. Perhaps most important, we intend to maintain this pool of basic knowledge and understanding because of the stimulus it provides to our young minds in the challenge of ideas. Knowledge, as we have learned from our rich experience, is not a laboratory curiosity. It is a critical tocl for our national health, our national growth, and the sound education of all of us. The very process of generating knowledge produces the highly trained scientists and engineers that are needed to man our universities, industries and government. The National Science Foundation is entrusted, more than any other single national institution, with the responsibility to expand our reservior of basic knowledge through research, and to promote excellence in our scientific education. It is doing this job admirably, as the attached report shows. It must-and will-do even better. Under the programs proposed to you in the Congress for next year, the National Science Foundation would: -Sponsor the research of faculties and postgraduate students in more than 450 schools in all fifty states. -Develop new approaches in science education. -Provide laboratory facilities in at least 30 graduate schools. -Assist more than 35,000 secondary school and college teachers to improve their teaching capabilities. -Help to improve the quality of 25 or more institutions of higher education which have shown the capacity to develop outstanding capabilities in one or more scientific disciplines. -Provide funds to explore and test the effectiveness of computers in all stages of the educational process. In these ways, the Foundation is substantially expanding its efforts to improve the quality of science education at all levels. It is helping to increase the number of colleges and universities which can provide truly excellent scientific training and research. In doing this, it is continuing to expand our capabilities for basic research in all fields of modern science. To be fruitful, scientific and technical information must quickly reach those who can use it. As the volume of research results grows, this becomes harder to achieve. But the stakes are well worth the effort. Every increase of one percent in the efficiency of our $22 billion public and private research and development programs is worth $220 million per year. The Foundation will therefore institute new programs to devise improved systems for handling scientific information, and will work with other government agencies to establish standards for Federal technical information programs. Many of the most pressing problems of our times depend for their solution on a better understanding of man and his interaction with the highly technological society in which he lives. For this reason, the Foundation has more than doubled the funds for basic research in the social sciences over the past five years. The story of scientific achievement and challenge told by this Annual Report is a story of a sound investment which will pay handsome dividends. I commend the Report to the attention of the Congress and the American people. THE WHITE HOUSE, April 6, 1967. * LYNDON B. JOHNSON. NATIONAL TEACHER OF THE YEAR AWARD The President's Remarks Upon Presenting the Award to Roger Tenney of Owatonna, Minnesota. April 19, 1967 Mr. Vice President, distinguished Members of the Congress, Mr. and Mrs. Tenney and members of their family, ladies and gentlemen: I have always believed that we make our decisions around here on the basis of merit and merit alone, but when I observe that the Teacher of the Year whom we honor is from Minnesota and has some direct associates in the crowd called Humphrey, I do know what they would say if the situation should be reversed and the teacher came from Texas and his name were Johnson-someone would think there's been some wheeling and dealing somewhere! I am very much impressed-both by your music and your message. And I am happy to pay my respects to the 1967 National Teacher of the Year. Last year, we honored a teacher who makes poets out of first-graders. This year, we pay tribute to a teacher who makes musicians out of football players-and who makes memberships in his choir as sought after as a place on the first team. Mr. Tenney is an unusual man. The young singers from his high school have won national recognition. He directs three choirs at the local high school. He is the organizer and director of a community choir in his city. He directs two choirs at his church. He teaches adult classes in speech, music conducting, and music appreciation. He coaches young singers individually. He judges 10 to 12 regional and State music contests each year. Somehow, he finds time in his busy schedule to participate in civic affairs, including work with the local Boy Scout troop. I am about ready to start negotiations with Congressman Quie here after he gets through with my Teacher Corps up there on the Hill and gets it thoroughly abolished-to see if we can't work out arrangements for him to conduct some singing for both national conventions. As all of you may or may not know, I am not a singer. My musical education stopped with violin lessons in my boyhood. But it does give me great pride to know that I played a small part in helping to encourage men and women like Mr. Tenney. Since 1965, your Federal Government has devoted nearly $14 million to encouraging the arts and the humanities all over this great country of ours. The dollars, of course, are just the smallest part of that story. The real story can be seen in the thousands of schools, concert halls, and theaters that stretch out through our 50 States where we have new enthusiasm and new vitality and they are stirring the arts. Mr. Tenney, you are an example and an inspiration for all of us. I am happy that I could be here with your distinguished Vice President, whom we all honor, respect, and love so much, the members of your delegation led by Senator McCarthy and other Members of the House, and to pay you this great honor and to present to you this award of the year. I spent a few years of my life teaching. Sometimes people think that I am not doing a very good job of teaching now-that I ought to go back to the profession. But as a former teacher, I cannot think of anything that a teacher would cherish more than the recognition of his countrymen of his outstanding achievements as you have been recognized by this Look award. EVALUATION OF THE TEACHER CORPS Statement by the President Upon Receiving the Report by the National Advisory Council on the Education of Disadvantaged Children. April 20, 1967 The President received today an evaluation of the Teacher Corps conducted by the National Advisory Council on the Education of Disadvantaged Children. The Council's report, based on inspection visits to 16 sample school districts and 11 university training centers for the Teacher Corps, was transmitted simultaneously to the President, the President of the Senate, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives. The President noted with interest the Council's central conclusion: "Despite the many difficulties of its first year, the Corps has made a strong beginning. It offers bright promise for substantial improvement in the education of disadvantaged children, and it should be continued. This Council is convinced that to abandon or weaken the Teacher Corps would be a serious and wasteful error." |