The program of legislation which the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare and the Office of Education now places before the Congress is basically concerned with the problem of identifying and providing Federal financial assistance to those districts within States which require substantial stimulus and help to meet their classroom needs. This program would enable the Federal Government to participate in a maximum of $3 billion of public elementary and secondary school construction over the next 5 years. The program has been especially designed to channel Federal assistance to these school districts within States which are in greatest need. ANALYSIS OF PROPOSED PROGRAM Secretary Flemming has provided you with a general description of the purposes and objectives of the proposed legislation. It will be my aim to describe the proposed program in terms of the factors which have been built into it in order to identify and assist school districts which are in greatest need of financial assistance to meet school construction requirements. I have stated above that the information available to us indicates that needy school districts exist in all States and that the States themselves vary greatly both in their capacity and effort to meet their school construction needs. The States also differ greatly in the number of children for whom they must provide, varying from a maximum of 290 school-age children per 1,000 population to a minimum of 198 school-age children per 1,000. Moreover, the State with the highest income per child of school age has at its command four times the personal income resources per child as the poorest State. The formula which governs the allocation among the States of the annual aggregate amount of $600 million is found in sections 4 and 5 of the bill. The allocation ratio for each State is derived from the quotient obtained by dividing the income per child of school age for the State by the income per child for the continental United States. Thus, States with high income per child receive a low allocation ratio, and vice versa. For example a wealthy State with an income per child, of say $12,600, has an allocation ratio of 0.25, which is the minimum ratio employed, and a poor State with an income per child, let us say of $4,200, has an allocation ratio of 0.75, which is the maximum ratio assigned. An income per child of $8,412, which is equal to the national average, provides an allocation ratio of 0.50. Equity requires, of course, that allocation of sums to the States be clearly related to the number of public schoolchildren in the States. This is accomplished by multiplying the allocation ratio by the number of public schoolchildren. The moneys would thus be allocated to the States in proportion to these products. As a result, two States with the same public school enrollment with allocation ratios of 0.25 and 0.75, respectively, would have allocations differing by a factor of 3. If two States have the same allocation ratio but one has three times as many public schoolchildren as the other, the final allocations would again differ by a factor of 3. Finally, allocations calculated as described above are subject to modification in the case of those States where the effort expended on public schools in relation to wealth is below standard. There has been distributed for your information an allocation table indicating the allocations to the respective States and the outlying parts of the United States, including the necessary modifications brought about by substandard effort. With your permission, Mr. Chairman, I should like to request that this table be inserted in the official record at this point. (Allocation tables referred to follow:) SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION ASSISTANCE ACT OF 1959 (S. 1016 AND H.R. 4268) Allocations to States (including Alaska,1 Guam, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and Virgin Islands), as provided for in secs. 4 and 5 of bill, for fiscal year ending June 30, 1960 2 State Aggregate United States (excluding District of Columbia). Continental United States (excluding District of Columbia and Allocation $600, 000, 000 Missouri Montana_ Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire_. 10, 937, 948 2,812, 687 5, 445, 808 649, 072 1, 672, 439 New Jersey- 10, 548, 874 4, 718, 334 New York.. 27, 328, 848 Allocations to States (including Alaska,1 Guam, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and Virgin Islands), as provided for in secs. 4 and 5 of bill, for fiscal year ending June 30, 19602 Continued 1 As specified in the bill, in the absence of per capita income data, Alaska is for the purpose of computation excluded from the continental United States and is assigned an allocation ratio of 0.75. 2 The amounts in the table represent the total amount of school construction assisted. The Federal Government would assume debt service commitment on one-half of these amounts. The States would assume the remaining one-half of the obligation. Allocation of $600,000,000, unadjusted for State school effort index, Alaska not included in continental U.S. totals for fiscal year ending June 30, 1960 State Allocation of $600,000,000, unadjusted for State school effort index, Alaska not included in continental U.S. totals for fiscal year ending June 30, 1960—Con. 1 Expressed as 10 times the product of col. 5 and col. 6 in order to carry 9 digits in the national total, corresponding to amount in col. 8. 2 Estimated by Office of Education. Sources: Col. 2: Based on latest data from Department of Commerce; col. 6: Office of Education, 1955-56 Biennial Survey, Ch. 2 (advance data as of Jan. 29, 1959). |