CHAPTER V. PRESIDENTIAL RECOMMENDATIONS

CONCERNING EDUCATION AND TRAINING

Consideration by the 88th Congress of bills concerning education and training was influenced early in the first session by President Kennedy's budget presentation to Congress on January 17, 1963, and his annual message to Congress on January 29, 1963. These messages presented the Kennedy administration's program for education and included a number of specific proposals later embodied in a 182-page bill. Many later messages and statements from President Kennedy in 1963 and from President Johnson in 1963 and 1964 related in whole or in part to legislation concerned with education and/or training. Following are the texts of recommendations to Congress and other principal statements concerning education and training expressed by President John F. Kennedy within the period January 9, 1963, to November 22, 1963, and by President Lyndon B. Johnson within the period November 22, 1963, to August 21, 1964. The purpose of this compilation is to bring together these recommendations and related statements in one place.

In some cases the quotations in the following pages are excerpts from longer messages or statements, which are identified in this compilation and are available to persons interested in reading the complete texts.

A. RECOMMENDATIONS AND RELATED STATEMENTS BY PRESIDENT

KENNEDY

1. Address Before a Joint Session of the Senate and the House of Representatives Relative to the State of the Union, January 14,

1963

[Excerpt]

First, we need to strengthen our Nation by investing in our youth:

The future of any country which is dependent on the will and wisdom of its citizens is damaged, and irreparably damaged, whenever any of its children are not educated to the fullest extent of his capacity, from grade school through graduate school. Today, an estimated 4 out of every 10 students in the fifth grade will never finish high school-and that is a waste we cannot afford.

In addition, there is no reason why 1 million young Americans, out of school and out of work, should all remain unwanted and often untrained on our city streets when their energies can be put to good use.

Finally, the oversea success of our Peace Corps volunteers, most of them young men and women carrying skills and ideals to needy people, suggest the merit of a similar corps serving our own community needs: in mental hospitals, on Indian reservations, in centers for the aged or for young delinquents, in schools for the illiterate or the handicapped. As the idealism of our youth has served world peace, so can it serve the domestic tranquillity.

Second, we need to strengthen our Nation by safeguarding its health:

Our working men and women-instead of being forced to ask for help from public charity once they are old and ill-should start contributing now to their own retirement health program through the social security system.

Moreover, all our miracles of medical research will count for little if we cannot reverse the growing nationwide shortage of doctors, dentists, and nurses, and the widespread shortages of nursing homes and modern urban hospital facilities. Merely to keep the present ratio of doctors and dentists from declining any further, this country must over the next 10 years increase the capacity of our medical schools by 50 percent and our dental schools by 100 percent.

Finally, and of deep concern, I believe that the abandonment of the mentally ill and the mentally retarded to the grim mercy of custodial institutions too often inflicts on them and their families a needless cruelty which this Nation should not endure. The incidence of mental retardation in the United States of America is three times as high as that of Sweden, for example and that figure can and must be reduced.1

2. Budget Message of the President to the Congress, January 17, 1963

[Excerpts]

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Other moderate expenditure increases being proposed within the reduced total represent a necessary payment on future progress and should not be postponed. They include new programs and increases in present programs for education and health, which are investments in our human resources; retraining for those whose present skills are no longer in strong demand; enlargement of employment opportunities for young people who have left school; redevelopment of depressed areas, including the program enacted last year for accelerating public works in these areas; improvement of urban areas through better transportation and more adequate housing, especially for moderate-income families; and encouragement of science and technology important to our civilian industries.

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One of our most important national purposes must continue to be the strengthening of human resources. A strong defense and a revitalized economy require a trained and productive labor force, relentless warfare on illness and disease, and continued progress in extending economic security to those in our society who lack the means to provide adequately for their own basic needs.

Under existing health programs, the budget provides for strengthening the National Institutes of Health, and the Food and Drug Administration, for improving community and environmental health protection, and for combating mental illness and mental retardation. In addition, new legislation is proposed: to expand further the fight against mental illness and mental retardation; to broaden the scope and enlarge the authorization provided for construction of medical facilities in the Hill-Burton Act; and to authorize a new program to assist in the construction of medical schools.

A strong educational system is necessary for the maintenance of a free society and a growing economy. Inadequacies in our educational system present serious obstacles to the achievement of important national objectives and prevent able individuals from obtaining the high quality training to which they should have ready access.

In these circumstances Federal action becomes imperative, but the Federal Government can provide only a small part of the funds in an area where outlays from all sources approximate $30 billion annually. Accordingly, I am recommending a program carefully designed to provide a major impetus to the solution of a selected number of critical educational problems.

This program, which will be outlined more fully in a special message, proposes significant new activities and greater utilization of the existing authority of the Office of Education. It also proposes greater use of the authority of the National Science Foundation to support science and engineering education. It is designed, first, to obtain improved quality in all levels and types of education; second, to help break crucial bottlenecks in the capacity of our educational system by providing funds for building expansion; and third, to increase opportunities for individuals to obtain education and training by broadening and facilitating access to colleges and universities and by providing an expanded range of tech

1 88th Cong., 1st sess., H. Doc. 1, pp. 4-5.

nical, vocational, and professional training opportunities for teachers and students.

A recommended substantial augmentation of basic research by the National Science Foundation-necessary to progress in science and technology-will also contribute materially to graduate education.

This budget provides new obligational authority of $3 billion for education programs in fiscal year 1964, of which $1.5 billion is under proposed legislation. Expenditures are estimated to rise by $165 million to $1.5 billion.

Emphasis in veterans' programs should continue to be placed on benefits and care for the service disabled. This policy recognizes that veterans are increasingly benefited by the rapidly expanding general health, education, and welfare programs of the Government. *

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**About one-seventh of the expenditures proposed for 1964 are for activities which will promote increased productivity and economic growth, yielding substantial benefits in the future.

For example, the fiscal year 1964 program includes $10.8 billion of budget and trust fund expenditures for Federal civil public works; for highways, hospitals, and other additions to State, local, and private assets; for loans for such activities as rural electrification, education, and small business operations; and for other additions to Federal assets.

Furthermore, during fiscal year 1964 an estimated $1.6 billion will be spent for nondefense education, training, and health programs, in addition to the amounts for facilities and loans. Apart from the intrinsic merits of these programs, helping to provide individuals with the opportunity to obtain the best medical care available and to maximize the development of their intellectual capacities and occupational skills improves the quality of the labor force. Indeed, growth in the Nation's education and skills has been a major factor in the longrun rise in the Nation's economic productivity.

To carry out the program I am recommending for fiscal year 1964, the Congress is being requested to enact new appropriations and other obligational authority totaling, $96.5 billion. This amount includes substantial increases for the Department of Defense, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, a large part of which will not be spent until later years.

3. Message From the President Relative to a Proposed Program for Education, January 29, 1963

Education is the keystone in the arch of freedom and progress. Nothing has contributed more to the enlargement of this Nation's strength and opportunities than our traditional system of free, universal elementary and secondary education, coupled with widespread availability of college education.

For the individual, the doors to the schoolhouse, to the library, and to the college lead to the richest treasures of our open society: to the power of knowledge; to the training and skills necessary for productive employment; to the wisdom, the ideals, and the culture which enrich life; and to the creative, selfdisciplined understanding of society needed for good citizenship in today's changing and challenging world.

For the Nation, increasing the quality and availability of education is vital to both our national security and our domestic well-being. A free nation can rise no higher than the standard of excellence set in its schools and colleges. Ignorance and illiteracy, unskilled workers and school dropouts-these and other failures of our educational system breed failures in our social and economic system: delinquency, unemployment, chronic dependence, a waste of human resources, a loss of productive power and purchasing power, and an increase in tax-supported benefits. The loss of only 1 year's income due to unemployment is more than the total cost of 12 years of education through high school. Failure to improve educational performance is thus not only poor social policy, it is poor economics.

The budget of the U.S. Government for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1964. Washing ton, Government Printing Office, 1963, pp. 15, 24-27, 28,

At the turn of the century, only 10 percent of our adults had a high school or college education. Today such an education has become a requirement for an increasing number of jobs. Yet, nearly 40 percent of our youths are dropping out before graduating from high school; only 43 percent of our adults have completed high school; only 8 percent of our adults have completed college; and only 16 percent of our young people are presently completing college. As my Science Advisory Committee has reported, one of our most serious manpower shortages is the lack of Ph. D.'s in engineering, science, and mathematics; only about onehalf of 1 percent of our school-age generation is achieving Ph. D. degrees in all fields.

This Nation is committed to greater investment in economic growth; and recent research has shown that one of the most beneficial of all such investments is education, accounting for some 40 percent of the Nation's growth and productivity in recent years. It is an investment which yields a substantial return in the higher wages and purchasing power of trained workers, in the new products and techniques which come from skilled minds and in the constant expansion of this Nation's storehouse of useful knowledge.

In the new age of science and space, improved education is essential to give new meaning to our national purpose and power. In the last 20 years, mankind has acquired more scientific information than in all of previous history. Ninety percent of all the scientists that ever lived are alive and working today. Vast stretches of the unknown are being explored every day for military, medical, commercial, and other reasons. And finally, the twisting course of the cold war requires a citizenry that understands our principles and problems. It requires skilled manpower and brainpower to match the power of totalitarian discipline. It requires a scientific effort which demonstrates the superiority of freedom. And it requires an electorate in every State with sufficiently broad horizons and sufficient maturity of judgment to guide this Nation safely through whatever lies ahead.

In short, from every point of view, education is of paramount concern to the national interest as well as to each individual. Today we need a new standard of excellence in education, matched by the fullest possible access to educational opportunities, enabling each citizen to develop his talents to the maximum possible extent.

Our concern as a nation for the future of our children-and the growing demands of modern education which Federal financing is better able to assistmake it necessary to expand Federal aid to education beyond the existing limited number of special programs. We can no longer afford the luxury of endless debate over all the complicated and sensitive questions raised by each new proposal on Federal participation in education. To be sure, these are all hard problems-but this Nation has not come to its present position of leadership by avoiding hard problems. We are at a point in history when we must face and resolve these problems.

State and local governments and private institutions, responsive to individual and local circumstances, have admirably served larger national purposes as well. They have written a remarkable record of freedom of thought and independence of judgment; and they have, in recent years, devoted sharply increased resources to education. Total national outlays for education nearly trebled during the 1940's and more than doubled during the 1950's, reaching a level of nearly $25 billion in 1960. As a proportion of national income, this represented a rise from little more than 4 percent in 1940 to nearly 6 percent in 1960, an increase of over 40 percent in total effort.

But all this has not been enough. And the Federal Government-despite increasing recognition of education as a nationwide challenge, and despite the increased financial difficulties encountered by States, communities, and private institutions in carrying this burden-has clearly not met its responsibilities in education. It has not offered sufficient help to our present educational system to meet its inadequacies and overcome its obstacles.

I do not say that the Federal Government should take over responsibility for education. That is neither desirable nor feasible. Instead, its participation should be selective, stimulative, and, where possible, transitional.

A century of experience with land-grant colleges has demonstrated that Federal financial participation can assist educational progress and growth without Federal control. In the last decade, experience with the National Science Foundation, with the National Defense Education Act, and with programs for assisting federally affected school districts has demonstrated that Federal support can benefit education without leading to Federal control. The proper

Federal role is to identify national education goals and to help local, State, and private authorities build the necessary roads to reach those goals. Federal aid will enable our schools, colleges, and universities to be more stable financially and therefore more independent.

These goals include the following:

First, we must improve the quality of instruction provided in all of our schools and colleges. We must stimulate interest in learning in order to reduce the alarming number of students who now drop out of school or who do not continue into higher levels of education. This requires more and better teachers-teachers who can be attracted to and retained in schools and colleges only if pay levels reflect more adequately the value of the services they render. It also requires that our teachers and instructors be equipped with the best possible teaching materials and curriculums. They must have at their command methods of instruction proven by thorough scientific research into the learning process and by careful experimentation. Second, our educational system faces a major problem of quantity-of coping with the needs of our expanding population and of the rising educational expectations for our children which all of us share as parents. Nearly 50 million people were enrolled in our schools and colleges in 1962— an increase of more than 50 percent since 1950. By 1970, college enrollment will nearly double, and secondary schools will increase enrollment by 50 percent categories in which the cost of education, including facilities, is several times higher than in elementary schools.

Third, we must give special attention to increasing the opportunities and incentives for all Americans to develop their talents to the utmost-to complete their education and to continue their self-development throughout life. This means preventing school dropouts, improving and expanding special educational services, and providing better education in slum, distressed, and rural areas where the educational attainment of students is far below par. It means increased opportunities for those students both willing and intellectually able to advance their education at the college and graduate levels. It means increased attention to vocational and technical education, which have long been underdeveloped in both effectiveness and scope to the detriment of our workers and our technical progress.

In support of these three basic goals, I am proposing today a comprehensive, balanced program to enlarge the Federal Government's investment in the education of its citizens—a program aimed at increasing the educational opportunities of potentially every American citizen, regardless of age, race, religion, income, and educational achievement.

This program has been shaped to meet our goals on the basis of three fundamental guidelines:

A. An appraisal of the entire range of educational problems. Viewing educational opportunity as a continuous lifelong process, starting with preschool training and extending through elementary and secondary schools, graduate education, college, vocational education, job training and retraining, adult education, and such general community educational resources as the public library;

B. A selective application of Federal aid aimed at strengthening, not weakening, the independence of existing school systems and aimed at meeting our most urgent education problems and objectives, including quality improvement; teacher training; special problems of slum, depressed, and rural areas; needy students; manpower shortage areas, such as science and engineering; and shortages of educational facilities; and

C. More effective implementation of existing laws, as reflected in my recent budget recommendations.

To enable the full range of educational needs to be considered as a whole, I am transmitting to the Congress with this message a single comprehensive education bill, the National Education Improvement Act of 1963. For education cannot easily or wisely be divided into separate parts. Each part is linked to the other. The colleges depend on the work of the schools; the schools depend on the colleges for teachers; vocational and technical education is not separate from general education. This bill recalls the posture of Jefferson:

“Nobody can doubt my zeal for the general instruction of the people. I never have proposed a sacrifice of the primary to the ultimate grade of instruction. Let us keep our eye steadily on the whole system."