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Our progress in education over the last generation has been substantial. We are educating a greater proportion of our youth to a higher degree of competency than any other country on earth. One-fourth of our total population is enrolled in our schools and colleges. This year $26 billion will be spent on education alone.

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But the needs of the next generation—the needs of the next decade and the next school year-will not be met at this level of effort. More effort will be required on the part of students, teachers, schools, colleges, and all 50 Statesand on the part of the Federal Government.

Education must remain a matter of State and local control, and higher education a matter of individual choice. But education is increasingly expensive. Too many State and local governments lack the resources to assure an adequate education for every child. Too many classrooms are overcrowded. Too many teachers are underpaid. Too many talented individuals cannot afford the benefits of higher education. Too many academic institutions cannot afford the cost of, or find room for, the growing numbers of students seeking admission in the sixties.

Our twin goals must be: A new standard of excellence in education-and the availability of such excellence to all who are willing and able to pursue it.

I. ASSISTANCE TO PUBLIC ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY SCHOOLS

A successful educational system requires the proper balance, in terms of both quality and quantity, of three elements: Students, teachers, and facilities. The quality of the students depends in large measure on both the quality and the relative quantity of teachers and facilities.

Throughout the 1960's there will be no lack in the quantity of students. An average net gain of nearly 1 million pupils a year during the next 10 years will overburden a school system already strained by well over a half million pupils in curtailed or half day sessions, a school system financed largely by a property tax incapable of bearing such an increased load in most communities.

But providing the quality and quantity of teachers and facilities to meet this demand will be major problems. Even today, there are some 90,000 teachers who fall short of full certification standards. Tens of thousands of others must attempt to cope with classes of unwieldy size because there are insufficient teachers available.

We cannot obtain more and better teachers and our children should have the best-unless steps are taken to increase teachers' salaries. At present salary levels, the classroom cannot compete in financial rewards with other professional work that requires similar academic background.

It is equally clear that we do not have enough classrooms. In order to meet current needs and accommodate increasing enrollments, if every child is to have the opportunity of a full-day education in an adequate classroom, a total of 600,000 classrooms must be constructed during the next 10 years.

These problems are common to all States. They are particularly severe in those States which lack the financial resources to provide a better education, regardless of their own efforts. Additional difficulties, too often overlooked, are encountered in areas of special educational need, where economic or social circumstances impose special burdens and opportunities on the public school. These areas of special educational need include our depressed areas of chronic unemployment and the slum neighborhoods of our larger cities, where underprivileged children are overcrowded into substandard housing. A recent survey of a very large elementary school in one of our major cities, for example, found 91 percent of the children coming to class with poor diets, 87 percent in need of dental care, 21 percent in need of visual correction, and 19 percent with speech disorders. In some depressed areas roughly one-third of the children must rely on surplus foods for their basic sustenance. Older pupils in these schools lack proper recreational and job guidance. The proportion of dropouts, delinquency, and classroom disorders in such areas is alarmingly high.

I recommend to the Congress a 3-year program of general Federal assistance for public elementary and secondary classroom construction and teachers' salaries.

Based essentially on the bill which passed the Senate last year (S. 8), although beginning at a more modest level of expenditures, this program would assure every State of no less than $15 for every public school student in average daily attendance, with the total amount appropriated ($666 million being authorized in the first year, rising to $866 million over a 3-year period) distributed ac

cording to the equalization formula contained in the last year's Senate bill, and already familiar to the Congress by virtue of its similarity to the formulas contained in the Hill-Burton Hospital Construction and other acts. Ten percent of the funds allocated to each State in the first year, and an equal amount thereafter, is to be used to help meet the unique problems of each State's "areas of special educational need"-depressed areas, slum neighborhoods, and others. This is a modest program with ambitious goals. The sums involved are relatively small when we think in terms of more than 36 million public school children, and the billions of dollars necessary to educate them properly. Nevertheless, a limited beginning now-consistent with our obligations in other areas of responsibility-will encourage all States to expand their facilities to meet the increasing demand and enrich the quality of education offered, and gradually assist our relatively low-income States in the elevation of their educational standards to a national level.

The bill which will follow this message has been carefully drawn to eliminate disproportionately large or small inequities, and to make the maximum use of a limited number of dollars. In accordance with the clear prohibition of the Constitution, no elementary or secondary school funds are allocated for constructing church schools or paying church school teachers' salaries; and thus nonpublic school children are rightfully not counted in determining the funds each State will receive for its public schools. Each State will be expected to maintain its own effort or contribution; and every State whose effort is below the national average will be expected to increase that proportion of its income which is devoted to public elementary and secondary education.

This investment will pay rich dividends in the years ahead-in increased economic growth, in enlightened citizens, in national excellence. For some 40 years, the Congress has wrestled with this problem and searched for a workable solution. I believe that we now have such a solution; and that this Congress in this year will make a landmark contribution to American education.

II. CONSTRUCTION OF COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY FACILITIES

Our colleges and universities represent our ultimate educational resource. In these institutions are produced the leaders and other trained persons whom we need to carry forward our highly developed civilization. If the colleges and universities fail to do their job, there is no substitute to fulfill their responsibility. The threat of opposing military and ideological forces in the world lends urgency to their task. But that task would exist in any case.

The burden of increased enrollments-imposed upon our elementary and secondary schools already in the fifties-will fall heavily upon our colleges and universities during the sixties. By the autumn of 1966, and estimated 1 million more students will be in attendance at institutions of higher learning than enrolled last fall-for a total more than twice as high as the total college enrollment of 1950. Our colleges, already hard pressed to meet rising enrollments since 1950 during a period of rising costs, will be in critical straits merely to provide the necessary facilities, much less the cost of quality education.

The country as a whole is already spending nearly $1 billion a year on academic in residential facilities for higher education-some 20 percent of the total spent for higher education. Even with increased contributions from State, local, and private sources, a gap of $2.9 billion between aggregate needs and expenditures is anticipated by 1965, and a gap of $5.2 billion by 1970.

The national interest requires an educational system on the college level sufficiently financed and equipped to provide every student with adequate physical facilities to meet his instructional, research, and residential needs.

I therefore recommend legislation which will—

(1) Extend the current college housing loan program with a 5-year $250 million a year program designed to meet the Federal Government's appropriate share of residential housing for students and faculty. As a start, additional lending authority is necessary to speed action during fiscal 1961 on approvable loan applications already on hand.

(2) Establish a new, though similar, long-term, low-interest rate loan program for academic facilities, authorizing $300 million in loans each year for 5 years to assist in the construction of classrooms, laboratories, libraries, and related structures-sufficient to enable public and private higher institutions to accommodate the expanding enrollments they anticipate over the next 5 years; and also to assist in the renovation, rehabilitation, and modernization of such facilities.

III. ASSISTANCE TO COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

This Nation a century or so ago established as a basic objective the provision of good elementary and secondary school education to every child, regardless of means. In 1961, patterns of occupation, citizenship, and world affairs have so changed that we must set a higher goal. We must assure ourselves that every talented young person who has the ability to pursue a program of higher education will be able to do so if he chooses, regardless of his financial means.

Today private and public scholarship and loan programs established by numerous States, private sources, and the student loan program under the National Defense Education Act are making substantial contributions to the financial needs of many who attend our colleges. But they still fall short of doing the job that must be done. An estimated one-third of our brightest high school graduates are unable to go on to college, principally for financial reasons.

While I shall subsequently ask the Congress to amend and expand the student loan and other provisions of the National Defense Education Act, it is clear that even with this program many talented but needy students are unable to assume further indebtedness in order to continue their education.

I therefore recommend the establishment of a 5-year program with an initial authorization of $26,250,000 of State-administered scholarships for talented and needy young people which will supplement but not supplant those programs of financial assistance to students which are now in operation.

Funds would be allocated to the States during the first year for a total of 25,000 scholarships averaging $700 each, 37,500 scholarships the second year, and 50,000 for each succeeding year thereafter. These scholarships, which would range according to need up to a maximum stipend of $1,000, would be open to all young persons, without regard to sex, race, creed, or color, solely on the basis of their ability-as determined on a competitive basis—and their financial need. They would be permitted to attend the college of their choice, and free to select their own program of study. Inasmuch as tuition and fees do not normally cover the institution's actual expenses in educating the student, additional allowances to the college or university attended should accompany each scholarship to enable these institutions to accept the additional students without charging an undue increase in fees or suffering an undue financial loss.

IV. VOCATIONAL EDUCATION

The National Vocational Education Acts, first enacted by the Congress in 1917 and subsequently amended, have provided a program of training for industry, agriculture, and other occupational areas. The basic purpose of our Vocational education effort is sound and sufficiently broad to provide a basis for meeting future needs. However, the technological changes which have occurred in all occupationals call for a review and reevaluation of these acts, with a view toward their modernization.

To that end, I am requesting the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare to convene an advisory body drawn from the educational profession, laborindustry, and agriculture, as well as the lay public together with representation from the Departments of Agriculture and Labor, to be charged with the responsibility of reviewing and evaluating the current National Vocational Education Acts, and making recommendations for improving and redirecting the program.

CONCLUSION

These stimulatory measures represent an essential though modest contribution which the Federal Government must make to American education at every level. One-sided aid is not enough. We must give attention to both teachers' salaries and classrooms, both college academic facilities and dormitories, both scholarships and loans, both vocational and general education.

We do not undertake to meet our growing educational problems merely to compare our achievements with those of our adversaries. These measures are justified on their own merits-in times of peace as well as peril-to educate better citizens as well as better scientists and soldiers. The Federal Government's responsibility in this area has been established since the earliest days of the Republic-it is time now to act decisively to fulfill that responsibility for the sixties.

THE WHITE HOUSE, February 20, 1961.

JOHN F. KENNEDY.

Mrs. GREEN. Our witness has had a very busy week testifying before various committees of the House and the Senate almost every day.

Mr. Secretary, we are delighted that you have taken the time to come before our committee this morning and to present the administration's views on this very, very important piece of legislation. (The bill is as follows:)

[H.R. 5266, 87th Cong., 1st sess.]

A BILL To authorize assistance to public and other nonprofit institutions of higher education in financing the construction, rehabilitation, or improvement of needed academic and related facilities, and to authorize scholarships for undergraduate study in such institutions.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That this Act may be cited as the "College Academic Facilities and Scholarship Act".

FINDINGS AND DECLARATION OF POLICY

SEC. 2. The Congress hereby finds that the security and welfare of the United States require that this and future generations of American youth be insured ample opportunity for the fullest development of their intellectual capacities, and that this opportunity will be jeopardized unless the Nation's colleges and universities are encouraged and assisted in their efforts to accommodate rapidly growing numbers of youth who aspire to a higher education, and unless steps are taken to encourage promising youth in their pursuit of this goal by holding out to them both the prospect of national recognition of their promise and the assurance that economic obstacles to self-fulfillment can be overcome. Congress further finds and declares that these needs are so great and these steps so urgent that it is incumbent upon the Nation to take positive and immediate action to meet these needs through assistance to institutions of higher education in providing classrooms and other academic facilities, and through undergraduate scholarships for young people of outstanding ability who need such scholarship assistance to go to college.

The

TITLE I-LOANS FOR CONSTRUCTION OF ACADEMIC FACILITIES

LENDING AUTHORITY

SEC. 101. The Commissioner of Education (hereinafter in this title referred to as "Commissioner") may, in accordance with the provisions of this title, make loans to institutions of higher education or to higher education building agencies for construction of academic facilities.

LOAN LIMIT FOR ANY STATE

SEC. 102. Not more than 122 per centum of the funds provided for in this title in the form of loans shall be used for loans to institutions of higher education or higher education building agencies within any one State.

ELIGIBILITY CONDITIONS, AMOUNTS, AND TERMS OF LOANS

SEC. 103. (a) No loan pursuant to this title shall be made unless the Commissioner finds (1) that not less than one-fourth of the development cost of the facility will be financed from non-Federal sources, (2) that the applicant is unable to secure the amount of such loan from other sources upon terms and conditions equally as favorable as the terms and conditions applicable to loans under this title, and (3) that the construction will be undertaken in an economical manner and that it will not be of elaborate or extravagant design or materials.

(b) A loan pursuant to this title shall be secured in such manner, and shall be repaid within such period not exceeding fifty years, as may be determined by the Commissioner; and shall bear interest at a rate determined by the Commissioner which shall not be more than the higher of (1) 24 per centum per annum, or (2) a per annum rate that is one-quarter of 1 percentage point above the rate of interest paid by the Commissioner on funds obtained from the Secretary of the Treasury as provided in subsection (d) of this section.

(c) In order to obtain funds for loans under this title, the Commissioner may, on or after July 1, 1961, from time to time issue notes and obligations for purchase by the Secretary of the Treasury. The maximum aggregate principal amount of such notes and obligations outstanding at any one time shall be such amount as may specified from time to time in appropriation Acts, but the amounts so outstanding at any time shall not exceed (1) the intitial sum of $300,000,000 until June 30, 1962, inclusive, and (2) thereafter, $300,000,000 plus such additional sums as are equal to a rate of annual increase of $300,000,000 in such initial sum as of July 1 of each of the calendar years 1962 to 1965.

(d) Notes or other obligations issued by the Commissioner under this title shall be in such forms and denominations, have such maturities, and be subject to such terms and conditions as may be prescribed by the Commissioner, with the approval of the Secretary of the Treasury, and shall bear interest at a rate determined by the Secretary of the Treasury which shall be not more than the higher of (1) 21⁄2 per centum per annum, or (2) the average annual interest rate on all interest-bearing obligations of the United States then forming a part of the public debt as computed at the end of the fiscal year next preceding the issuance by the Commissioner and adjusted to the nearest one-eighth of 1 per centum. The Secretary of the Treasury is authorized and directed to purchase any notes and other obligations of the Commissioner issued under this title and for such purpose is authorized to use as a public-debt transaction the proceeds from the sale of any securities issued under the Second Liberty Bond Act, as amended, and the purposes for which securities may be issued under such Act, as amended, are extended to include any purchases of such notes and other obligations. The Secretary of the Treasury may at any time sell any of the notes or other obligations acquired by him under this section. All redemptions purchases, and sales by the Secretary of the Treasury of such notes or other obligations shall be treated as public-debt transactions of the United States.

(e) There are hereby authorized to be appropriated to the Commissioner such sums as may be necsessary, together with loan principal and interest payments made by institutions of higher education or higher education building agencies assisted hereunder, for payments on notes or other obligations issued by the Commissioner under this section.

LABOR STANDARDS

SEC. 104. (a) The Commissioner shall not approve any application for a loan under this title except upon adequate assurance that all laborers and mechanics employed by contractors or subcontractors in the performance of work on construction assisted by such loan will be paid wages at rates not less than those prevailing on similar construction in the locality as determined by the Secretary of Labor in accordance with the Davis-Bacon Act, as amended (40 U.S.C. 176a276a-5), and will receive compensation at a rate not less than one and one-half times the basic rate of pay for all hours worked in any workweek in excess of eight hours in any workday or forty hours in the workweek, as the case may be; but the Commissioner may waive the application of this subsection in cases or classes of cases where laborers or mechanics, not otherwise employed at any time in the construction of the project, voluntarily donate their services for the purpose of lowering the costs of construction and the Commissioner determines that any amounts saved thereby are fully credited to the educational institution undertaking the construction.

(b) The Secretary of Labor shall have, with respect to the labor standards specified in subsection (a) of this section, the authority and functions set forth in Reorganization Plan Numbered 14 of 1950 (15 F.R. 3176; 64 Stat. 1267), and section 2 of the Act of June 13, 1934, as amended (40 U.S.C. 276c).

GENERAL PROVISIONS

SEC. 105. (a) In the performance of, and with respect to, the functions, powers, and duties vested in him by this title the Commissioner, notwithstanding the provisions of any other law, shall

(1) prepare annually and submit a budget program as provided for wholly owned Government corporations by the Government Corporation Control Act, as amended; and

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