TABLE 2.-Projection of sources and amounts of funds for plant expansion,

The cost of facilities needed in the 6 years, 1960–65, based upon assumptions previously discussed, will be $9 billion. Institutions may be expected to provide $6.1 billion of this need. Assuming that the requirements to 1965 have been met, the cost of facilities needed in the 5-year period, 1966-70, will be $9.8 billion. Institutions may be expected to provide $7.6 billion of this need. Thus, deficits of $1.5 billion by 1965 and $2.5 billion by 1970 appear to be in prospect, as shown in chart 2 (p. 33b). Without the $250 million a year projected for the college housing programs, the gaps would be approximately doubled, reaching $2.9 billion by 1965 and $5.2 billion by 1970. (See chart 2.)

The Nation faces the challenge of providing its youth with the training required to meet the ever increasing responsibilities of a highly complex world. In order to meet this challenge, it will be necessary to take constructive action in all areas in which deficiencies exist, or in which gaps between needs and anticipated resources are in prospect. In this paper, careful effort has been made to estimate what will be required over a period of 10 years to overcome present and prospective deficiencies in the area of physical facilities in institutions of higher learning. The manner in which this deficit is to be overcome is a problem to be decided by the American people.

Mr. RIBICOFF. Title I of the bill provides for loans to institutions of higher education in order to finance up to three-fourths of the cost of construction, acquisition, or repair of any needed academic facility. The total amount authorized to be available for such loans is $1.5 billion, to be made available over a 5-year period at a rate of $300 million per year.

Loans would be at a rate identical with that of the college housing loan program (now 3.5 percent). Loans could have a maturity of up to 50 years, but practice is more likely to follow that of college housing loans, where the average maturity is under 40 years.

The program would be administered directly by the U.S. Office of Education, on an application and approval basis. No provision is made for State allotment of funds, but a limit of 121/2 percent is placed on the amount of total loans authorized that may be made to institutions in any State.

All accredited public and nonprofit private institutions of higher education would be eligible, so long as they offer work toward the bachelor's degree. Excluded from eligibility would be facilities that are intended primarily for events for which admission is to be charged to the general public.

The President has also recommended amendments to the college housing loan program which would increase the program ceiling for 5 years, 1962 through 1966, at a rate not to exceed $250 million a year. These amendments have been referred to the Committee on Banking and Currency.

These construction loan proposals, if fully utilized, would provide the Nation's colleges and universities with funds for physical plant expansion and improvement totaling $2.75 billion over the 5-year period. In our opinion, these funds, when combined with other Federal construction expenditures (such as the proposed medical teaching facilities grant program) would make an important contribution toward closing the projected financial gap to which I referred a minute ago. They would account for about $1 out of every $3 needed to meet projected construction costs. They would thus be a substantial addition to higher education sources of financing, without preempting the role of other traditional sources.

Our projections of need are based upon the assumption of continuing growth of construction aid from traditional sources, including State appropriations, gifts, and grants from alumni, friends, and industry. Even assuming this growth, however, one-third of the Nation's higher education construction needs would go unmet if the Congress did not enact the President's recommendations into law.

The figures speak for themselves. Without the proposed aid, our educational system would be crippled by a deficiency of one-third of needed construction.

SCHOLARSHIPS

No less urgent and no lesse compelling in its significance for the Nation's future strength is the need for encouragement and assistance to students of ability who are economically unable to go to college.

Various studies suggest that there are annually about 150,000 youths of outstanding ability who fail to continue their education and that from 60,000 to 100,000 of these would enter college if they could be assisted in surmounting the economic hurdle of higher education costs. This group of superior high school graduates, whose families lack adequate financial resources, constitutes an untapped reservoir of potential leadership we must draw upon if we are to meet our obligations for world leadership and our hopes for economic growth.

Consider for a moment another revealing set of facts. College and university tuition fees during the past decade have increased approximately 86 percent. The average annual current expenditure of a student attending college and living away from home increased between 1953 and the current academic year (1960-61) from approximately $1,200 to $1,650 per student. When this cost is considered in relation to the fact that, in 1959, the median income of heads of families 35 to 54 years of age was $6,140, it is easy to understand why many families with modest incomes find it difficult to send their sons and daughters to college.

In short, the financial burden of a college education is a significant deterrent to the realization of an American ideal-equality of opportunity for all. It is also a deterrent to the meeting of an urgent national need for highly educated people. Failure to reduce this economic barrier would, therefore, constitute a threat to the welfare of the Nation in hard economic and national security terms, as well as in the realm of national ideals and values.

The financial help that has been available to these students has been too limited, not only in the number of scholarships but in the size of the scholarships. Often, the award is small and fails to do the job that is needed. The proposed Federal scholarship program will provide the largest scholarships to those students most in need of help. It would provide effective scholarships in that the funds available will be sufficient to allow a student to enter college and reach his educational goal.

Admittedly, many factors, some of which are difficult to isolate, play an important part in determining higher education plans. However, there is considerable evidence that early identification of talented youth and proper guidance, coupled with adequate financial aid, would immediately induce larger numbers of talented but needy youth to develop their full capacities through higher education.

We are making some important progress. Through the programs of the National Defense Education Act we can now identify these youngsters early enough to do something about them; we are improving the guidance services available to them in their schools; and we are seeking to improve the quality of their schoolwork.

In addition, the student loan program provides an opportunity for many of those already in college to help pay for their education costs. To accept the student-loan concept as the sole answer to the problem would, however, mean that in many instances those going to college from the lowest income group would graduate from college with the greatest burden of debt. What is needed now-and H.R. 5266 would provide it is a capstone to the larger program of identification and encouragement of the youth.

If our policy is to insure that our best will be given a chance to do their level best-and our national security would seem to demand no less consideration must be given to providing additional ways of assisting superior, but financially needy, high school graduates to continue with their education. With these considerations in mind, the President has recommended a Federal program of scholarships to able but needy youth.

H.R. 5266 would amend title II of the National Defense Education Act to establish such a program on a modest scale. It would carry out a basic recommendation of President Kennedy in his recent message to the Congress on education:

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.

The program is designed to provide during the next 5 years a total of 212,500 undergraduate scholarship awards. It is estimated that the initial 1962 appropriation would provide a total of 25,000 scholarships. These moneys would be allotted to the States on the basis of a formula taking into account in each State the number of students of high school age and the number of high school graduates.

Madam Chairman, I should like to insert in the record a table indicating the State-by-State distribution of these awards.

Mrs. GREEN. Without objection, it will be inserted into the record.

(The document is as follows:)

Estimated number of scholarships and amount of money allocated to States under the terms of the administration-proposed revision of title II of NDEA

1 Based on the assumption that the amount per scholarship in each State will average $700.

2 Consists of the total new scholarships to be made available for fiscal years 1963, 1964, 1965, and 1966.

NOTE. The allocation to each State is estimated on the basis of 1957-58 high school graduates and 1958 population aged 14 to 18.