CHAPTER X-ARGUMENTS PRO AND CON

CONTENTS

A. Arguments for Federal aid for school construction.

B. Arguments against Federal aid for school construction. From time to time over a period of years the question of Federal aid to school construction has arisen in public discussion. The arguments have had wide ramifications, in most cases involving the broader question of Federal aid to elementary and secondary education in general. Following is a résumé of major arguments for and against the general proposition of Federal aid to the construction of public schools.1 Other arguments might be advanced for or against the proposition, particularly in reference to specific proposals.

A. ARGUMENTS FOR FEDERAL AID FOR SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION

1. The Federal Government has a fundamental interest in the provision of facilities for the general education of the national citizenry, because the very preservation of our form of government depends upon the adequate education of the whole population.

The successful functioning of our republican form of government requires that all citizens obtain the basic education necessary for intelligent and informed participation in the life and work of the Nation. We cannot preserve the Republic unless all the people are educationally equipped to understand its basic principles and their application to current problems.

In this time of worldwide conflict of ideologies, a high level of political intelligence resulting from adequate provisions for basic education would contribute most toward a victory for our American ideals. In such a time of propaganda warfare and subversive activities the ability of our people to think and evaluate correctly is of immeasurable importance.

If total war comes, victory will depend upon the capacities of the whole people. Their abilities will depend in turn upon the provisions for their education.

During World War II the Federal Government found it necessary to spend billions of dollars in training not only military but also civilian personnel in practically all subject fields at all educational levels. If the Federal Government had previously aided the States in providing better schools, much of this very costly emergency training would have been unnecessary.

If the Federal Government continues to leave to the States practically all responsibility for provisions for the education

Arguments adapted in part from a number of sources including particularly: Federal Aid to Education, by Howard A. Dawson, National Education Association of the United States, 1939, processed; Which Way Education, and Some Arguments Against Federal Aid to General Education, by John R. Miles, Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America, Washington, D. C., 1947 and 1948, processed; Federal Aid to Elementary and Secondary Education, by Charles A Quattlebaum, the Legislative Reference Serivce, the Library of Congress, Washington, D. C., 1948, processed. Some of the more recent sources used are

named in footnotes.

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of the civilian population we may not win the next war. There will not be time to carry out an effective national training program for a large percentage of the whole population.

Reports from the Selective Service System regarding the educational level of our population indicate clearly the need for Federal action to enable the States to remove permanently the causes of functional illiteracy. Of an estimated 15,687,500 men aged 18 through 37 examined for military duty during World War II about 5,249,200 or about 34 percent were rejected as unfit for military service. This is an astounding evidence of national weakness which in considerable measure resulted from the failure of the Federal Government to help the States and localities provide basic education for all.

Over 1,254,000, or about 36 percent of 3,507,000 young men aged 18/21⁄2 through 25 examined for military service between July 1, 1950, and September 1, 1953, were rejected. Most of the specific causes for rejection of these men would have been diminished directly or indirectly by more and better education early in their lives.

Data on rejections of men for the specific cause of not having attained a fourth-grade education, as measured by Army tests, are revealing. Within a selected period of 12 months during World War II rejections for this cause numbered 1 in every 30 white registrants and 1 in every 10 Negro registrants examined. Figures based on a sampling of about 7 million men in the Army show that nearly 1 in 3 had the equivalent of only 8 years of schooling or less. The proportions in other branches of the Armed Forces are not considerably different. If better school buildings and equipment had been provided, many of these men probably would have found school more attractive and would have remained longer in school.

About half of the rejections during both World War II and the period of the Korean conflict were for failure to pass the Armed Forces qualification test. In other words about half the men rejected were found unequipped to absorb the training given in the Armed Forces. As many of the men were rejected for this reason as for all other reasons together.

Under the pressure of World War II thousands of men inadequately educated for military service were nevertheless inducted into the Army. These men were put in centers where they were taught to read and write. The cost of this little bit of general education under such circumstances was very high. It was enough to have given each man, under ordinary circumstances, several years of high standard education in many good schools throughout the Nation.

The Director of the Selective Service System, Maj. Gen. Lewis B. Hershey, has pointed out that:

If ever again we are

If we are to prepare, we must do it in time of peace. * * * forced to mobilize, it will be mobilization to fight, not to train.

The Federal Government is responsible for the defense of the Nation. It must assure adequate provisions for general education of the whole population to meet the needs of national defense.

2. Federal assurance of adequate educational facilities for all is becoming increasingly necessary for the general welfare and progress of the Nation in times of peace as well as in times of war.

This country is no longer composed of self-contained and fairly independent communities. Its welfare and development increasingly depend upon the adequate training of youth throughout the entire

ation. The high selective-service rejection rates have revealed the tional shortage of young men educationally equipped not only for litary service but also for every other type of service to the Nation times of peace as well as in times of war.

Our Federal Government, which needs competent service from all r youth in time of war, must assure adequate facilities for the traing of all our youth for all worthy activities in time of peace. Pracally no one would question that the Federal Government has a vital terest in the reduction of juvenile delinquency, improvement of alth standards, lengthening of life, reduction of poverty, unemployent, and relief, increase of individual income and the advancement the general and cultural welfare of the Nation. It is well known at such benefits are produced by more and better education,2 which quires more and better buildings and equipmer t.

A study published by the Research Division of the National Educan Association in October 1953 concluded that "schools help prevent linquency." Statistics compiled by the Federal Emerge icy Relief ministration during the depression of the 1930's showed that low andards for education and high relief rates go hand-in-hand. In neral, people living in States, cities and cominunities with superior ucational systems enjoy better health, lower death rates, and higher pectation of life than those with poor schools.

In those parts of our country where economic conditions and edutional facilities are the poorest the birth rate is the highest. It will disastrous for the Nation to continue to draw from these areas a proportionately large percentage of its manpower, unless the deral Government takes action to improve the provisions for ucation in these needy localities.

Federal assistance to school construction would make possible ojects which would provide employment to many persons and ord a bulwark against depression and against the necessity for large deral outlays for emergency relief.

The better educated citizenry resulting from the Federal aid would >mote political welfare, locally and nationally. The reduction of equal provisions for public education would diminish racial and ss tensions. Altogether the Federal aid to school construction uld produce a number of economic, political, and social benefits tributing markedly to the national welfare ard progress.

1. The high mobility of our population makes inadequate provisions education in any locality a national concern.

Cach year thousands of our people migrate to wealthy industrial ters from relatively poor areas in which educational facilities are dequate. The 1950 census showed that the Nation's population ecoming more predominantly urban as farm population continues decline. Between 1940 and 1950 the rural population increased y 7.4 percent, while the population inside cities increased 11 pert and the population in the suburbs 37 percent.

ver 23 million of our people (23.5 percent of the total population) 950 were living in States other than the States in which they were h. Over 3 million people born in the North were living in the th, and over 5 million born in the South were living in the North.

amber of Commerce of the United States, Education-An Investment in People, 1944; and Educateps Up Living Standards, 1945. (Also other studies.)

Nearly 6 million born east of the Mississippi River were living west of it; and nearly 3 million born west of the Mississippi were living east of it.3

During the decade from 1940 to 1950 there was a great migration of Negroes from the South into the eight major industrial StatesCalifornia, Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. Within this period the white population of these 8 States gained only about 14 percent, but their Negro population gained nearly 55 percent. During the same period, however, the Negro population of the South remained virtually at a standstill while the white population gained about 4.5 million people. The white population gain in the South was nearly 100 times the gain of Negro population in that region.*

According to census data, about 30 million of our people move to other homes each year. About 5 million of these change their resi dence from one State to another. These migrants take with them the results of their schooling, whether good or bad. The inter-State migration creates a national, educational concern in two ways. The wealthier States which receive inadequately educated migrants from other States find these people liabilities in the more highly developed economic situations into which they have moved. On the other hand, certain States, particularly a number of those in the South, have for many years experienced an economic loss from educating large num bers of persons who have migrated to other States, contributing nothing to the gain of their native States.

Much industrial strife is caused by the migration of thousands of inadequately educated workers to the great industrial centers where they encounter problems with which they are unprepared to deal. Enlightened self-interest demands that the richer States protect their citizenship and economic security by promoting the level of educa tion in the poorer communities from which they will inevitably draw a part of their population. This might be accomplished in large measure through a Federal program of aid to school construction in the poorer parts of the country.

4. The bestowing of citizenship upon Negroes created an undischarged Federal obligation to help the States having large Negro populations meet their educational needs.

The 14th amendment to the Constitution gave citizenship to millions of almost wholly uneducated Negroes. But here the Federal Government left the matter. It made no attempt to prepare the Negroes for citizenship. The whole burden of educating the Negroes for citizenship was left to the States having the largest Negro populations.

Educating the Negroes became the task of the States which had been invaded and devastated and whose economy had been de stroyed the States whose white citizens had been rendered unable to tax themselves sufficiently to maintain adequate schools for their own children, much less for the children of the millions of Negroes who owned no revenue yielding property. These States are still carrying exceptionally heavy educational burdens largely because of the Negro population.

U. S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, United States Census of Population 1950, Speca Report P-E No. 4A. Census Shows Negro Trend Away from the Southern States, Washington Star, October 30, 1951, p. A^&