The State subsidizes each special physical training teacher with an appropriation of $400. This year we have over 500 physical training teachers in New Jersey. In citing this as an example of what might be done throughout the Nation, have national legislation encourage local communities to carry on this important school work. There has never been any State control of our local physical education program. EXCERPT FROM ADDRESS DELIVERED BY SIR AUCKLAND GEDDES BEFORE NATIONAL CITIZEN'S CONFERENCE IN WASHINGTON IN MAY, 1923 It ultimately matters more to your State Department than anything else in the whole range of their manifold duties to know the color of the education given in the British Empire, in France, in Germany, in all the countries of South America-yes; in all the countries of the world-for, if your Secretary of State knows, let us say, the French color of education he will well know how that Nation will be thinking 10 years hence. EDUCATION'S FIGHT FOR RECOGNITION [By John K. Norton] The United States is unique among the civilized nations of the world in that it fails to recognize education as one of the fundamental interests of the Nation. When the President of the United States calls his Cabinet together for conference and advice, agriculture is so recognized. The one concern of the Secretary of Agriculture is the advancement of the Nation's agricultural efficiency. Congress, in 1923, authorized appropriations for the use of the Department of Agriculture to the amount of $145,500,000. The 1923 Digest of Appropriations lists in detail the specific purposes for which this sum was voted by Congress. The following are representative: Over a half million was appropriated "for nvestigating the disease of hog cholera and for its control or eradication by uch means as may be necessary either independently or in cooperation with armers' associations, State or county authorities." Six hundred thousand dollars was voted "for the payment of indemnities on account of cattle slaughtered in connection with the eradication of tuberculosis from animals." Over a half million was provided "for investigating the food habits of North American birds and other animals in relation to agriculture, horticulture, and forestry" and for similar investigations. In the President's Cabinet, commerce is recognized as a paramount national interest. The Secretary of Commerce speaks for the business interests of the Nation. Congress, in 1923, appropriated $21,000,000 for the work of this department. Nearly a half million dollars was provided "to investigate and report on domestic as well as foreign problems relating to production, distribution, and marketing." Nearly a million dollars was appropriated for the "collection of statistics including "semimonthly reports of cotton production"-and "quarterly reports of tobacco." "For protecting the sponge fisheries," $549,000 was provided. When the President's Cabinet meets, one member is present whose sole interest is the welfare of labor. Nearly nine million dollars was provided for the work of the Department of Labor by Congress in 1923. There was an appropriation of $225,000 "to foster, promote, and develop the welfare of the wage earners of the United States." The sum of $242,000 was appropriated for the maintenance of a bureau to collect statistics of peculiar significance to the wage earners of the Nation. Why is the Federal Government so generous in making appropriations for the advancement of the Nation's agricultural interests, in assisting in the solution of the great problems of modern business and industry, and in guarding the welfare of labor-while at the same time the most niggardly appropriations are made for investigations which would profoundly influence public-school practice in the direction of greater efficiency? Is it because the people of the Nation fail to appreciate the crucial part played by the public school in a democracy? Those who know the sentiment of the Nation would not accept this explanation. The answer is found in the organization of our Federal Government. Commerce and industry have a voice in the Nation's government. A Herbert Hoover constantly keeps the welfare and the problems of the Nation's great business interests before the President and his Cabinet. When the Secretary of Commerce discusses the Nation's business interests, the Nation listens. His prestige and ability command the attention of Congress. His recommendations for legislation designed to advance industry are not lightly passed by. A Wallace and a Davis similarly stand ever ready to speak for agriculture and for labor. Education has no such representation. Education is submerged in the Department of the Interior, which includes a diversity of national interests. Of the 1923 appropriation of $328,000,000 for the Department of the Interior, $161,990 was for the use of the United States Bureau of Education as such-or less than one-twentieth of 1 per cent. This figure is roughly representative of the percentage of the time and thought that education may expect to receive from Secretaries of the Interior. Is it not too much to expect that any Secretary of the Interior, selected because of his touch with a miscellany of great questions, such as the reclamation service, the industry of mining, and Indian affairs, will be in close touch with the vital problems of education? Only a department of education with a secretary in the President's Cabinet can expect to command the resources and respect that will lift education to the rightful place among the Nation's primary interests. It is too much to expect that the people of the Nation, that the Congress of the United States, or that the 800,000 teachers of the Nation will be satisfied with a submerged bureau enjoying a smaller appropriation than is made available for the use of the offices of some of our State superintendents of schools. Why is education a primary national interest? Why does education deserve to rank with agriculture, commerce, and labor? Education directly concerns all of our 110,000,000 people. Each year 25,000,000 children come under the direct influence of our 275,000 public schools. Close to $1,500,000,000 is being expended yearly for the maintenance of these schools. These schools affect every phase of our increasingly complex civilization. The results of good schools or of poor schools are not confined to the localities in which schools exist. The ignorance that results in hookworm in Alabama makes raw cotton more expensive in Massachusetts. Tuberculosis in Massachusetts adds to the cost of an Iowa farmer's overalls. The negro illiteracy of the South almost overnight becomes the problem of Pennsylvania. We are all affected, we are all poorer, when any of our population is physically or educationally below par. The education bill would (1) create a department of education with a secretary in the President's Cabinet; (2) create a national council of 100 representative educators and laymen; (3) encourage the States, by Federal aid, to meet five educational needs of national importance: (1) The removal of illiteracy; (2) the Americanization of the foreign-born; (3) the promotion of physical education; (4) the training of teachers; (5) the equalization of educational opportunities. It is for the public interest that tubercular hogs should be destroyed and that the owners of such hogs should be indemnified from Federal funds. But is the eradication of tubercular hogs of less national concern than the prevention of illiteracy among thousands of our native-born citizens? Is a half million dollar Federal appropriation "for investigating the disease of hog cholera and for its control or eradication by such means as may be necessary more of a national function than the appropriation of a similar amount to a department of education to "conduct studies in the field of education"? Is the provision of " quarterly reports" on tobacco production more of a national function than the provision of adequate school statistics for the guidance of local school boards in their expenditure of a billion and a half of school money each year? Public education is to-day a more important national interest than forest supervision, concrete highways, fish propagation, game preserves, or the control of cattle tick or bovine tuberculosis. All of these we accept to-day as proper national functions. We generally accept the principle of an equalization of advantages and burdens throughout wide areas by ordering common railway rates; common charges for electric light and power, water, gas, and telephone services; common costs for health and agricultural services and common postal rates. It costs the same to send a letter from Key West to Seattle as from Minneapolis to St. Paul. If rural residents paid the actual cost of the rural mail service, the cost of this service in many country districts would be prohibitive. It is only by a pooling of costs on a large scale, as expressed in common service rates, that common and universal services can be provided. These new services have come recently, after better ideas as to equalization have come to prevail. We accept an equalization of costs for them as perfectly proper. Education began much earlier, in the days of little things and local effort, and we often fail to-day to see that the same principle of equalization should apply. These fundamental facts are recognized in the education bill. In one of its first sections, it provides for the establishment of a department of education with a secretary of education in the President's Cabinet. Thus, education would be given the recognition which its primary importance in our democracy justifies. The education bill also creates a national council on education, an agency through which the best educational thought of the Nation could be pooled. In the national council each year would be brought together the following citizens to consider "subjects relating to the promotion and development of education": (1) The State superintendents or commissioners of the 48 States; (2) 25 persons not educators interested in the results of education from the standpoint of the public; (3) 25 educators representing different phases of education. This national council on education would be a tremendous force for better schools. To this body the secretary of education would present the results of the investigations of the department of education. Experience would be pooled. The mission of the public school in a democracy would receive careful thought. The results of this great annual conference on education would be carried back to the States by the State superintendents to be adopted by the local school boards in their direction of the schools-in making these schools better meet their local, State, and national purposes. "From the very beginning public education has been left mainly in the hands of the States. So far as schooling youth is concerned the policy has been justified, because no responsibility can be so effective as that of the local community alive to its task. I believe in the cooperation of the national authority to stimulate, encourage, and broaden the work of the local authorities. But it is the especial obligation of the Federal Government to devise means and effectively assist in the education of the newcomer from foreign lands, so that the level of American education may be made the highest that is humanly possible." (President Harding's message to Congress, December 8, 1922.) The education bill would further recognize the primary importance of education by authorizing substantial appropriations of Federal money to encourage the States to correct five outstanding educational deficiencies of national significance. Is education submerged?-Some appropriations for the Department of the Interior, 1923 Bureau of Pensions. Reclamation Service.. Construction and maintenance of Alaska Railroad. Support of Indians in Arizona. Bureau of Education.... $254, 246, 362. 67 14, 800, 021. 01 4, 510, 210. 00 1, 175, 000. 00 378, 000, 00 185, 000. 00 161, 990. 00 NOTE. These figures are from the Treasury Department's Digest of Appropriations, 1923. The figures given for the Bureau of Education do not include appropriations made for "education of natives in Alaska," nor similar outside work. It also does not include a sum of approximately $50,000 for printing and supplies, which is available, but not specifically appropriated for bureau use. This principle of Federal aid is not new. Education is receiving Federal aid now and has since the very beginning of our history. In 1785 Congress set aside lot No. 16 in every township "for the maintenance of public schools." Since then Congress has repeatedly granted land and money for the encouragement of education. The education bill would extend this principle by authorizing further Federal appropriations to be used by the States in the solution of five specific educational problems fundamental to worthy citizenship both in the States and in the Nation. The first of these problems is illiteracy. Five million illiterates were enumerated in the 1920 census. The majority of them-over 3,000,000-were nativeborn Americans. These 5,000,000 according to the census "should be understood as representing only those persons who have had no schooling whatever." In the draft one man in every four could not write a letter home or read a newspaper in English. Such a condition in a democracy is a menace. Economically it costs us nearly a billion annually according to an estimate made by Franklin K. Lane. Illiteracy and ignorance constitute a national problem and can be met successfully only by a national approach. This the bill recognizes by authorizing annually an appropriation, so long as the illiteracy problem continues, not to exceed $7,500,000 from the Federal Treasury to be apportioned among the several States for use in stamping out illiteracy. The second great national need recognized by the bill is the education of our enormous alien population. Eight million of our 14,000,000 foreign-born citizens come from countries in which from 25 to 80 per cent of the population is illiterate. Millions of these people are illiterate or unable to speak English. The lack of facilities for adult education makes it impossible for many of these people to take the first step toward becoming intelligent citizens. To aid in correcting this condition, the bill authorizes an annual maximum appropriation of $7,500,000 from the Federal Treasury for the use of the States in Americanizing our foreign-born adult population. A third object of the bill is the promotion of physical education. One million three hundred and forty thousand six hundred and twenty-three men, one in every six examined during the World War, were rejected for physical deficiencies. These men were supposedly in the prime of life, under 32 years of age. The great majority of their defects were preventable. "The economic loss to the Nation from preventable disease and death is $1,800,000,000 yearly" according to the report of Herbert Hoover's Committee on Waste in Industry. National educational liabilities Men rejected as unfit for military service......... Yearly economic loss "from preventable disease and death Yearly economic loss due to illiteracy.. Child workers between the ages of 10 and 15 (1920 census). Children between the ages of 7 and 13 not attending "any kind of educational institution" (1920 census) _ . 1, 340, 625 $1, 800, 000, 000 5, 000, 000 $825, 000, 000 1, 060, 858 1, 437, 000 Three out of every five teachers have less training than is generally required for teaching by advanced nations. The bill would strike straight at the menace of physical degeneration by authorizing the appropriation each year of not more than $20,000,000 for use of the States in promoting physical education. A fourth section of the bill further recognizes that the classroom taught by an untrained and an inexperienced teacher is a menace in a democracy. In the United States in 1923, 50,000 teachers with practically no experience and with no training beyond common school were attempting to prepare 1,000,000 children for citizenship in the world's greatest democracy unskilled labor for work requiring great skill. Children can not be prepared for successful citizenship in our present complex democracy by immature, untrained teachers. This is no new problem. It existed before the war. The war exaggerated the condition, but little has been done that is fundamentally corrective. The great majority of our teachers still possess less than the minimum amount of training ordinarily recognized as necessary for successful teaching by other civilized nations. By annually appropriating a maximum of $15,000,000 to aid the States in the training of teachers the bill would strike at one of our outstanding educational weak spots. Nothing could do more to elevate the teaching profession to a place of respect throughout the Nation than by allowing none but qualified teachers to undertake the skilled task of instructing the Nation's children. Over Finally, the bill aims to reduce the glaring educational inequalities that mock the Nation's ideal-an equal chance for all. Millions of American children are now being denied any educational opportunity. One million four hundred and thirty-seven thousand children from 7 to 13 years of age were listed by the last census as not attending "any kind of educational institution." 1,000,000 child workers were enumerated, counting only those from 10 to 15 years of age. Millions of other children are being given such meager school opportunities that they may be expected to reach maturity in ignorance, lacking even the fundamental tools-reading and writing-by which information may be acquired. Should education have a spokesman in the President's Cabinet?-Some Federal appropriations, 1923 Investigation and control of hog cholera. $510, 000 600, 000 Location and destruction of barberry bushes___ 350, 000 Purchase and distribution of valuable seeds.. 360, 000 94041-24-13 Prevention of manufacture and sale of adulterated foods. $671, 401 Preventing spread of moths.. 600, 000 Investigating food habits of North American birds and other animals. 502, 240 Enforcement of United States grain standard act 536, 000 Printing and binding, Department of Agriculture.. 800, 000 Suppressing spread of pink boll weevil.. 547, 840 Field investigations for promotion of commerce_ 379, 100 Investigation relating to production, distribution, and marketing. 450, 000 To promote and develop the welfare of wage earners.. Securing information for semimonthly reports on cotton production Testing structural material. Promotion of welfare and hygiene of maternity and infancy. For salaries and educational investigations of United States Bureau of Education............ 4, 200, 000 165, 000 1, 175, 000 378, 000 241, 960 1, 190, 000 225, 000 161, 990 Such educational inequalities weaken the whole Nation. The intelligent citizen's vote may be nullified by that of the ignorant. The denial of school opportunities to millions of American children is a matter that deserves national attention. This the bill recognizes by authorizing the yearly appropriation of not over $50,000,000 to encourage the States to equalize educational opportunities. This money would be used by the States for the partial payment of teachers' salaries, for providing better instruction, lengthened terms, and otherwise providing educational opportunities for all children. The accomplishment of these five great purposes would infinitely strengthen our schools. They can be most effectively accomplished through Federal aid and encouragement. None of the provisions of the bill would result in Federal control of education. The bill provides in the most specific terms for the continuance of State and local control of the schools. Section 13 states, "That all the educational facilities encouraged by the provisions of this act and accepted by a State shall be organized, supervised, and administered exclusively by the legally constituted State and local educational authorities of said State, and the secretary of education shall exercise no authority in relation thereto; and this act shall not be construed to imply Federal control of education within the States, nor to impair the freedom of the States in the conduct and management of their respective school systems.' The bill also provides that all Federal funds apportioned to a State under the act "shall be distributed and administered in accordance with the laws of said State and the State and local educational authorities of said State shall determine the courses of study, plans, and methods for carrying out the purposes" for which the Federal money is provided. SOME OF THE NATIONS THAT ACCORD EDUCATION PRIMARY RECOGNITION BY INCLUDING A MINISTER OF EDUCATION AMONG THE CABINET OFFICERS |