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PROPOSED DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION,
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
Wednesday, April 25, 1928.

The committee this day met, Hon. Daniel A. Reed (chairman) presiding.

The CHAIRMAN. The committee will come to order. This is a hearing on H. R. 7, a bill introduced by the chairman of this committee to create a department of education, and for other purposes. If there is no objection, I will reserve the right to make a statement as author of the bill, to go into the hearings, and will not take the time of the committee now. This morning we are to hear those who are in favor of the bill, and when they have concluded, whether it be to-day or later, those who are opposed to the bill will have their opportunity to come in and be heard fully.

STATEMENT OF DANIEL A. REED, CHAIRMAN COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Mr. REED. The committee has met to consider House bill H. R. 7, known as the education bill. This bill, or others somewhat like it, has been before Congress for the past eight or nine years, and I know it is the hope of the members of the committee that we may at this hearing get some light on the bill-its provisions, why it is necessary, and how it would work.

1. We know that the Federal Government has always been interested in the promotion of education and we want to ascertain if the purpose of this bill means in any sense a departure from the established policy of the Federal Government.

2. The United States has supported a Bureau of Education in the Department of the Interior for more than a half century. If this bureau is not adequate the committee wants to know in what ways it is inadequate and what remedy, if any, the present bill proposes for this inadequacy.

3. The present bill provides for scientific investigations or research in various fields. What would be the advantages of such research study to the country as a whole and to the different types of education?

4. The committee would like any light that it can receive on the question of the constitutionality of the present bill, especially if there are any provisions in the bill that place control of education in any way with the secretary of education.

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5. The members of the committee would like to know how the present bill would affect private and sectarian schools throughout the country.

6. The committee wants to know whether or not the present bill is tied in with the proposal for Federal aid or whether in the judgment of those who are proponents of the measure the question of Federal aid is entirely independent of the present measure.

7. The committee would like to know definitely who are in favor of this bill and who are against it, together with facts, reasons, and arguments held by opposing groups.

If the committee can get light on the foregoing matters, the members will be in much better position to form a definite opinion as to the desirability of the bill.

STATEMENT OF DR. WILLIAM M. DAVIDSON, SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS, PITTSBURGH, PA., AND CHAIRMAN LEGISLATIVE COMMISSION, NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION

Mr. SEARS. Doctor Davidson had charge of our Omaha schools before he went to Pittsburgh, and no man in the State of Nebraska is esteemed any higher educationally and otherwise than Doctor Davidson.

Mr. LEATHERWOOD. The same applies to Kansas.

Doctor DAVIDSON. I am glad to see my two friends from Nebraska and Kansas here. The last hearing held by your committe on this bill happened to fit in precisely with the annual meeting of the National Education Association, which was in session in Washington at that time. That fact caused a very large group of school men and women to be present at the former hearing, showing how deep the interest was in this proposed legislation so far as the National Education Association group itself is concerned.

As the chairman of the legislative commission of the National Education Association I have invited only a very small group of representative school men and women to be present at this time. Some of them will participate in the hearing this morning and some this afternoon, while the other members of our group will not reach Washington until tomorrow. This is in accordance with the plan which we thought had met with your approval, Mr. Chairman, when it was agreed that the two days, April 25 and 26, should be set aside for the proponents of the Curtis-Reed bill. I should like to open the hearing with a statement that covers briefly the history of the whole movement looking toward the creation of a secretaryship in the President's Cabinet.

The movement for creation of a department of education is no newly advanced theory of the teaching profession. Rather, it is a century old idea that is known to have been favored by our third President, Thomas Jefferson, and by other leaders of his day. As early as 1838 Henry Barnard, of Connecticut, began urging establishment in the Federal Government of some agency to collect and disseminate educational facts and statistics. This agitation kept up during the succeeding years until 1854 when a plan for the establishment of a department of education was formulated and presented at the annual meeting of the Association for the Advancement of

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