the amount of the Federal allotment to each such State, computed in accordance with the foregoing provisions of this section, the amount to be paid to each eligible State shall bear the same ratio to the amount of the Federal allotment to each such State as 98 97 per centum of such appropriation bears to the sum of the Federal allotments to all eligible States.

(G) From 28 per centum of the funds appropriated pursuant to section 3 of this Act, such sums as may be necessary shall be apportioned by the Commissioner to Alaska, Hawaii, the Canal Zone, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, the Virgin Islands, and Guam according to their respective needs for additional funds for public elementary and public secondary schools upon the basis of joint agreements made with their respective State educational authorities.

CERTIFICATION AND PAYMENT

SEC. 5. The United States Commissioner of Education shall certify for each fiscal year the amounts to be paid under this Act to each State that has which is qualified under section 7 of this Act to the Secretary of the Treasury, who shall, through the fiscal service of the Treasury Department and prior to audit or settlement by the General Accounting Office, pay to the treasurer or corresponding official of such State the amount certified for such fiscal year in four equal installments, as soon after the first day of each quarter as may be feasible, beginning with the first quarter of the fiscal year for which appropriations made under the authorization of this Act are available. Such treasurer or corresponding official shall pay out such funds only on the requisition of the State educational authority. Any amount so certified to the State during any fiscal year not expended or obligated by the State at the close of the fiscal year, for purposes specified in section 6, shall be deducted from the State's allotment for the succeeding fiscal year.

AVAILABILITY of apprOPRIATIONS

SEC. 6. In order more nearly to equalize educational opportunities, the funds paid to a State from the funds appropriated under section 3 of this Act shall be available for disbursement by the State educational authority, either directly or through payments to local public-school jurisdictions or other State public-education agencies, for any current expenditure for elementary or secondary school purposes for which educational revenues derived from State or local sources may legally and constitutionally be expended in such State.

STATE ACCEPTANCE PROVISIONS

SEC. 7. (A) In order to qualify for receiving funds appropriated under this Act a State

(1) through its legislature, shall (a) accept the provisions of this Act and provide for the administration of funds to be received; (b) provide that the State treasurer or corresponding official in the State shall receive the funds paid to that State under this Act and shall be required to submit to the United States Commissioner of Education, on or before the 1st day of November of each year, for transmission to the Congress, a detailed statement of the amount so received for the preceding fiscal year and of its disbursement; (c) provide that its State educational authority shall represent the State in the administration of funds received; (d) provide for an annual audit, and for the submission of a copy thereof to the Commissioner, of the expenditure of funds received under this Act, and for a system of reports from local publicschool jurisdictions and other State public-education agencies to the State educational authority; (e) provide that the State educational authority shall make reports to the Commissioner with respect to the progress of education, en forms to be provided by the Commissioner such reports in such form and containing such information concerning the administration of this Act as the Commissioner may reasonably require and give him upon request access to the records on which such reports are based, which reports the Commissioner shall transmit to the Congress with recommendations for such revisions of this Act as in his judgment the Congress should consider, with particular reference to recommendations arising from changing conditions in our national economy; (f) in States where separate public schools are maintained for minority races, provide for a just and equitable apportionment of such funds to public schools maintained for minority races, without reduction of the proportion of revenues, derived from State or and local sources, expended for educational purposes during the fiscal year ended in 1949 for public elementary-school and public secondary-school education of minority races: Provided. That, until the end

of the fiscal year in which occurs the adjournment of the first regular session of the legislature of any State, which convenes after the enactment of this Act, or until such legislature takes the action required under this section to qualify for receiving funds, whichever first occurs, such State shall be deemed to qualify for receiving such funds if the chief executive of such State takes the action required under this section to so qualify;

(2) through its legislature, shall provide that the State educational authority shall formulate and effectuate, for each fiscal year beginning after June 30, 1953, a plan for the apportionment of amounts paid to such State from funds appropriated pursuant to section 3 of this Act for such fiscal year under which (a) there will be available from all sources to each local public-school jurisdiction or other State public-education agency, for current expenditures for public elementary-school and public secondary-school education, an amount per pupil in average daily attendance at public elementary and secondary schools within such local public-school jurisdiction, or under the jurisdiction of such State public-education agency, not less than $50 $55 or, in any fiscal year for which the amount to be paid to a State is less by reason of the provisions of paragraph (F) of section 4 than the amount of the Federal allotment to such State, an amount which bears the same ratio to $50 $55 as 98 97 per centum of the funds appropriated for such fiscal year pursuant to section 3 bears to the sum of all Federal allotments under section 4; and (b) in States where separate schools are maintained for minority races, there will be available from all sources to each local public-school jurisdiction or other State public-education agency for current expenditures for the schools maintained within such local public-school jurisdiction, or under the jurisdiction of other State public-education agency, for such races an amount per pupil in average daily attendance in such schools not less than the amount per pupil required under clause (a) to be made available with respect to all schools within such local public-school jurisdiction or under the jurisdiction of such other State public-education agency.

(3) shall transmit through its State educational authority to the United States Commissioner of Education notice of acceptance and certified copies of the legislative enactments and the regulations that may be issued by the State educational authority in connection with such funds. Any amend ment of such enactments and revisions of regulations shall in like manner be transmitted to said Commissioner.

(B) The funds appropriated pursuant to section 3 of this Act shall be paid only to those States which, during the preceding fiscal year, have provided from revenues derived from State and local sources for all public elementary-school and public secondary-school purposes an amount equivalent to at least one of the following: (1) The total amount actually spent for such purposes from such sources in the fiscal year ended in 1949, or (2) the amount per pupil in average daily attendance actually spent for such purposes from such sources in the fiscal year ended in 1949.

RIGHT OF APPEAL

SEC. 8. In the event a State educational authority is dissatisfied with any action by the United States Commissioner of Education taken with respect to such State pursuant to this Act, or with his failure to take any action with respect to such State pursuant to this Act, such authority shall have a right to appeal to the Commissioner to change the action he has taken or to take the action he has failed to take, and to present to him in support of such appeal such statements and other evidence as such authority may deem appropriate. If the action taken by the Commissioner on such appeal is not satisfactory to the State educational au thority, or if he fails to act thereon within ninety days after he receives such appeal, such authority shall have a right to appeal to the United States district court for any district in which any part of such State is located. The court shall receive in evidence a copy of the statements and other evidence presented by the State educational authority to the Commissioner record made before the Commissioner, including a copy of the Commissioner's ruling, and such further evidence as the court in its discretion deems proper shall be relevant and material; and shall have jurisdiction to enter such judgment as the facts and the law may require. The judgment of the court shall be subject to review by the Supreme Court of the United Stales, upon certiorari or certification as provided in the United States Code, title 28,

section 1254.

DEFINITIONS

SEC. 9. As used in this Act

(A) The term "State" shall include the several States, the District of Columbia, Alaska, and Hawaii, Puerto Rico, the Canal Zone, American Samoa, the Virgin Islands, and Guam.

(B) The term "legislature" means the State or Territorial legislature or other comparable body, except that in the District of Columbia it shall mean the Board of Education, and in American Samoa and the Virgin Islands it shall mean the Governor.

(C) The term "minority race" shall mean any race or racial group that constitutes a minority of the population of the continental United States.

(D) A just and equitable apportionment of the funds provided under this Act for the benefit of public schools maintained for minority races in a State which maintains by law separate public schools for minority races, means any plan of distribution which resuits in the expenditure, for the benefit of such minority race of a proportion of said funds not less than the proportion that such minority race in such State bears to the total population of that State.

(E) The term "State educational authority" means, as the State legislature may determine, (1) the chief State school officer (such as the State superintendent of public instruction, commissioner of education, or similar officer), or (2) a board of education controlling the State department of education; except that in the District of Columbia it shall mean the Board of Education, and in American Samoa, Guam, and the Virgin Islands, it shall mean the Governor.

(F) The term "current expenditures" does not include expenditures for interest, debt service, and capital outlay or capital outlay, nor does it include expenditures for health services for the prevention, diagnosis, or treatment of physical or mental defects or conditions.

SEPARABILITY

SEC. 10. If any provision of this Act or application thereof to any State, person, or circumstance is held invalid, the remainder of the Act, and the application of such provision to other States, persons, or circumstances shall not be affected thereby.

The question of principle whether or not the Federal Government should establish a policy of financial assistance to the States in the field of education was not at issue before the committce. From the beginning, the Federal Government has encouraged education through various types of grants-in-aid. Federal aid to the States for education is not new. The considerations of the committee had to do with the wisdom and necessity of extending financial aid to the States on a systematic basis for primary and secondary schools, and the manner in which this might be done best to meet the needs.

Extensive hearings on Federal support for elementary and secondary education were held by the Committee on Education and Labor of the Seventy-ninth Congress. A report of that committee, recommending the enactment of S. 181,' outlines arguments in support of Federal aid to education. These arguments were resubstantiated fully by abundant and convincing evidence examined by the hearings. held by the Committee on Labor and Public Welfare of the Eightieth Congress on S. 472,2

Such new evidence as has been brought to the attention of the present committee has served only to underscore the conclusions. of the earlier reports. In recent months, as a result of economic adjustments following World War II, the critical inadequacy of the financial structure supporting American school systems has been accentuated.

At no time has there been greater public attention to the problems of extending educational opportunity. The facts are now legion, the arguments patent. In the national interest the Federal Government must assume the responsibility of seeing that all American

1S. Rept. No. 1497, 79th Cong.

Cite hearings on S. 472.

children and youth have an opportunity for a defensible minimum of education.

THE BASIS FOR A FEDERAL POLICY

The primary obligation to educate children under our constitutional system falls on the States and local communities, control being in the State. The public-school systems in the United States operate under State law and receive their primary support through provision made by the several States and their political subdivisions.

The national interest

In our Federal form of government, the youth of our country are not only citizens of the States in which they reside, but also citizens of the entire Nation. There is a free movement of population and commerce among the States. Each State is economically dependent upon the others. Due to increased population mobility, moreover, future citizens of areas in which there is the greatest concentration of wealth are now being educated or neglected in the less-privileged areas. No State is immune to the diffusion of ignorance.

We are a great and wealthy Nation. The Federal Government is authorized to levy taxes to provide for the general welfare and, under that constitutional authority, has the right to dispense money to the States for purposes not within the constitutional power of the United States to control or regulate.

Not only are some of the States relatively poor, but States in general have a limited power of taxation. Though the Federal Government's powers of taxation are not unlimited, its revenue resources have increased at a much greater rate than have the sources of revenue within States and their political subdivisions upon which the costs of public education must depend.

Apart from the general humanitarian interest of establishing a floor under educational expenditures, equality of opportunity lies at the basis of the entire Republic. No child can begin to have equality of opportunity unless he has in his youth, above all, effective schooling. It is the concern of the entire Nation to see that the principles of the Declaration of Independence and of the Constitution are translated into reality.

Citizenship and education

Democracy cannot function, nor can it carry its heavy international responsibilities, unless all citizens obtain the basic education to permit intelligent and informed participation in the work and life of the Nation. Our children are facing today a tremendously complex world. There are serious economic problems and social problems requiring intelligent solution; there is international unrest; and there are many other problems which, to be properly met, require the best training and education our children can possibly be given. It is evident that millions of them are not getting this now.

Education and the preservation of democracy

We cannot preserve the Republic at all unless the people are taught to read and to think so that they can understand its basic principles and the application of those principles to current problems. No man can be free who does not understand the opportunities which lie before him. No man can have equality of opportunity if he has not

the knowledge to understand how to use the rights which may be conferred upon him in theory.

The most precious asset of this Nation, or any nation, is its children. To conserve and develop this human resource is the best insurance we can have for the future greatness and security of our Nation. Not only is education essential to economic welfare, but it is the major defense of liberty against totalitarianism.

THE NEED FOR FEDERAL ASSISTANCE

The dimensions of the educational crisis may be summarized as follows:

1. Vast numbers of American children are receiving a substandard education or no education at all.-(a) In the present school year, 1948-49, at least 2,000,000 children are suffering a major impairment in their schooling because of poorly prepared teachers and because of a widespread shortage of teachers and school facilities. One teacher in nine in public elementary and secondary education is serving on an emergency or substandard certificate.

(b) Because no qualified teachers could be found thousands of children have been closed out of schools or classes; other thousands are attending part-time schools.

(c) According to United States census estimates for the year 1947 about 4,000,000 children between the ages of 5 and 17, inclusive, attend no school whatever.

(d) The present lack of opportunity is an enlargement on long-time educational inadequacies which resulted (1) in the Federal census reporting in 1940 that 10,000,000 American adults had less than 5 years of schooling, and (2) in the fact that in World War II 12 percent of the young men rejected by the Selective Service were rejected for educational deficiencies.

2. School systems are unable to compete with other occupations for competent and trained personnel because of a lack of funds.During the war period teachers in unusually large numbers left the profession for better-paying opportunities in nonteaching employment. At least 350,000 qualified teachers left during the years from 1941 to 1945, many never to return. This exodus largely caused by low pay was in turn due to insufficient funds for educational purposes.

Under the pressure of higher living costs and the turn-over in employment school systems have raised salaries. The States have increased their financial aid. Yet in spite of this only three States have been able to enact a $2,400-minimum-salary law for all new teachers. Most States still have legal minimums below $2,000 annually even for teachers with 4 years of college preparation; one-third have prescribed no official minimum salary.

In 1947-48 careful estimates indicated that 43 percent of the teachers in public schools were to be paid less than $2,400 for the year; 12 percent had been promised salaries of less than $1,600.

Salaries in teaching are so unattractive that an unprecedentedly small number of college students are preparing for teaching.