In some of the smaller schools the teacher of the vocational subject is also the administrative head of the school, although this practice is discouraged by the authorities in vocational education. In the larger cities vocational education is usually placed under the direction of a special supervisor, and teachers of the various vocational services are made responsible to this officer, so far as their instructional methods and procedures are concerned.

The ultimate success or failure of any important function such as vocational education will rest on the conduct of the program in the local centers. Even such an important step as the provision of Federal funds is only a means to the end of enabling the local school system to do the job better and more easily. The Federal and the State administrative machinery should be considered as created solely for the purpose of rendering assistance to local school systems in maintaining the needed facilities.

The development of an increasingly competent administration in local school systems is one of the most encouraging achievements of American democracy. In most local communities, but especially in the smaller and medium-sized cities, the management of schools receives and deserves the respect and confidence of the citizenry. The steady development of better qualified local leadership in the American educational system leads to great confidence in the ability of the schools to make the adjustments in their programs that are required to meet the needs of the present social order.

CHAPTER VI

FINANCING THE FEDERAL PROGRAM OF
VOCATIONAL EDUCATION

The major purpose of the Federal legislation relating to vocational education has been to make funds available for the promotion of this type of educational service. As previously noted,' there have been six pieces of legislation providing or authorizing Federal appropriations for vocational education.

Amounts of Federal Appropriations and Expenditures

The amounts of the Federal appropriations for each phase of the program of vocational education, available each year from 1918 to 1937, are shown in Table 4. The amounts shown in this table include the appropriations to provide the minimum allotments to each State. It will be noted that the amounts of appropriations have tended to increase, except in the fiscal years ending in 1933 and 1934, when the Economy Act reduced the general schedule of all appropriations.

Table 5 shows the actual expenditure of Federal funds for vocational education in each of the years from 1918 to 1937.

1 See pp. 16-24.

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TABLE 4.-Federal appropriations for distribution to the States, Territories, and Puerto Rico for vocational education, by field of service and by fiscal year, 1918 to 1937 1

1 Data derived from U. S. Office of Education, Vocational Education Bulletin No. 1, Statement of Policies for the Administration of Vocational Education, Revised February 1937 (Washington: U. S. Government Printing Office, 1937), Appendix B, Table 1, p. 95. The totals here given have not been adjusted for differences due to rounding to dollars.

2 Notice that these totals include the minimum for trade and industries and the maximum for home economics.

3 Including Hawaii.

4 Including Alaska and Hawaii.

Including Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico.

TABLE 5.-Expenditure of Federal funds for vocational education, by field of service and by fiscal year, 1918 to 1937 1

$250,000

1,096, 766

500,000

1,096, 766

762,000

1, 108, 359

1,000, 587 930,700

1,051, 392

1,051, 392

1, 114, 859 1, 114, 859

1,663, 245

1,051, 392

1, 114, 859

A conception of the magnitude of Federal aid for vocational education may be obtained by comparing the sums shown in Tables 4 and 5 with the total amounts expended for public education in the United States. Preliminary statistics supplied by the United States Office of Education for the year 1935-36 indicate a total expenditure for public elementary and secondary education amounting to $1,968,898,198.2 This figure includes current expenditures, capital outlay, and interest, but excludes payment on principal of indebtedness. The total Federal expenditures for vocational education in that same year amounted to slightly less than 0.5 percent of the total expenditure for public elementary and secondary education.

The Federal appropriations for vocational education are available only for instruction of pupils 14 years of age or more, and for the preparation of teachers of such pupils. Comparison may therefore be made appropriately between the Federal expenditures for vocational education in secondary schools and the total expenditures for public secondary schools. The total Federal expenditure for vocational education, excluding teacher-training, in 1935-36 was $8,721,475. This is only a little more than 1 percent of the total estimated expenditures in that year for public secondary schools in the United States.3

Although the amounts of the Federal appropriations are relatively small compared to the total cost of education, the administrative provisions governing the distribution of the funds to the States are significant. It is the purpose of this chapter to discuss in detail a number of features of the Federal-State relationships involved in the provision of these grants of aid from the Federal Treasury.

U. S. Office of Education, Bulletin, 1937, No. 2 [Advance Pages], Biennial Survey of Education in the United States: 1934-36 (Washington: U. S. Government Printing Office, 1938), vol. II, ch. II, p. 94. Includes expenditures in summer, night, and part-time and continuation schools when separately reported.

The total expenditures for public secondary schools in the United States for the year 1935-36 is estimated roughly as about $760,000,000. This estimate is based on data obtained from Biennial Survey of Education in the United States: 1934–36, vol. II, ch. II.

Matching of Federal Funds by
State and Local Funds

One of the features of Federal-State relationships in the financing of vocational education is the requirement that Federal funds be matched by State and local funds. The Smith-Hughes Act provides "that for each dollar of Federal money expended . . . the State or local community, or both, shall expend an equal amount." The GeorgeReed Act and the George-Ellzey Act followed the same matching requirements. The George-Deen Act departs from this precedent and requires matching in the program of the secondary school level only to the extent of 50 percent of the Federal funds each year until 1942, and then 10 percent additional each year thereafter until a maximum of 100 percent matching is reached. In teacher training, however, the George-Deen Act requires matching on a dollar for dollar basis from the beginning.

In practice, the States and local communities in their combined contributions have gone considerably beyond the matching requirements set up in the statutes; instead of providing only one dollar for each Federal dollar they have provided from two to three dollars of State and local funds. Table 6 presents data showing the extent to which the States and local communities have expended their own funds in the maintenance of the Federal program of vocational education.

The data on expenditure of State and local funds are presented in Table 6 as grand totals. An analysis by individual States shows wide variation in the extent to which the support of the program is shared between Federal and State and local sources. The general condition of overmatching of Federal appropriations is to a considerable degree the result of unusually large support from State and local sources in a few States.

The extent of overmatching varies markedly also among the fields in which training is offered, the State and local support for vocational education in trades and industries and in home economics being relatively much larger than for vocational education in agriculture and teacher training. Table 7 shows the amount of State and local funds supplied

• Sec. 9.