R EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS OF THE EORGANIZATION PLAN No. 1 OF 1939 provided for the establishment of the Federal Security Agency. The objective of the plan, the President said, was to group under one administration those agencies of the Government whose major purpose was to promote social and economic security, educational opportunity, and the health of the citizens of the Nation. Among the agencies so grouped by that Plan and by Reorganization Plan No. 2 of 1939 were the Social Security Board, the U. S. Employment Service, the Office of Education, the Public Health Service, and the Federal functions of the American Printing House for the Blind. Reorganization Plan No. 4 of 1940, effective June 30, transferred to the Agency the Food and Drug Administration, St. Elizabeths Hospital, Freedmen's Hospital, and the Federal functions relating to Howard University and the Columbia Institution for the Deaf. Other transfers, none of which directly affected the educational functions of the Agency, were made during the period from 1940 to 1948. The Federal Security Agency is a part of the Executive Branch of the Government and is classified as an independent agency. THE OFFICE OF EDUCATION The Office of Education was established in 1867. Advancement of the cause of education was the purpose expressed by Congress in providing for its establishment and operation. Traditional methods employed by the Office in advancing education consist of: (1) publishing educational information and discussion; (2) establishing cooperative relationships with State, county, local, and private educational systems and agencies; (3) engaging in educational research; and (4) providing leadership, consultative, and clearinghouse services related to education in general, performed through national and State conferences, educational planning, publications, and public addresses. Through the years, various acts of Congress and executive orders have extended the functions of the Office. Some operating programs have been added to the earlier functions which were chiefly informative and consultative. About three-fourths of the present personnel are employed on these operating programs. OPERATING PROGRAMS Federal grants-in-aid for colleges of agriculture and mechanic arts extended the activities of the Office at the higher education level. Functions of the Federal Board for Vocational Education, created in 1917 by congressional enactment, were assigned to the Commissioner of Education in 1933. These, together with subsequent acts of Congress authorizing the Office of Education to allocate Federal funds to the States for vocational education, have widened the performance area of the Office through its relationships with colleges and trade and other vocational schools. These acts are discussed in detail later in this chapter. During the economic depression period of the 1930's a considerable amount of social legislation was enacted. A part of this introduced other functions into the Office of Education. A further expansion of duties developed in the 1940's from the emergency wartime educational programs. On occasion, the Office was also asked to participate in wartime programs of other Federal agencies in a consultative capacity. Following World War II, the Surplus Property Utilization Program was initiated. It is another example of broadened Office of Education functions. As background for understanding the present status of the Office of Education, it can be said that the Act of 1867 established the Office and designated its primary functions. Subsequent congressional acts and executive orders have created service functions and strengthened the primary purposes formulated in the original legislation. FUNDS FOR OFFICE ADMINISTRATION Federal appropriations to the Office of Education are used for a wide variety of purposes all of which help to promote the general cause of education. Funds are expended for administration, gathering statistics, conducting research, printing reports, consultation, distributing educational funds, and numerous other activities which bear directly upon the improvement of education. In the war period, a significant part of the time and effort of the Office of Education staff was devoted to urgent problems associated with the war effort. Such wartime activities as the education of Food Production Workers, Student War Loans Program, School Transportation, and others were conducted as a means of establishing a proper relationship between the Nation's school systems and the war effort. Funds appropriated to the Office of Education for administering its various programs from the 1942-43 school year through 1951-52 appear in table 7. Appropriations were at a peak during the 1942-43 school year after the war training programs had been established and were well underway. There was a slight decline and leveling off during the remaining years of the war. Thereafter, appropriations to the Office of Education for administration dropped considerably following the liquidation of wartime programs. In 1945-46 the appropriation amounted to only 63.2 percent of that for the peak year and in 1946-47, it was only 62.7 percent of the 1942-43 appropriation. Not until the 1950-51 school year did the appropriation to the Office of Education equal the 1942-43 amount. This significant rise for the last 2 years shown in table 7 has been largely due to transfers to the Office of various programs of assistance to education in federally affected areas. A portion of the increase has been caused by the establishment of the school facilities survey approved by the Eighty-first Congress and described in detail in a subsequent section. Funds reported in table 7 do not include amounts for administration transferred from other departments of the Government for special programs and they do not include amounts allocated as aid to education. Table 7.-FEDERAL FUNDS APPROPRIATED FOR THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE OFFICE OF EDUCATION, 1942-43 TO 1951-52 LAND AND MONEY GRANTS TO COLLEGES President Lincoln signed the Morrill Act in 1862. This legislation encouraged the development of at least one college in each State that would be adapted to the educational needs of students desiring to engage in agriculture and in industry. The Act authorized grants to the States of 30,000 acres of land or the equivalent in scrip for each Representative and each Senator. The State was expected to contribute to the support of the college and to supply the campus and buildings. A provision of the law requires that the moneys derived from the sale of the land in each State shall constitute a perpetual and irreducible fund, and the income therefrom to be used for the support of its colleges of agriculture and mechanic arts. Additional appropriations.-After the land-grant colleges had become established, with encouragement and financial assistance from the Federal Government, the States found it difficult to support them adequately. Consequently, in 1890 a new law was enacted which provided for annual grants of funds from the Federal Government for the land-grant colleges then operating. Annual grants could also be made to any colleges that might thereafter be established in accordance with the law of 1862. The 1890 law provided for an appropriation of $15,000 for the current year for each State or Territory, with an increase of $1,000 each year over the preceding year for 10 years, after which the annual appropriation was to be $25,000. In 1907, the Federal Government again came to the assistance of colleges of agriculture and mechanic arts through the Nelson Amendment to the Second Morrill Act. This amendment authorized an appropriation of $5,000 in addition to the $25,000 for each State and Territory, with an increase of $5,000 each year over the preceding year for a period of 4 years, after which the annual amount under the amendment would continue to be $25,000. Thus the total amount under both acts for each State was $50,000. Special acts have been passed extending the benefits of the amendment to the Territories of Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico. Further annual increases of Federal assistance for colleges and universities of agriculture and mechanic arts have been provided by the Bankhead-Jones Act of 1935. It did not authorize continuing annual appropriations as the two preceding laws did, but it makes the appropriation contingent upon annual action by the Congress. This Act provides that $980,000 may be appropriated annually for the States and Territories to be distributed as flat grants of $20,000 each. In addition, the law provided for the appropriation of $500,000 for the second year, $1,000,000 for the third year, and $1,500,000 for the fourth year. It also provided that the last of these amounts might be authorized by Congress for each succeeding year. The $1,500,000 appropriation is allocated to these several States and Hawaii in the proportion which the total population of each is to the total population of the States and Hawaii for the preceding decennial census. Amounts granted under all acts are presented in column 3 of table 3 for the 1950-51 school year. They include the Second Morrill Act (1890), $25,000; Nelson Amendment (1907), $25,000; uniform State grant from the Bankhead-Jones Act (1935), $20,000, for each State but not for Alaska and Puerto Rico; making a total of $70,000 for each State and Hawaii; and, in addition, the variable grants from the Bankhead-Jones Act (1935), which total $1,500,000, apportioned to all States and Hawaii on the basis of population. Alaska and Puerto Rico do not participate in the variable grants. Allocations by States for the 1950-51 school year are based upon the 1940 census and those for 1951-52, listed in table 8, are distributed on the basis of the 1950 census figures. Table 8.-FEDERAL APPROPRIATIONS FOR INSTRUCTION AT LAND-GRANT COLLEGES, FOR THE 1951-52 SCHOOL YEAR 1 The Negro land-grant college in this State received a stipulated proportion of funds. SCHOOL ASSISTANCE FOR FEDERALLY AFFECTED AREAS Varied activities of the United States Government, including efforts to provide armaments for defense, have affected millions of Americans during the past 15 years. Many have moved to new locations and have established homes nearer to these centers of Federal activity and employment. As they moved into new localities new demands were made for community facilities and services. The public-school systems in such localities were burdened by large numbers of additional children. Frequently, the local school districts did not have the financial resources to provide educational facilities and services for the increased school attendance. Effects of Federal activities on communities and their schools had been recognized by the Congress for some time and resulted in the enactment in 1940 of Public Law 849, known as the Lanham Act, and in subsequent extensions of this law to assist federally affected school districts. This law and its amendments and extensions were in effect until 1950. The enactment of Public Laws 874 and 815 by the Eighty-first |