Statement from United States Commissioner of Education Earl James McGrath to the New York Times

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Statement* No person questions that, in this period of international crisis, the requirements of the military and defense production for steel and other critical material should be-and must be-met. But it is also imperative that we permit no further weakening of our public school system. We can't put our youngsters in educational cold storage for the duration. Education must be obtained on a year-by-year basis. If a child is given second- or third-class education- or no education- during his formative years, the handicap will remain for his entire lifetime. The education of our young people must remain squarely in the forefront of any long-term program for the defense of democracy. Otherwise we run the risk of losing one of the goals we are fighting for. *By Earl James McGrath, U. S. Commissioner of Education, Federal Security Agency, Washington, D. C., on "Steel Shortage," to New York Times, January 1952.