Statement by United States Commissioner of Education Earl James McGrath

GREETINGS * At your 75th Anniversary I am very glad to send greetings and congratulations to the Ethical Culture Schools of New York. We have observed with appreciation your emphasis on the freedom of each individual to develop his very ability for service within a free society. We know of your significant attempts through scholarships to develop talented individuals from every walk of life. Your development of new educational methods is worthy of note in the long record of improvements in education in the United States. You have a commendable record of active participation with professional groups interested in public education. "Parents have a prior right to determine the kind of education that shall be given to their +children," says Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, approved by the United Nations. The Ethical Culture Schools represent one way in which parents act directly to determine the education of their children. This is in line with a noble tradition in American life Such voluntary efforts will continue to have an important function for the improvement of the education of all American children in both public and non- public schools Our founding fathers wisely reserved education as a State and local responsibility. One of the good auguries for American education is the freedom of any group of parents to organize to secure for their children the kind of education they wish to have. * By Earl James McGrath, U. S. Commissioner of Education, Federal Security Agency, Washington, D. C., to be used in the Anniversary Dinner Book, 75th Anniversary of the Ethical Culture Schools, Hotel Commodore, New York City, April 25, 1953.