Statement By Commissioner Of Education Earl McGrath, Upon Induction as Commissioner

INDUCTION STATEMENT* In assuming the office of Commissioner of Education I an deeply conscious of the heavy responsibilities and the exacting duties which this appointment involves. I am no less aware of the great opportunities which it offers for constructive leadership in education at all levels. This is especially true at this point in American history when the Federal Government is being called upon to play a much larger role in education than it has hitherto. Fron the beginning, this Nation has been one of opportunity for those who came from other shores, and for the succeeding generations born in this land. It has been the view of the large majority of Americans that all children regardless of their origins or social status should have the ohance to develop their abilities to the fullest. To do so, however, they must have equal opportunity for education. But the ideal of equal educational opportunity has not been realised. Differences in the various communities of the Nation in the ability to produce wealth, and differences in family status and income, close the doors of the schoolhouse to many children before they have the chance to develop their minds, their bodies, and their spirits to the level of their natural endowments. If it ever could do so, this great democratic Nation can no longer afford the ovil consequences of widespread educational privation. By Earl James McGrath upon his induction as U. S. Commissioner of Educa- tion, Federal Security Agency, Washington, D. C., 12:00 noon, March 18, 1949. Published in School Life, May 1949; Dictaphone Educational Forum, April 1949; NEA Journal, "Education Is The Road To Freedem," April 1949; and The Phi Delta Kappan, "Toward Equality of Opportunity," May 1949. Also excerpts in California Journal of Secondary Education, May-1949, The Elementary School Journal, May-June 1949, and through United Press releases in leading newspapers, March 18, 1949.