Address By Commissioner Of Education Earl McGrath, Strengthening American Education

STRENGTHENING AMERICAN EDUCATION* The United States has become the leader of the free world. The responsi- bilities of leadership have been thrust upon us and we must discharge them well. One feature of this is in the military field. Our efforts to prepare the free world militarily to defend itself against totalitarian attack are of course dramatical] (ighlighted-dailyin-thepress, Our own forces are-being built to full military strength and through our cooperative working relationships with many other nations the free peoples of the world are preparing themselves for any military eventuality. The majority of the American people see the necessity for this kind of preparedness and also for the large expenditure of money required to make it possible. As these activities go forward I am sure that they will have our moral and financial support. As we do this, however, 1et us not fall into the danger of neglecting other essential features of our national life needed to keep the Nation strong internally and prépared for the heavy responsibilitivs of leadership in the world at large. We must be constantly alert to the necessity of giving adequate support to the social institutions which form the basis of our free life. Our school system is one such institution. It cannot be neglected with impunity. There are many aspects of the American educational system which we could profitably discúss today. I want, however, at this time to treat only. three which are of crucial importance; First, I would like to discuss with you certain-aspects of our school construction promam. Secondly, the need to maintain a pool of highly trained personnel. Thirdly, our professional responsibilities relating to the widespread attack on the schools. As you know, the schoolhouse shortage is acute throughout the entire Nation. In far too many communities, classrooms are so overcrowded as to make effective teaching. almost impossible. In other communities basements, empty stores, garages, churches, and similar improvised quarters are being utilized for clasnrooms. In many instances, school authorities are having to resort to double sessions and in a few places even to triple sessions to take care of elementary school enrolments. To provide for the 1, ,700,000 increase in elementary school enrolments next September we shall need 56,000 additional classroom units costing an estimated $1,680,000, THis estimate takes no account of the need for renlacement of obsoleto, unsafe and antiquated facilities. Construction needs of our colloges and universities are also pressing. In the decado that has telapsed since 1940, the last year of normal. college attendance prior to World War II, college enrolment has increased nearly 80 per cent, but the physical facilities for instruction and residential housing have increased slightly less than 20 por cent. Morcover, the facilities available in 1940 were, in general, inadequate to accommodate. the number of students then enrolled. * Address by Earl James McGrath, U. S. Commissioner of Education, Federal Security Agency, Washington, D. C. at Third General Session, Fifty-sixth Annual Meeting of the Southern Association of Colleges and Secondary. Schools, Vinoy Park Hotel, St. Petorsburg , Florida, December 5, 1951, 2:00 p.m. Published in part in the American Teacher, March 1952 issue, pp. and in kit to Community Rélations Council by National Labor Service, 300 Fourth Ave., N.Y. 16, N.Y. in May 1952.