Statement by Commissioner Of Education Earl McGrath before a Subcommittee of the House Committee on Education and Labor

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STATEMENT* by Earl James McGrath, U. S. Commissioner of Education, Federal Security Agency, Washington, D. C. Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee: I am Earl J. McGrath, Commissioner of Education. I am pleased to respond to the request of this Subcommittee to appear today to discuss the inadequacy of the. allotments of steel and other basic construction materials for edu- cational purposes under the Controlled Materials Plan of the Defense Production Administration I want, at the start of this statement, to recognize the difficult problem confronting the National Production Authority and the Defense Production Administration, I do not presume to sit in judgment upon the decisions made by the NPA-DPA with respect to the equity of the allocations made. I can speak - and do - with reference to the inadequacy of the allotments made for education construction purposes. I do this as Commissioner of Education, having been given certain responsibilities to safeguard the essential interests of the Nation in respect to its schools, colleges, and libraries during this period of international crisis. And I would be derelict in my duty if I did not make every possible effort to safeguard these interests. For the purpose of the record I should like to sketch briefly something of the background of this matter. As you know the Federal Security Adminis- trator is the official claimant before the Defense Production Administration for all matters relating to school and hospital construction and for supplies and equipment for health, education and welfare. In turn, the Administrator has delegated to the Office of Education the claimant functions in respect to schools, colleges, and libraries: At the outset and prior to the institution of a controlled materials program, these functions were purely advisory. Our immediate task was to prepare for the DPA a comprehensive statement of program requirements in the entire field of education for the calendar years 1951 and 1952. This survey was to serve as the basis for determining the amounts of steel and other critical materials to be allotted for education purposes under the proposed Controlled Materials Plan. It was not until May 3, 1951, that the NPA began to issue permits for the commencement of construction. However, na permit was required on a project * Before a Subcommittee of the House Committee on Education and Labor, October 16, 1951. Published in Higher Education, Vol. VIII, No. 6, November 15, 1951, pp. 61-66.