The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1938-05-12
PUBLIC SCHOOLS FOR PUBLIC EDUCATION

PUBLIC SCHOOLS FOR PUBLIC EDUCATION|
THE report of the Presidents Advisory Com
mittee on Education is a document of primary
Importance to all citizens. For more than year,
this committee has been "studying the problems|
of Federal relationships to state and local conduct
of education" A great change has come over this
country since our public school system found
ed. At that time we were an agricultural nation
and our children looked to agriculture for liveli-
hood. Now our population is largely urban with
the youth of both farms and cities looking to in
dustries or urban occupations for employment
Responsibility for education of youth is no.
longer wholly a local responsibility.
-. Children in cities are to a large extent cut
off from practical education outside the school and
often from close contact with their parents. Al
though millions of children continue to be born
and reared on the farm, many of them are destined
to spend their working life in the city, for which
their farm training gives inadequate preparation.
Young people, beth on farms and in cities, alb
sorbed more and more slowly into gainful en-
ployment Adults of all ages find increasing need
for social, educational, and cultural facilities to
supplement working life under modern conditions,
Under the circumstances it is not strange that
time and again our cultural services have had to
selves to changing needs as rapidly as any social
institution, but they have not been able to come
abreast of their task. In recent years, however,
it has become apparent that school enrollments
will not continue to increase indefinitely. Planning
primarily for improvement rather than for eX-
pansion will soon be possible.
AS nation we became definitely conscious of
the rapid growth and changes in educational
i,c{ tuti, bap bn nSCio ypd
business institutions and threatened to curtail
public education, and faced the issue Of Federal
finances for public schools. In the light Of our
growing educational needs, this has continued to
be live issue.
Our educational field in which Federal subsidies
have been made over Il period Of twenty years, is
vocational education where experience has result
ed in serious evils. The welfare Of students ceased
to be the major objective while teachers organ
ized for legislative control and permitted question
able agreements for the training in production
processes without real vocational education.
fragrant abuses of exploiting students for private
gain in addition to teacher pressure for greatly
increased Federal appropriations resulted IN a
committee appointed by the President Of the
United States to inquire if and how the appro-
pration should be expended This commission
was later expanded to include the related problem
of federal subsidies to all education. AS citizens
we are concerned in avoiding merely increasing
expenditures. We want results in the form OF
preparation for the duties of citizenship and fol
satisfaction and effectiveness IN living Tor all OF
our people.
The committee found the best school system
in mddle-szed cities and the least satisfactory II
rural areas The latter areas were the victims ol
pOVerty while schools in urban communities have
the handicaps Of size and invasion by corrupt po
litical practices. TO overcome inequalities IN edu
cationa opportunities due to local low incomes, the
committee proposed the following federal subsidies
to be allocated on basis of students to be served
relative financial ability of States, and measure
Of financial needs with respect to educaton
For elementary and secondary schools $40,
100000, increasing by $2OOOO,OOO annually unit
up to 100000.
To improve preparation ot teachers and othe