Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1961-09-10
The School Aid Bill:
How Was Lost
By GEORGE w. CAKES
Contributing Writer


last press conference; but The
House of Representatives. theo-
retically closest to the voters, has
once again refused to enact broad
scale Federal aid to public school
legislation.
How did 1t happen that the
=, administration and a Democratic
Congress failed to make good on
campaign promises CT last fall?
In fact, the Democratic-led House
Of Representatives didn't even ac-
cept this year the $325-million
school construction bill that the
Democrats got through by FOG
to 189 on May 20, 1860 before
they recaptured the White House.
When Congress met in January,
it was we'll known to the admin
istration and the congressional
leaders that again, as so often
during the last decade, the battle
ground would be in the House.
This fact was proved on May Is
when the Senate passed 40 to "a
substantially the administration
general bill for aid to the public
schools, classroom construction
and teachers salaries. President
Kennedy had recommended it.
What, then, were the factors
that have brought failure in the
House to one Of the Presidents
major legislative programs?
Recommended EorIy Action
First, certain influential Demo-
cratic Congressman recommended
early in the session that the ad-
ministration not attempt to take
a massive Federal aid to educa-
ton bill to the House floor until
preparatory work had been &C
complished. They advised an in
direct approach to Congressman,
always sensitive to large-scale
expenditures, particularly on an
issue charged with religious and
racial problems that has been
bitterly debated for the last few
years. Their plan was to put the
Presidents legislation through the
Senate firSt-which was done
and then merely to ask the Rep
resentatives to commit themselves
to a school construction program
similar to the one they had
already accepted in May 1860.
At this stage it was proposed
that the amount of money that
the House might have approved
be increased in the Senate House
conference when some provision
FOR Federal funds for teachers
Ralaries-for years opposed not
only by Speaker Rayburn and
- Majority Leader Mccormack but
also by the House Republican and
Southern Democrat coalition-be
worked into the conference re-
port. This strategy envisioned
House approval of such a con-
ference report.
', However, the administration,
under the direction of Theodore
Sorensen, special counsel to the
President. Lawrence O'Brien. in
charge of White House congress
sional relations. and Secretary of
Health, Education and Welfare
Ribicoff, decided to take the
original administration program
to the House floor despite the
fact, as a key House Democrat
puts it. there has never been a
determined majority in the House
for a general large-scale aid-to-
education bill"
Bill Reported Out
Having gambled on risking the
Presidents program in the face
. not only of the Southern Demo-
cratic and Republican coalition
but the at best lukewarm support
, of Speaker Rayburn, the admins
o ation-controlled House Educa-
ton Committee did not report
a out the administration public
school bill until May Is.
, Other critics of the admins
tration strategy wonder why this
action was not taken before the
religious issue had reached such
point in the spring that the ad-
: ministration lost the essential sup
port Of many Democrats as we'll as
: Northern and Eastern Republi-
cans.
d: These Democratic Congressman
feel that top administration pres
sure could have forced the COM
mittee to report out the Kennedy
bill early in the session or at least
Immediately after Archbishop
Alter fired on March one of the
early blasts from the church's
hierarchy against the measure.
They point out that in late
February many Southern Con-
gressmen, especially from Georgia
and other States that need Fed
eral funds for teachers salaries,
were prepared to abandon their
traditional opposition to large
scale Federal aid to education
and back the administration. 1t
is even argued by both top House
Democrats and outside organiza-
tions who frequently conduct
name-checks on congressional
voting that bare majority could
have been organized at this time
by the White House to pass the
administration bill in the House
despite the GOODNESS Of Speaker
Rayburn towards the program.
In fact, after the Catholic hier-
, archy began its campaign to de-
, feat the administration program
unless parochial schools were in
cluded, Catholic Democratic Con-
gressmen were told that Catholic
voters in many areas were still
, behind the Administration rather