This was my major purpose in introducing H. R. 1722, which provides Federal aid to assist the States in providing an adequate program of education for every child. I am aware of the fact that more than a dozen bills on the subject have been placed before the committee. I am not so much concerned about whose bill is adopted as long as we provide Federal aid to the States on a fair basis, and I am confident that this committee can report favorably on such a bill. (H. R. 1722 is as follows:) [H. R. 1722, 80th Cong., 1st sess.] A BILL To promote the general welfare through the appropriation of funds to assist the States and Territories in providing more effective programs of public education Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the sum of $100,000,000, or so much thereof as may be necessary, is hereby authorized to be appropriated and apportioned annually to the several States and Territories to be used by them for improvement of their public schools in the manner prescribed by their respective leg s'atures, and the sum authorized to be appropriated and apportioned annually for such purposes is hereby increased by $50,000,000 for each fiscal year: Provided, That the total sum appropriated for any fiscal year for such purposes shall not exceed $300,000,000. SEC. 2. The amounts appropriated under authority of this Act (less amounts set aside for administrative and other purposes under section 9) shall be apportioned among the States and Territories in the proportion which the number of their inhabitants aged five to twenty years, inclusive, bears to the total number of inhabitants aged five to twenty years, inclusive, of all the States and Territories. In the computation of all sums apportioned under this Act to the States and Territories for the fiscal years ending June 30, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1951, 1952, and 1953, the population figures shall be taken from the sixteenth decennial census of the United States. In computations for the fiscal years ending June 30, 1954 to 1963, and for each successive ten-year period thereafter, populations figures shall be taken from the decennial census of the United States next preceding the beginning of each period. SEC. 3. The manner in which the funds apportioned to each State and Territory shall be used for the maintenance of the program of public education shall be determined by the legislature thereof, and no provision of this Act shall be construed to prevent the State or Territorial legislatures from appropriating such funds to provide a program of public education for persons under five or over twenty years of age, nor to delimit said legislatures in their definition of their program of public education. The legislative enactments shall provide for the distribution, expenditure, and administration of such funds as shall be apportioned to said States and Territories; and for a just and equitable distribution and expenditure of said funds among the several public schools of that State or Territory. They shall designate the chief State or Territorial school authority, to represent said State or Territory in the administration of this Act, who shall be recognized by the United States: Provided, That in any State or Territory in which the legislature has not taken action as herein required, the chief executive of said State or Territory may, until six months after the adjournment of the first regular session of the legislature in such State or Territory following the date of enactment of this Act, take such action as is herein required to be taken by legislative enactment, and such action by said chief executive shall be recognized by the United States for the purposes of this Act. The State or Territorial treasurer shall be designated as custodian of all funds received, and disbursement shall be made in accordance with the laws of said State or Territory. SEC. 4. When a State or Territory shall have provided for the distribution and administration of such funds as shall be apportioned to said State or Territory, and when the chief educational authority designated to represent said State or Territory shall make a report in writing to that effect, approved by the chief executive of said State or Territory, to the United States Commissioner of Education, the United States Commissioner of Education shall compute the amount due each State or Territory and shall apportion for the ensuing fiscal years such funds as said State or Territory may be entitled to receive under the provisions of this Act and shall certify such apportionment or apportionments to the Secretary of the Treasury. The Secretary of the Treasury shall thereupon, through the Division of Disbursement of the Treasury Department and prior to audit or settlement by the General Accounting Office, pay quarterly to the treasurer of each State or Territory the apportionment or apportionments so certified. SEC. 5. The United States Commissioner of Education is authorized to prescribe plans for keeping accounts of the expenditures of such funds as may be apportioned to the States and Territories under the provisions of this Act. The chief educational authority designated to represent a State or Territory receiving any of the apportionments made under the provisions of the Act shall cause to be made annually, within six months after the close of the fiscal year in such State or Territory, an audit of such accounts by a certified public accountant: Provided, That no two consecutive annual audits of such accounts shall be made by the same certified public accountant. Such chief educational authority shall submit to the United States Commissioner of Education a copy of each annual audit of such accounts within thirty days after the completion of the audit. If the United States Commissioner of Education shall determine that a State or Territory has not complied with sections 3, 7, or 8 of this Act, or that the apportionment made to a State or Territory for the current fiscal year is not being expended for educational purposes, he shall give notice of these facts to the chief educational authority and to the chief executive of such State or Territory. If, after being so notified, a State or Territory does not comply with sections 3, 7, and 8, and/or does not expend its apportionment for educational purposes, the United States Commissioner of Education shall report thereon at once to the Secretary of the Interior who shall transmit said report to the Congress, and if the United States Commissioner of Education shall find that a State or Territory has not complied with section 7 or 8 of this Act the United States Commissioner of Education shall not certify any further apportionment to the State or Territory affected until said State or Territory has complied with said provisions. If any portion of the money received by a State or Territory under the provisions of this Act be diminished or lost, an amount equal to the amount so diminished or lost shall be withheld from the next ensuing apportionments until replaced. SEC. 6. The chief educational authority designated to represent a State or Territory receiving any of the apportionments made under the provisions of this Act shall annually submit to the United States Commissioner of Education in such form as the Commissioner may prescribe a report showing the manner of distributing with the State or Territory the funds apportioned under this Act and the work and improvements accomp'ished thereby. The United States Commissioner of Education shall annually compile, publish, and make available a similar report for the United States showing separate data for each State and Territory. SEC. 7. After the first apportionment is made to any State or Territory under this Act, such State or Territory shall not receive any part of any subsequent apportionment unless during the school year next preceding the year for which such apportionment is made, there has been maintained a system of public schools available throughout such State or Territory, wherein each public school maintained in said system shall be held in session for a term not less than one hundred and sixty days, the closing of school due to epidemics, fires, and acts of God being excepted. SEC. 8. No State or Territory shall receive any funds under this Act unless, during the school year next preceding the year for which such apportionment is made, it has expended from its combined State or Territorial and local revenues for public elementary and secondary schools a sum not less than was spent in said State or Territory in the school year ended in 1946, for each person aged five to twenty years, inclusive, taking into consideration the total population and each population group for which schools are specifically maintained therein. SEC. 9. From the funds appropriated to carry out this Act an amount not to exceed one-tenth of 1 per centum of the total amount appropriated annually is hereby made available to the United States Office of Education for the administration of this Act and for conducting such research as may be requested by State or Territorial school officials and as may be of assistance to the States and Territories in the improvement of their systems of public education. SEC. 10. As used in this Act (1) The term "State" means the several States and the District of Columbia. (2) The term "Territory" means Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, the Canal Zone, American Samoa, and Guam. (3) The term "legislature" means the State or Territorial legislature or other comparable body, except that in the District of Columbia it shall mean the Board of Education. SEC. 11. This Act shall be construed as intending to secure to the several States and Territories control of the administration of this Act within their respective jurisdictions and to preserve State and local initiative in the operation of schools. No provision of this Act shall be construed to delimit the States and Territories in the appropriation of funds for the support of schools received through the benefits of this Act; nór to restrict or define the kind of schools or the character of the educational program to be supported by the respective States and Territories; nor to grant to any officer of the United States, or to any of its agencies, departments, or offices, any power or authority to approve or reject the educational programs in the States and Territories; nor to confer upon any officer of the United States, or of any of its agencies, departments, or offices, any power or authority to supervise or in any way exercise management and control of the educational programs of the States and Territories, it being the purpose of the Act to leave all supervision, management, control, and choice of educational means, processes, and programs to State, Territorial, and local governments. Mr. WINSTEAD. I have voted for economy in Congress for the past 5 years. I feel sure the record will reveal that my vote will compare favorably with any Member of Congress in encouraging economy and the reduction of governmental expenditures wherever possible and practicable. But I do not believe, Mr. Chairman, that this small appropriation requested in your bill or my bill would have an adverse effect upon a program of economy in Government. After all, this money is not a gift to the States. It is an investment by the Federal Government in our greatest resource-our children. My colleagues, Congressman Whitten and Congressman Abernethy, could not be present because of other pressing committee meetings. I should like to submit a prepared statement for each of these gentlemen. Mr. McCOWEN. You may submit all other statements you have for the record, if there is no objection; and they will be incorporated in the record at the end of your testimony. Mr. WINSTEAD. While I do not want to go into the Mississippi educational program in detail, I would like to say that year after year we increase our funds in an effort to bring our program up to a more balanced level. It is true that our State legislature in the past few years has increased appropriations to Negro colleges as well as to white. One of the major appropriations of the last session of the legislature was for capital outlay for Negro schools. The recent appropriation of the special session of the Mississippi Legislature means that for the school year 1947-48 all of the excess revenue over appropriations will be used for education purposes. This means that the State of Mississippi is making a magnificent effort to provide adequate education for all of its children. I also want to say at this time that I believe in local and State control of education, with no interference by the Federal Government, and I will vote against any bill that attempts to give Federal control, domination, or interference in any way over the public schools of this country. Mr. McCOWEN. If the committee would be willing to defer questions for the present, I believe we could hear two other Members of Congress. Is there any objection to that? Mr. BREHM. I would like to ask a question now. The gentleman from Illinois, Mr. Owens, inferred a while ago that even though the fourteenth amendment to the Constitution provides certain things regarding poll taxes and so forth, that certain States would not comply with equal treatment for whites and blacks, especially in the Southern States. I feel certain that the gentleman feels, at least I feel, that the folks in Mississippi are law-abiding people, and if such a law is passed, they will comply with it to see that the funds are distributed properly. Mr. WINSTEAD. If you will get the facts in this case, you will find that a great effort is being made, even with outside disturbances, and great progress is being made by the State as a whole. Mr. BREHM. I thought that was true. Mr. GWINN. Mr. Chairman? Mr. McCowen. Mr. Gwinn. Mr. GWINN. We are trying to get some idea from the witnesses and Congressmen as we go along as to just what type of Federal appropriation we ought to consider. I take it the burden of your testimony and possibly others of your associates as meaning that you are interested in the Mississippi situation which has been used for years. You would confine this Federal appropriation to those States that demonstrate an absolute financial need in order to bring about equali zation. Mr. WINSTEAD. I realize that the time is short, and that you do not want me to go into detail, but having administered funds in one of the greatest equalizing counties in Mississippi, where I served as county superintendent for two terms, I am well acquainted with the subject. By that I mean that in my county in Mississippi we attempted to equalize educational opportunities by distributing our State school funds on an equalizing basis and on a per capita basis. Some counties in the Mississippi Delta are among the wealthiest in the country, yet down in the hills where I come from we have a great population, both white and colored, including thousands of school-age children, yet our assessed valuation of property as compared with wealthier counties is low. But the effort of our people in many of the Mississippi counties to support their schools is such that the State legislature had to prohibit tax levies for school purposes above a certain amount. means that equalization through distribution of tax funds to the less wealthy counties is the only fair basis of providing for the differences. in wealth. At the same time we believe that some funds collected in wealthier counties should be returned to them; therefore, we provide for a per capita distribution of State educational funds. This means that although some of the counties pay their costs and a high percentage of the costs in my county, they are ready to raise their own standards at the same time they are assisting us to raise ours. This I have no objection to a reasonable fund for flat distribution to all States. The situation at the present time is so critical, in my opinion, every State could use to great advantage some additional school funds. And if this committee sees fit to provide a formula for equal assistance in the poorer States and a flat distribution to all other States, I would be inclined to support it. Mr. McCowEN. The time of the gentleman has expired. Mr. Kearns? Mr. KEARNS. How are your attendance laws enforced down in Mississippi? Mr. WINSTEAD. We have compulsory school laws, but it is difficult for us to enforce them. We do not have adequate staff necessary to the enforcement of these laws. At the same time, these laws encourage school attendance. Mr. KEARNS. You realize that the basis of attendance is used in evaluating the amount of money that is to be paid by a State to a political subdivision. Mr. WINSTEAD. We pay our money on ADA basis. Mr. KEARNS. There are some States which make the children stay in school. It is mandatory. Then there are other States receiving money in which children are getting through, on an average, the eighth grade of school. What is the average ratio of graduates from high school that attend college in your State? Mr. WINSTEAD. I do not have that information. Mr. KEARNS. I would like to have some of those figures. Mr. WINSTEAD. We can provide this information for you. My thinking is this: If distribution is on average daily attendance basis, the people and the school authorities of each State will take the initiative in improving school attendance, and this is where the initiative should begin. Mr. KEARNS. The State has to take the responsibility. Mr. WINSTEAD. Absolutely. There is no question about that. Mr. Kennedy? I have only this one observation: I think you have stated in substance that you would not be adverse to a bill that provided a reasonable amount of aid to all States. Mr. WINSTEAD. I am inclined to believe in answering that question that there is no reason for objections for a reasonable amount of money to be distributed to all States. As to your bill, considering the necessary budget and the latitude involved with all the things we are doing, I would certainly have no objection to carrying that further along. Mr. McCowEN. My bill does provide some aid for all States. (The statement submitted by Congressman Winstead on behalf of Congressman Whitten is as follows:) STATEMENT OF HON. JAMIE L. WHITTEN, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI Mr. WHITTEN. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, I appreciate the opportunity of appearing before you in support of Federal aid for education. I have introduced H. R. 1762 which contains my views as to how I feel such aid should be provided. However, Federal aid for education is such a major problem and such aid is so vital that we cannot concern ourselves too much with which bill is passed nor the details perhaps. (H. R. 1762 is as follows:) [H. R. 1762, 80th Cong., 1st sess.] A BILL To promote the general welfare through the appropriation of funds to assist the States and Territories in providing more effective programs of public education Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the sum of $100,000,000, or so much thereof as may be necessary, is hereby authorized to be appropriated and appor |