Federal Aid, 1956 Style

When President Eisenhower first proposed a federal aid to education program last year, many a professional educator greeted the news with hoots, and even anger. The President's major proposal--$200 million to be spent on school construction over three years--seemed hopelessly inadequate, and the various stipulations attached to the giving threatened to smother the whole program in red tape. Last week, "in the light of a full year of further experience and study, in the light of congressional hearings and the White House Conference on Education," the

President raised the federal ante. Chief recommendations:

P:Grants to the states for school construction of $250 million a year for five years. Though each state will in principle have to match its federal grant, the exact amount will be determined by its per capita income and its "relative need." Wealthy states will get less from the Government; so will those that "are noticeably lagging, behind their ability, to support their public schools."

P:A program to allow the Government to spend as much as $750 million over the next five years to buy school-construction bonds from districts that cannot sell them on their own at reasonable interest rates.

P:A five-year program to boost the reserves of various state finance agencies that issue long-term bonds to help local districts with their school construction.

P:A $20 million, five-year program to enable the Federal Government to match state grants to local communities.

P:A "major increase in funds" for the U.S. Office of Education to enable it to finance research projects on such problems as juvenile delinquency and the effects of population shifts.

P:The appointment of a "distinguished group of educators and citizens" to study the problems of higher education and make proposals on how to solve them.

In all, the message proposed spending some $2 billion. Neither the Senate nor the House seemed to find any great objections, but the program might founder if someone attaches a desegregation clause.

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