Report Card

P: To save an estimated $150,000 in the armed forces economy drive (see NATIONAL AFFAIRS), the U.S. Air Force decided to drop all foreign language courses for the 20,000 children now enrolled in U.S. Air Force schools in Europe and the Middle East. Air Force elementary and high schools will dismiss 119 native teachers whose purpose was to reduce the isolation of American youngsters living abroad. Commented Le Monde of Paris: "It seems a bit astonishing that the United States, which admits the necessity of extending into the cultural domain cooperation among allied countries in NATO, suppresses one of the rare means its citizens enjoy for getting to know the people among whom they find themselves." P: The Veterans Administration reported that the Korean G.I. bill, just five years old last week, has so far given nearly 2,000,000 out of 5,100,000 veterans of the Korean war either a high-school or college education or on-the-job training. Today, added the VA, veterans account for 25% of the male student population. P: For the first time since 1910, said the U.S. Office of Education, the percentage of high-school students taking science and mathematics rose last fall. Biology (tenth grade) was up from 72.6% in 1954 to 75%, chemistry (eleventh grade) from 31.9% to 34.6%, and physics (twelfth grade) from 23.5% to 24.3%. But just in case anyone felt too encouraged, the OE added another figure: while the percentage of students taking algebra rose from a low of 24.6% in 1952 to 28.7% in 1956, the U.S. high school is still a long way from the 1910 figure of 56.9%.

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