The Extent of Equalization Secured Through State School Funds

CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION

On June 8, 1936, President Franklin D. Roosevelt approved the George-Deen Act1 authorizing increased appropriations of Federal funds for the support of vocational education. On the same date the President addressed identical letters to Senators Smith of South Carolina and George of Georgia, and to Congressmen Palmisano of Maryland and Deen of Georgia. The text of the letter was in part as follows:

I have approved H. R. 12120, a bill to provide for the further development of vocational education in the several States and Territories, because of my deep interest in providing our young people with adequate opportunities for vocational training. So many criticisms have been directed at the bill in its present state, however, that it seems to me advisable, before the act goes into effect on July 1, 1937, that a disinterested group review its provisions in relation to the experience of the Government under the existing program of Federal aid for Vocational education, and the relation of such training to general education and to prevailing economic and social conditions. 2

The Appointment of the Committee

In accordance with the intention expressed in this communication, the President on September 19, 1936, invited 18 individuals to serve on a committee to make a study of vocational education. The full text of the letter of invitation, sent to each person asked to serve on the committee, is as follows:

At the time I approved H. R. 12120, which authorizes additional appropriations for Federal aid for vocational education in the several States and Territories, I indicated my belief that before the Act goes into effect on July 1, 1937, the whole subject should be reviewed by a disinterested group. It is my thought that such a group should study the experience under the existing program of Federal aid for vocational education, the relation of such training to general education and to prevailing economic and social conditions, and the extent of the need for an expanded program.

149 Stat. L. 1488-90 (1936). For text, see Appendix B.

1 74th Cong., 2d sess., Congressional Record, House, June 16, 1936 (Washington: U. S. Government Printing Office, 1936), vol. 80, pt. 9, p. 9648.

I take pleasure in inviting you to accept membersnip on a committee to make such studies and to develop recommendations which will be available to the Congress and to the Executive. The services of the several Federal departments will be available to this committee. Traveling expenses incurred by members in attending committee meetings will be met by the Government.

I hope that it will be possible for you to serve in this capacity and to assist in the development of a sound basis for a program of vocational education which will be of maximum benefit to those affected.

The Committee held its first meeting on November 6 and 7, 1936. It was immediately realized that a fundamental attack on the problems of Federal relations to vocational education would require an extensive study. The Committee at its first meeting authorized the appointment of a director of studies and the development of a staff for the conduct of the investigation.

In the course of the studies carried on for and reported to the Committee it became increasingly evident that the problems of vocational education could not readily be disentangled from the larger questions involved in the whole matter of Federal relations to education in general. Furthermore, certain bills authorizing a large expansion of Federal aid to education were introduced into the first session of the Seventy-fifth Congress and were given serious consideration. In view of these developments the President on April 19, 1937, enlarged the scope of the responsibilities assigned to the Committee and added four members.

The original expectation had been that the final report of the Committee on the subject of vocational education would be available in time to be considered by Congress in determining the amount of the appropriation for the fiscal year ending in 1938. With the expansion of the functions of the Committee, it seemed inadvisable to make a final pronouncement concerning Federal relations to vocational education until the study of education in its wider scope had been completed. A preliminary statement was agreed to by the Committee and presented to the President on April 24, 1937, making recommendations concerning the amount that

should be appropriated for vocational education under the George-Deen Act for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1938.3

Plan of Conducting the Investigation

The general plan for conducting the study of vocational education was to appoint specialists in each of the major areas of the whole field and to assign them responsibility for the preparation of memorandums on their special topics. These investigations were planned under the leadership of the Director and the Associate Director of Studies, and the memorandums in preliminary form were submitted to a number of experts for criticism. The titles of the principal memorandums and the names of the staff members who prepared them are as follows:

A Brief History of the George-Deen Act, by Lloyd E. Blauch.

The Administration of Vocational Education, by Walter D. Cocking.

History of Administrative Interpretations of Certain Phrases in the Vocational Education Acts, by Katherine A. Frederic.

The Development of the Statement of Policies for the Administration of Vocational Education, by Watson B. Dickerman.

Financing Vocational Education, by Leonard Power.

Research Functions of the Federal Board for Vocational Education, by Oswald L. Harvey.

Vocational Education in Agriculture, by Barton Morgan, assisted by Marion E. Olson.

Home Economics Education, by Clara M. Brown and Opal T. Rhodes.

Vocational Education in Trades and Industries, by Lewis W. Smith and J. Orin Powers.

The Experience of Industry with Vocational Education, by Stephen M. Loebl.

The Experience of Labor with Trade and Industrial Education, by Howell H. Broach and Julia O'Connor Parker.

75th Cong., 1st sess., United States Senate, Subcommittee of the Committee on Appropriations, Hearings on H. R. 6958, Interior Department Appropriation Bill for 1938 (Washington: U. S. Government Printing Office, 1937), pp. 357-62.

A Brief Survey of Cooperative Diversified-Occupations Programs in Six Selected Cities with Special Reference to Labor Standards, by Mary E. Skinner.

Vocational Education in Office Occupations, by Lewis W. Smith, assisted by Margaret Blander.

Vocational Education in Distributive Occupations, by Lewis W. Smith and Margaret Blander.

Vocational Guidance and Placement in Relation to Vocational Education, by Anne Davis.

Occupational Trends and Their Relation to the Problem of Vocational Education, by O. F. Carpenter.*

The Preparation of Vocational Teachers, Supervisors, and Directors, by Lloyd E. Blauch.

Federal Relations to the Vocational Education of Negroes, by Doxey A. Wilkerson and Robert C. Weaver.

Five basic sources of information and data were utilized in the study of vocational education: (1) Available published and unpublished reports and studies bearing on the problem; (2) an extensive series of questionnaires for the collection of data and opinions; (3) statements submitted by interested groups and persons; (4) organized conferences in which interested groups were invited to participate; and (5) informal conferences with a wide variety of persons having firsthand knowledge of the program of vocational education. Through cooperation with the staff of the Regents' Inquiry into the Character and Cost of Public Education in the State of New York, a considerable amount of material collected in that study was made available for the investigation of Federal relations to vocational education.

Every organized group having anything to do with vocational education in the United States was given an opportunity, either through the conferences or by means of submitted statements, to present points of view for consideration by the Committee. Every effort was made to secure as representative a sampling of individual conferees as possible, and no person was denied opportunity for a hearing on a

4 Mr. Carpenter was a member of the staff of the Section of Labor Research, Division of Research, Statistics, and Records, Works Progress Administration, which undertook the preparation of this memorandum for the Committee at its request.

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