APPENDIX A

(The following is an analysis of the education of American dependents in nonDOD schools overseas. It was prepared by Representative Carlton R. Sickles, who undertook a personal investigation in areas of South America. His conclusions have the full support of the committee.)

I. INTRODUCTION

In the course of its investigation of the overseas schools network operated by the Department of Defense in November and December 1965, an investigating committee of the Select Subcommittee on Education, chaired by Representative John H. Dent, visited several American-sponsored_elementary and secondary schools overseas which were not operated by the Department of Defense but which enrolled large numbers of military and civilian Government dependents in addition to other American and non-American children. (See "Department of Defense Education of Dependents Overseas," Committee on Education and Labor, committee print, 89th Cong., second sess., March 1966.) Although neither owned nor operated directly by any agency of the U.S. Government, these schools received assistance for specific purposes from the program of the State Department's Office of Overseas Schools as authorized under the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, as amended, the Foreign Service Act of 1945, as amended, and the Mutual Educational and Cultural Exchange Act of 1961, as amended. Because these schools are privately controlled, multinational community schools, the relationship of the U.S. Government to the schools is on an individual school basis (rather than on a "system" basis) through Government employees who are parents of pupils enrolled and through embassy and AID personnel involved locally in programs of assistance by the U.S. Government. In an appendix to the report cited above, the investigating committee reported briefly on the schools of this type which were visited.

Because the nature of these schools is so different from that of the schools operated by the Department of Defense, it was decided to conduct a special study of the education of American children overseas in non-DOD elementary and secondary American-sponsored binational schools in several Latin American countries, including the system of schools in the Panama Canal Zone operated by the Government of the Canal Zone for the dependents of American personnel.

The investigation extended from November 18 to December 3, 1966, and included on-site studies at the following locations: Rio de Janeiro, Brasília, São Paulo, Campinas, and Santos, Brazil; Lima, Peru; Balboa, C.Z.; and Mexico City, Mexico. The investigation was conducted by Representative Carlton R. Sickles with the assistance of Dr. Paul T. Luebke, Deputy Director of the Office of Overseas Schools of the U.S. Department of State, and Mrs. Mary Condon Gereau of the National Education Association. The detailed itinerary is given at the conclusion of this appendix.

II. "AMERICAN-SPONSORED” OVERSEAS COMMUNITY

SCHOOLS
A. GENERAL

The term "American-sponsored" is used to designate those elementary and secondary schools which are eligible for and which have received assistance from the U.S. Government under the program administered by the Office of Overseas Schools of the Department of State. These schools are nonprofit, nonsectarian, multinational community schools which have been established by individuals or groups of Americans for the purpose of providing an American education for the children of American citizens working and living abroad as well as for the children of local and third-country citizens desiring an American education. These schools also fulfill the important purpose of demonstrating the philosophy and techniques

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of American education abroad. They follow American courses of study and use American textbooks and other instructional materials, supplemented, because in most cases they are binational or multinational in character, with local materials. English is the language of instruction with the local language taught as a second language. Enrolled in the schools are primarily Americans, both U.S. Government dependents and the dependents of other Americans living abroad, together with rather substantial numbers of local and third-country children. The schools are operated in most instances by boards elected from among parents of the children enrolled; they are in no sense owned or operated by the U.S. Government or any agency thereof. Tuition payments provide the most important source of operating income for the schools, supplemented by gifts and grants from the U.S. Government, business and industrial interest, foundations, mission groups, and other donors. Administrators of the schools are in most instances well-trained and experienced American educators hired for the specific purpose of serving in the schools, and some classroom teachers fall within the same category. Other teachers serving in the schools, usually at lower salaries than their counterparts in the United States and frequently lacking certification or recent experience in the United States, include principally the wives of American personnel stationed at the post, American wives of local citizens, and locally trained teachers. Curricular programs in the schools follow the pattern of typical schools in the United States, with extensive opportunities for children to study the local language and culture. In most schools there is little or no emphasis on vocational education. Many of the schools occupy modern, well-planned buildings, although others, because of the lack of funds for capital outlay, continue to utilize inadequate buildings ill-suited for school use. All schools are subject in varying degrees to host-country laws and regulations pertaining to educational practice, importation of educational materials, personnel practices, and the like. The American-sponsored schools vary widely in size and character because of widely varying conditions in the cities and countries in which they are located.

In fiscal year 1966 there were 121 elementary and secondary schools in 75 countries in all parts of the world which received assistance from the Department of State and AID under the program administered by the Office of Overseas Schools of the Department of State. These schools enrolled a total of 46,127 pupils, of whom 25,082 were Americans and 21,045 were citizens of 96 different countries. Of the 3,256 professional staff members, 1,812 were American citizens and 1,444 were foreign nationals from a total of 56 different countries. The 121 schools had annual budgets (including capital outlay) totaling approximately $30 million in fiscal year 1966 of which approximately $5.2 million represented grants from the Department of State and AID through the Office of Overseas Schools. These funds, authorized under the Foreign Assistance Act and the Foreign Service Act for dependent education purposes and under the Mutual Educational and Cultural Exchange Act for the broad purpose of demonstrating U.S. educational philosophy and practice abroad, were granted to the schools on the basis of requests submitted by the embassy or consulate at the posts at which the schools were located. Purposes for which the funds were granted are classified into the following broad areas: support and development of professional staff (43.8 percent), educational materials (12 percent), scholarships for local children (5.4 percent), construction (31.9 percent), and special projects (6.9 percent). Federal funds were also paid to U.S. Government nonmilitary employees as education allowances for their dependent children and paid by the parents to the schools as tuition, and the Department of Defense entered into contracts with a number of the schools for the education of its dependents at posts where no DOD schools existed. It is estimated that the 121 schools received a total of $5.6 million from these sources in fiscal year 1966 about $2.6 million from tuition payments of nonmilitary employees and about $3 million from military contracts.

The American-sponsored overseas schools and the programs of assistance provided by the U.S. Government through the Office of Overseas Schools are described briefly in the following publications:

Paul T. Luebke and Ernest N. Mannino, American-Sponsored Overseas Schools: A Rich Resource for International Education, International Educational and Cultural Exchange, summer, 1966, pp. 56–66.

Paul T. Luebke and Finis E. Engleman, The Mission Called O/OS: A Firsthand Look at American-Sponsored Schools in Other Lands, Washington: American Association of School Administrators, 1966.

B. AMERICAN-SPONSORED SCHOOLS IN BRAZIL, PERU, AND MEXICO The American-sponsored binational schools in Latin America were the first American schools abroad to receive assistance from the U.S. Government, beginning with small grants in 1944 to supplement teachers' salaries and to purchase education materials. At the present time, the 44 schools in Latin America―more than one-third of the worldwide total-enroll a total of 22,513 students and employ a total of 1,576 professional staff members. In studying the schools indicated in the itinerary the subcommittee not only toured facilities and examined educational programs, but spoke at length to pupils, teachers, administrators, parents, board members, and U.S. Government officials. The particular schools which the subcommittee selected to study represent a broad variety of types and sizes of schools:

1. Large schools, enrolling mostly American pupils and with large percentages of U.S. Government dependent children: Rio de Janiero, Lima. 2. Small schools, enrolling mostly American pupils and with large percentages of U.S. Government dependents (school actually established specifically to accommodate present and future U.S. Government dependent children resident at the post): Brasilia.

3. Large schools, enrolling mostly American pupils and with small percentages of U.S. Government dependents: Sao Paulo, Mexico City.

4. Small schools, enrolling mostly American pupils and with small percentages of U.S. Government dependents: Campinas.

5. Small schools, enrolling half or fewer American pupils, with small percentages of U.S. Government dependents: Santos.

Enrollment and staff statistics for the schools visited are shown in table I. Tuition charges varied greatly among the schools visited, and even within individual schools, as shown in table II.

C. FINDINGS

There is no need to recount at length statistics concerning the schools visited; these are readily available in reports in the files of the Office of Overseas Schools of the Department of State. The findings recounted below are based upon the committee's observation and study at each of the individual schools visited, and include observations which are essential if the nature and problems of the independent American-sponsored schools are to be understood.

PURPOSE

The guiding philosophy or goal of the American-sponsored schools is to provide educational opportunities for American children living abroad which are generally comparable to educational programs in the United States so that students attending these schools might reenter schools in the United States with no loss or no more interruption than would occur were they to move from one school system to another in the United States, and to provide an opportunity for an American education for those host-country and third-country nationals desiring such an education. A second aim is to demonstrate American educational philosophy and practice to citizens of the host country and of other countries. A third aim is to provide an opportunity for American children enrolled in the schools to study the language and culture of the host country, and thereby to encourage and support intercultural understanding.

ADMINISTRATION

Ownership and control.―The American-sponsored community schools overseas are in no sense operated or controlled by any agency of the U.S. Government. The schools are owned and operated by associations of parents of children enrolled or by other school patrons. The governing body is a board of directors which ordinarily includes one or more U.S. Government employees. (An exception to this practice, for example, is the board of the school in São Paulo which is composed exclusively of members of the American Chamber of Commerce which owns and operates the school.) U.S. Government grants to the seven schools visited-representing an average of 8 percent of their annual budgets (exclusive of capital outlays and capital grants)-are for specific purposes to assist the schools in providing for the education of the dependents of U.S. Government employees and in demonstrating the philosophy and techniques of American education. Beyond insuring that the specific purposes of the grants are met, it was obvious to the committee that the U.S. Government was not exercising any direct control over the administration of these schools.

Finance. The schools are financed primarily from tuition payments by the pupils enrolled, supplemented by U.S. Government grants and gifts and contributions of business and industrial firms, mission groups, foundations, and individual donors. Tuition charges are generally lower than rates charged in schools in the United States of comparable size, and particularly in smaller schools tuition income is insufficient to enable the school to offer educational opportunities comparable to those available in schools in the United States. In no instance is the tuition income large enough to cover both operating expenses and capital investment. At the schools visited there is no source of loan funds available to the schools for construction or equipment even though particularly larger schools would be fully capable of including in their tuition structures amounts necessary to repay long-term loans at reasonable interest rates.

Even though a great many of the programs of assistance to schools under Federal aid-to-education laws are intended to extend equal educational opportunities to all American schoolchildren, there is at present no means whereby American children enrolled in American-sponsored overseas schools may benefit from the various Government-sponsored programs (with the exception that certain American-citizen teachers are eligible to participate under certain circumstances in NDEA and NSF teacher institutes). The dependents of U.S. Government employees are taken into consideration in the allocation of grants-in-aid provided by the Office of Overseas Schools, but these are less than half the American-citizen children enrolled in these schools; there is no legal basis for providing Federal assistance on behalf of the non-Government American-citizen children enrolled.

ADVISORY SERVICES

Because the American-sponsored overseas schools are independent, locally owned and controlled institutions which vary in size, structure, and programs according to local conditions, they cannot be dealt with as a unified group or considered to be part of an overseas school system. It became apparent to the committee, however, that the advisory services and programs of assistance provided by the Office of Overseas Schools have done much to effect common policy and practices and to make available to the overseas schools the resources of the education community of the United States. Since its establishment in 1964 the Office of Overseas Schools has encouraged schools to adopt effective and uniform administrative, supervisory, curricular, and personnel policies, and it has provided