Abstract
PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT'S Advisory Committee on Education, appointed in September 1936, has presented a report (Government Printing Office, Washington, 1938. Pp. 244. 35 cents) on the whole subject of Federal relationship to State and local conduct of education. After a comprehensive study of the entire field of educational service, the committee found that there is great need for improvement of the public schools in a number of broad geographical regions and in the rural areas generally. To redress the existing gross inequalities of educational opportunity it submits a set of carefully articulated proposals forming, as is justly claimed, “a unified and coherent pattern of Federal policy” and involving a six years plan for Federal grants for educational services amounting in the aggregate to 1,200 million dollars. Most of the new grants recommended fall under the headings: general aid to elementary and secondary education, preparation of teachers and other educational personnel, school buildings, administration of State departments of education, educational services for adults, library service for rural areas. A system of co-operative research accompanied by demonstration projects throughout the country has proved its value in the field of agriculture, and the committee recommends the establishment of a special Federal fund for the immediate application of such a system in the field of education. In the first instance it would be utilized especially for elucidating in advance problems bound to arise in connexion with the operation of the six years plan for Federal grants.
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A 'New Deal' in Education. Nature 142, 868 (1938). https://doi.org/10.1038/142868b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/142868b0