The Congress: The Education Bill

To buttress his education program, Lyndon Johnson reached all the way back to the Continental Congress, which in 1787 proclaimed that schools "shall forever be encouraged," and to Mirabeau B. Lamar, second president of the Republic of Texas and "the father of Texas education," who remarked in 1838 that "the cultivated mind is the guardian genius of democracy." The President also reached back to his own experience in Congress.

John Kennedy's 1961 education bill, which demanded federal money for public school construction, had died between two opposing forces: Roman Catholic demands for federal funds for parochial schools, and opposing arguments, cited by Kennedy himself, which held that direct federal aid to parochial schools would be unconstitutional. In what may long be remembered as a classically deft maneuver, Johnson avoided both obstacles by providing just enough indirect aid to parochial schools to satisfy Catholics without outraging constitutionalist sentiments.

The Touchy Question. As anticipated, Johnson asked for $1.5 billion, the bulk of which is slated for primary and secondary education levels, and most of that is to help the underprivileged student. One billion dollars would be distributed among U.S. school districts serving substantial numbers of pupils (100 per district, or else 3% of total enrollment) from needy families. Definition of "needy": a yearly family income of less than $2,000. About 85% to 90% of all the 30,000 districts in the U.S. would qualify.

The key to the President's handling of the touchy parochial school question is found in one sentence of his message. Assistance would be provided, wrote Johnson, "for the benefit of all children within the area served, including those who participate in shared services or other special educational projects." "Shared services" refers to school programs in which parochial students attend some classes in public schools. This shared-time concept is already in force in 35 states.

The purposes of the measure would be accomplished, said Johnson, by distributing federal money to states, which would pass it on to public school boards. It would be up to the school boards themselves to determine how much of their allotment should be spent on new classrooms, teacher salaries, development of new teaching methods or expanded curriculums.

"Labmobiles." Parochial school students would benefit directly by sharing in a $100 million fund for textbooks and library books in both public and parochial elementary and secondary schools. Another $100 million would be used to create "supplementary educational centers" where public and parochial students alike could use libraries and laboratories, take advanced or remedial courses not included in the standard curriculum. Some of the centers would be mobile, in the form of bookmobiles, "labmobiles," traveling units for language instruction and vocational guidance.